Scratching my head please help. 28 nosler

[Colin78]

Hey guys, I know there are some very knowledgeable reloader son here and I'm scratching my head today.

Rifle, 28 Nosler Christensen Ridgeline 1:9 26" barrel

All shots at 200 yards. Light and variable wind.

I went to range this morning with several loads to test. Shot some and had an incredible group with 175 eldx 77 grains of H1000 had a 4 shot group .75 moa that is including the one I might have pulled with a sd of 11.6

That is really good for this rifle so I run home and load some more to see if I can repeat. Head back to range and get 4 shot group of 1.85 moa WTH??? but still have a good sd of 12.4.

This was all using brass sized at the same time, same way, from the same lot of Nosler brass on its second reload.

I'm really scratching my head. I really thought I had this and now I'm just confused and aggravated. Any ideas??

Fortunately I also had some hammer hunters that I also tested and they seems to be shooting wonderful, so I know it's not me, optics, etc. Hoping someone on here will have some suggestions on why this load did so well 1 time then went to crap a couple hours later.

 

[sedancowboy]

Sometimes when I change bullet types or brands this can happen. Different jacket material.
I have found that it is best to strip all the old copper out before shooting a different bullet.
You will get back to where you were after a good cleaning. Also if it is a new rifle it can change fairly rapidly as it breaks in. Alex Wheeler said don't fall in love with a load until you have 100 rounds down the barrel.

 

[Colin78]

Sometimes when I change bullet types or brands this can happen. Different jacket material.
I have found that it is best to strip all the old copper out before shooting a different bullet.
You will get back to where you were after a good cleaning. Also if it is a new rifle it can change fairly rapidly as it breaks in. Alex Wheeler said don't fall in love with a load until you have 100 rounds down the barrel.

Wow, I would have never guessed switching between bullets would cause this much difference in the same load.

 

[doug2080]

I have a Christensen in 26 nosler and it'll do the same with the eldx bullets. A great 4-5 shot group, after that they start opening up considerably. Shoots the accubonds sub 1/2 all day long. Eldx bullets just copper foul the hell out of it.

 

[Colin78]

I have a Christensen in 26 nosler and it'll do the same with the eldx bullets. A great 4-5 shot group, after that they start opening up considerably. Shoots the accubonds sub 1/2 all day long. Eldx bullets just copper foul the hell out of it.

Really. So then you have to clean all the copper out before getting a good load with them again? Guess I need to clean with some copper solvent and then just finish my load development with the hammer bullets. They were doing very well anyway.

 

[Dmagna]

The problem is probably your barrel, the 175 want a 1-8 twist. You will get inconsistencies in your grouping, my xbolt did the same thing. I went with the 180 berger instead. I tried the 175 with my custom 28 nos with a 1-8 they shot a lot better. But I shoot the 195 for that one

 

[FURMAN]

I have not had great luck with repeatability in the EDLx. Maybe that is not your problem just another data point.

 

[Akhunting]

The only thing repeatable I have found with the ELDX in my 28 Nosler is that they suck! I wanted to use these and tried everything I could to make these shoot in my rifle and failed.

I had (have) a 257 Wby that would do the same thing you experienced with your rifle. One day X load shot great, go home and make some more and all went to crap. I finally "narrowed" it to the R22 I was using, and after, using othe powders, had a solid 1moa out to 1000. For whatever reason, this rifle hated R22.

 

[Kmccord]

The only thing repeatable I have found with the ELDX in my 28 Nosler is that they suck! I wanted to use these and tried everything I could to make these shoot in my rifle and failed.

I had (have) a 257 Wby that would do the same thing you experienced with your rifle. One day X load shot great, go home and make some more and all went to crap. I finally "narrowed" it to the R22 I was using, and after, using othe powders, had a solid 1moa out to 1000. For whatever reason, this rifle hated R22.

In your scenario with the 257 W, could it be a bad lot of R22?

 

[Kmccord]

View attachment 124012 View attachment 124013 Hey guys, I know there are some very knowledgeable reloader son here and I'm scratching my head today.

Rifle, 28 Nosler Christensen Ridgeline 1:9 26" barrel

All shots at 200 yards. Light and variable wind.

I went to range this morning with several loads to test. Shot some and had an incredible group with 175 eldx 77 grains of H1000 had a 4 shot group .75 moa that is including the one I might have pulled with a sd of 11.6

That is really good for this rifle so I run home and load some more to see if I can repeat. Head back to range and get 4 shot group of 1.85 moa WTH??? but still have a good sd of 12.4.

This was all using brass sized at the same time, same way, from the same lot of Nosler brass on its second reload.

I'm really scratching my head. I really thought I had this and now I'm just confused and aggravated. Any ideas??

Fortunately I also had some hammer hunters that I also tested and they seems to be shooting wonderful, so I know it's not me, optics, etc. Hoping someone on here will have some suggestions on why this load did so well 1 time then went to crap a couple hours later.

My experience with a group opening up is due to fouling, clean and shoot again, second problem could be donuts inside the case neck. If you take a fired case and take a bullet and slide the bullet down the throat, if you hit a wall, you have a donut and that can cause accuracy issues. Some rifles are throated long enough that you would not have to worry about the donuts.

 

[Akhunting]

I don't think it was a bad lot of R22, I ended up going through the end of one lot and moved into a second a good ways before I gave up on it. It has done well in other rifles.

 

[Colin78]

Thanks for all the reply's. I think I will clean all the copper back out of the barrel and just stick with the 143 Hammer bullets. In testing them this weekend I got a .45 moa group at 200. Hopefully they stay consistent and I can repeat that or at least get close.

 

[curtiscd]

I had this same issue with a 7 mag and the 175 ELD-X, except it would shoot 2 completely separate groups when shooting 5 rounds. Each group would be a nice cloverleaf. One group would be dead center and the second group was always 3" right and 2" high. There was never any rhyme or reason as to what rounds landed where either. I went back to Berger and haven't looked back.

 

[jasonco]

The joys of reloading. Just when you think you've got it figured out, it aint?! So many variables hour by hour and day by day.