Took the lil 204 out last night in the frigid cold after getting my scope back from Leupold. They installed M1 turrets.
Pulled the 1st shot trying to feel the trigger through my frozen finger. Next 4 felt good. Vertical was about .65" in the 4 shot group. Wind was inconsistent and driving me crazy. I tried to shoot as quickly as I could as the wind died down to 3-4 vs the 7-8 it was about 3 minutes earlier. ha ha.
Playing with my buddies kids 7mm08 and doing load work up. Can't wait to dial this one in. I think it shows a lot of promise. This is my first attempt at reloads for it. All I was doing was trying find max pressure. Didn't expect to any accuracy show up. But there it is.
Great performance from the .204. I love that little cartridge. Glad to see it at 500 yards shoot so well, thanks.
Never seen test loading where every shot was a different load.
Not sure how you ladder test to find max pressure, or if you even do, but it is the only way to find max pressure for your given combination of powder, bullets, seating depth etc. Instead of wasting bullets and powder shooting into the dirt I choose to shoot a target to see what results are printed on paper. In this case, results show which direction in which I might head toward further development. For example I might choose to load 2 at 40 and 41 grains and 2 48 and 49 and shoot paper at 200 yards instead of 100 yards. If results are good for a particular test load I will load a 3rd test round and shoot it, repeat if necessary. I might not have to do a seating depth change. If this rifle shoots .25moa at .020 off the lands with 41 grains, I will tweak the depth a little and see if I can shoot bugholes. If not, I am fine with .25 moa at 200 yards. I shoot the fastest combo that produces the accuracy. Once this rifle is dialed at 200 I will take it to 500 and confirm drop, then to 1000 and beyond for LR accuracy testing.
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