Reply With QuoteReloading accurate ammunition is a rewarding life long hobby.
Have you tried the Sierra 77 and 80 grain matchkings?
I've had a blast learning to reload and how to tighten my groups and then trying to see how far out I can stretch the .223 with consistent accuracy. So far I'm out to just over 800 yards and can cover a 5 shot group with a dime at 100. I've hit steel at 1000 but not consistently. I'm shooting 75gr A-Max bullets that are loaded 10 thousandths off of the lands. After looking at it closely today I realized that I can set them out that extra 10 and still fit in the magazine so I'm going to run some test loads.
Also a friend gave me two of the new Noster 70gr RDF bullets and I ran them into the chamber with my Hornady OAL tool and found that I can easily reach the lands with those bullets. In fact the COAL is 0.11 inches SHORTER than the 75gr A-Max bullets. Hmmmm, Iighter, shorter, maybe a better BC. I just hope my 8 twist barrel likes them because I'm going to buy a box and run some test loads with those as well.
By the way, before anyone jumps on me for jamming my bullets into the lands, that is not my goal. I just want to touch the lands. I don't want to jam into them so that I wind up pulling bullets if I have to eject a round. Finesse.
Reloading accurate ammunition is a rewarding life long hobby.
Have you tried the Sierra 77 and 80 grain matchkings?
"A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the People to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed."
Good for you on the distance!
I'm not familiar with that Hornady tool, so this is a kindly bit of info.
Many folks do a true OAL, which is where they run afoul of jamming bullets into the lands. The more consistent way to do it, is to measure to the ogive. That is what contacts the lands and the distance that is important.
I'm a firm believer in the theory that if it bleeds, I can kill it.
I have not tried any of the SMK bullets.Originally Posted by Recumbent
Yes, you are correct. I use the Hornady tool that measures to the Ogive when I'm looking for the lands. When I start reloading a new bullet I also blacken the bullet and chamber the round to look for the lands marks then seat it deeper if needed until I don't see the marks anymore. That way I can get an accurate measure of where any given bullet will contact the lands. I don't want to jam into them, just touch them.
Good advice.
Well, I decided to try something different with the bullets that I already have loaded up. They are seated .006 off of the lands so I took five sets of three bullets and seated each set another .003 deeper. When I got to .021 off of the lands the groups tightened right up!! That was yesterday. Today I took more bullets and seated them down .021 as yesterday and shot a three shot group that measures 0.185 inch center to center! I'm liking it.
Last edited by Idaho; 02-26-2017 at 11:08 PM.
Nice! You're really shooting well! It's so much fun to mess with this stuff. It's addiciting. What kinda setup are you running?
Scooter
Scooter, I have a Savage Model 10 with a McGowan 26 inch varmint barrel with an 8 twist. I use a Redding precision die set with a neck sizing die and a micrometer adjustable seating die. My press is a Dillon turret but I don't use it as a turret to index from one station to the next. I process the brass one step at a time and clean out primer pockets and carefully weigh each powder charge on a balance beam that I have set at eye level. My load is 25 gr of CFE223 behind 75gr A-Max. I've been experimenting with loads for a couple of years and settled on the 75gr Amax last year, I now have 1000 of them on my bench with 500 rounds loaded. I've been chasing the lands in the barrel to see how close I could get to the lands and enjoy a low ES and SD on my chronograph. This weekend just for fun I decided to play with seating depth and learned a valuable lesson! There really is a node in the barrel that can be found with a little experimentation.
Now I can't wait for warm weather when I can shed some of these heavy winter clothes and get comfortable behind the scope.
Sounds good! You seem to really have things lined out, and it shows with your shooting!
Scooter
I'm the Boss. I make sure what she wants gets done.
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