Thread: .243 load development part deux

So a while back I posted seeking input on load dev for my .243 which garnered a lot of opinion, a lot of helpful observations/recommendations and the odd spitting of the dummy (myself included lol) so since then I've been gathering the makings and today made up some load samples to shoot.

At this point I'd like to acknowledge @Basenjiboy who has taken me under his reloading wing and made himself, his reloading gear and his accumulated knowledge available to get me started, cheers mate, you're one of the good buggers and your time and input is well appreciated and also, thanks for cleaning and depriming all my brass...not all heroes wear their undies on the outside!

So below is the result of todays test loads and for me two things in particular stand out, handloading is very gratifying and can deliver (to me) surprising results. At the outset I was hoping to recreate a round "as good as" the Deer Season I tend to rave about and as you'll see we far surpassed that. Obviously this is only a part of the picture, good grouping is one thing but the proof is in the pudding so to speak of how it performs on game but the results of todays tests look very promising. Hopefully the pictures load in order. I started with 3 shots of Deer Season to settle in (and I took some settling, it's a new situation having someone watch over my shoulder, figuratively speaking so I needed some moments to settle in) and then worked my way up the test loads. For now I'll load all my brass at the chosen grain weight but....I have come across another projectile that I think bears closer examination and testing......but thats later!

All loads were 5 shot groups, didn't test for zero and slight headwind quartering across which I also didn't adjust for POI was dead centre of target @100m, couple of flyers I'm taking ownership of but it seems quite conclusive, OAL was, I believe, a shade over 2mm under max.

42 looks promising.

Originally Posted by Micky Duck

42 looks promising.

That's what "we" thought, room for some fine tuning perhaps but pretty much good enough for the current shooter, might want to redial my zero just to give me a touch more margin

Thats also the best grouping I've shot, ever.....

POI should read POA!

Unless that is repeatable, I wouldn't read too much into it. Plus or minus half a grain shouldn't be tripling your group sizes.

I'll come back to you on that, only loaded 5 of each and ran out of time to load more of the 42grain

Originally Posted by Zedrex

POI should read POA!

And if it's not going well it's PIA

Originally Posted by Pommy

Unless that is repeatable, I wouldn't read too much into it. Plus or minus half a grain shouldn't be tripling your group sizes.

Yup. I would caution not to be disappointed when it doesn't repeat that result - groups vary in size anyway, 5rd groups will be larger or smaller than the average size 5rd group by about 60% - and a barrel/bullet combo shooting ~6moa 5 shot groups doesn't develop good precision just by changing 0.5gr powder charge.

Lookin good mate. 243 has always owned a special place in my gun room.

Ok I will say it....cause no one else will and zaddy has broad shoulders. It's a 243,an EBRG,a twoforfree SHOULD shoot the nuts of a gnat all day everyday with any half decent load. My limited experience of them tells me they just accurate,always have been right from the get go. Re reading your speil at beginning you say" took a bit to settle" also different with someone watching.... So let's play devil's advocate here first you banged away your 3xdeer season...you knew what they were going to be like no worries. Then came the scarey unknown reload....oh shit will this boot??? Will it blow up??? What's going to happen...so you shoot that first five...THEN with bit of coaching and settled nerves you much calmer,got breathing and rest nearly right and shoot next group. It goes well. Then you either get cocky,nervous or start to get sore from recoil( if that's case with 243 we need to work on holding rifle differently) or slack on your form,breathing,trigger control....that group not so good and nor is last one.... All that said if your happy with the 42 your confidence goes up. And you shoot better.

All good points Milky and I should probably expand on my edited intro. By settled, I mean dealing with the confines of the bench area which I wasn't used to my local range has a wide open bench with heaps of room above and to the sides, the range at Timaru is a proper boothed range and I couldn't look over my rifle as it sat on the bench to view the action as I loaded (which is what I'm used to) but I got over that. I do feel that my shots with the DS were my settling shots and that's why I shot them first and I did readjust after shooting them.

Moving on from the DS I got my head in the game, got my position sorted and my breathing, pulling trigger on the pause at the bottom of my exhale and checked my hold/position by lining up on the centre of target, closing eyes then opening to see if cross hairs had drifted at all which would indicate I wasn't in a neutral relaxed stance.
Every time did this I was bang on and Stephens coaching consisted of silence lol and I think that was the right approach. I'm one of the variables and changing that would have changed what was happening at the target perhaps? Recoil fatigue isn't an issue I'm pretty sure I could shoot the Franchi all day, it's a pussycat.

There weren't huge pauses between groups but the barrel never got hot, the fact it was less than ten degrees probably helped!
I was shooting on bipod with stock sitting on a beanbag, using my offhand by squeezing the bag to adjust POA and stock snugged into shoulder with my usual grip.

All of that being said, it absolutely is the case that I'm going to have an affect on grouping and I'm far from an experienced or highly competent shooter BUT it does seem interesting that the 42gr grouped so much better than anything else but yep, more shooting with bigger groups required to prove anything around consistency of any particular load and that includes more time at the range for me to develop that consistency and I'm wide open to being told how to develop that, it's all part of the learning to get the best out of my 243 so I can continue to drop game quickly with one well placed shot as that's the aim of all of this, to get a load that's consistent so I can work on my consistency without being able to hide behind handy excuses like "it's the ammo" "my barrels dirty" "my barrel needs fouling" etc etc

The learning continues!

Oh and I wasn't at all concerned with anything blowing up, got that out the way when I started seating primers and was handed some safety glasses with the advice that "you're now live" !!

You've picked the one bullet I struggled to get to group in my Musgrave. I could never get the 95SST to group as well as the Noslers would. I went to the 87s in the end.

Maybe I just gave up to soon. But anyway, your 42gr group looks promising.

I would suggest playing around with seating depth to tighten the group.

I take it is a hunting rifle? What make/model?

How far off the lands are you seating the bullets?