Thread: Best load for long range shooting?

[QUOTE=Steelisreal;885042]

Originally Posted by janleroux

Some advice please?

I understand the advantage of getting the highest velocity out of your load to minimise time of flight and thus drop/drift, but what is better:
2709 ave velocity, printing 0.6MOA groups or
2650 ave velocity, printing 0.5MOA groups or
2600 ave velocity, printing 0.3 MOA groups?

It is a Howa 6.5 Creedmoor shooting 143gr ELD-X.

@janleroux - it seems you are on a similar journey to the one I embarked on just over a year ago. And what a learning curve it has been!

I also have a (hunting weight) Howa 6.5 Creedmoor with 20" barrel, suppressor and Hogue stock that I bedded myself.

I'm curious to know - are you doing long range shooting on paper/steel, or for hunting?

Some things I have learned in the last year - Howa rifles are capable of exceptional performance when set up AND DRIVEN CORRECTLY... The major lesson I have learned is that the collection of wobbly organic bits pointing the rifle downrange are by far the biggest factor that can be improved (hence the emphasis ).

Other useful things I've learned (about MY rifle, usual caveats apply):1) Hornady Eld-M projectiles are very tolerant of different amounts of jump to the rifling.
2) 140 grain Eld-M go about 100fps faster with the exact same case, primer and amount of 2209 than the 143 Eld-X (and the BC is higher).
3) Alliant Re16 gives ever so slightly higher velocities grain for grain than 2209 and is stunningly accurate with my 143 Eld-X hunting load (set at 2.850 OAL as that is maximum magazine feed length.
4) Learning to shoot consistently is fun and fascinating and sometimes frustrating.

If you're shooting paper or steel, have you considered the 147 Eld-M instead of the 143 Eld-X? If 1000 yard/meter shooting is your objective then the extra BC is really useful. It's highly likely that you'll be able to get a load with 2209 that shoots 0.5" or under in your rifle without chasing super high velocity. For range use single loading you can load them out close to the rifling (20 thou away has worked for me with the 140 and 123) and experiment with powder charge to find a consistent load. Then go load up a couple of hundred and go shooting!

Just my thoughts FWIW. And remember to have fun - try not to get hung up on overthinking it all!

Ahh mate - you are so describing what I am going through.

Mine: Howa with a 24” in a GRS Bifrost stock. Also did a pillar and bedding job on it. Very happy with the rifle and I know it can shoot.

I would say 90% paper/steel shooting, 10% hunting.

I worked up loads from 37.5gr to 42.5gr with
H4350 in Hornady brass for both 140 ELD-M and 143 ELD-X. Three rounds with 0.5gr increments. I measure to the ogive, but similar to you I mag length determines my COAL, which is quite a jump to the lands.
In my rifle the ELD-X’s gave multiple nodes with ES below 10, but the best ES I could get out of the 140 ELD-M’s were 15. Speed on ELD-M’s only slightly better. So I settled on the ELD-X since it would also mean one setup for hunting and target shooting.

I did try 147gr ELD-M - factory ammo only. Did not get nearly the same groupings as what I got with the 140 and 143 factory ammo, and the rifle kicks more and sounds significantly louder (not sure if this makes sense, but it feels as if I am stressing the rifle with these 147’s)

Yeah, I am keen to just get out learning and working in my fundamentals (I am definitely a wobbly bit that needs some work . But that would only make sense if I actually selected a good and forgiving speed node that will keep performing the same even at different temperatures.

But for my next move, I think I am going to take one of the lower speed nodes and load 5 rounds 0.1gr either side of the node and see if the ES and groupings stay the same.


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