Thread: Frustrating arvo at the range. Powder charges.

Originally Posted by chalkeye

Where does Erik suggest this? I've just had a quick skim through some videos but couldn't find this.
Looking for MV flat spots when your ES is ~80 FPS is a waste of time. In my experience most "flat spots" are a product of load variance and measurement error and aren't typically repeatable.
Looking for vertical on target (and choosing a charge that has low vertical variance compared to charges either side) makes sense, to understand what the barrel harmonic is doing.

It is literally the basis of his load development process. From his website, copied and paste below:

Load Tuning:

Powder charge/Primer testing:

1. Select 2-3 primers to test

2. Select powder to test (one powder only)

3. Find safe starting load for powder in your rifle

4. Find jam and seat bullet Jam -0.020” or shorter depending on your needs

5. Load 10 rounds of each powder/primer combo in 1% increments (about 0.2 gr)

6. Shoot them from low to high and stop if you see pressure signs.

a. Flattened primers

b. Gas leakage around primer

c. Heave bolt lift

d. Etc.

7. Graph the speed results and find flat spots on speed. Select the one that suits your needs best.

8. Load rounds to middle of flat spot and do seating depth test in 0.003” increments seating deeper into case with each group. Find the load that shoots the best.

9. Tuner testing: If you have a tuner, you can skip step #8 and move straight to tuner testing. Find a settings that give you two consecutive small groups and set tuner to middle of those settings.

10. Once you are done with seating depth test, load the best seating depth test and load your target powder charge and also load .2, .4, and .6 gr. above and below your current powder charge and test. Shoot groups from low to high, if you encounter pressure signs, stop.

11. You should now have a very stable load. If your load has low ES/SD and shoots small groups at 100 yards, then it will shoot at long range. If it doesn’t shoot at long range, then you need to sort your bullets. Easiest way to sort them is base to tip. Other ways is to sort base to ogive.

12. Buy quality bullets: Start with Berger bullets, which are proven to shoot well. Once you get Berger bullets shooting well, you can experiment with other bullets if you wish.

13. The same goes for good brass. Start with Lapua if you can, as it is proven to be very consistent brass.