Thread: The Howikka Test Bed

Originally Posted by dannyb

I'm curious, what was the fix/issue ?

It will be revealed eventually once I'm back from hunting.

Originally Posted by Stocky

The 15 and 5 shots previous shots of this load were all in the same cone of fire and once combined had a mean radius of about 0.128mil. The 15 shot groups had a particularly tight cluster giving it very good mean radius.

The mean radius isn't accurate for this group as it needs accurate shot placements. Probably not terribly far off but maybe not as close as suggested. Awfully hard to place shots in the group analysis accurately when it's just a hole. Its possible to shoot a 0.5mil group with a 0.25mil mean radius (if you shot all of thing in a perfect circle). I've just evenly spread the shots in the hole. In practice as it was being shot it started as a much smaller cluster. I will load some more of the eld loads to confirm once I'm back. There was also a pretty good crosswind rolling through tonight, hard to quantify as the range is semi sheltered but at target the other targets stapled up where getting blown off. Even at 106yards a 1-2m/s wind difference would be up to 0.1mils.

It doesn't prove anything definitively and shows one of the downsides of larger sample sizes. I didn't have good data before but it's shot a box of Speer GD into about 1.8moa which was a 2.5moa 3 shot group when i used it as a rough sighter group the first time I mounted a scope on the rifle.

Again figured I would admit i found something that slightly concerned me in the rifle setup.

Yeah mean radius is a much better metric than group extreme spread but you do have to measure it accurately. Isn't it interesting. I'm drawing no conclusions of any kind

Originally Posted by Stocky

It will be revealed eventually once I'm back from hunting.

Top secret eh ?

More like you don't pull apart a zeroed rifle you're gonna hunt with for the sake of a few pictures . . .

Originally Posted by Tentman

More like you don't pull apart a zeroed rifle you're gonna hunt with for the sake of a few pictures . . .

Likely being pulled apart already if he’s fixed the issue

Whats the latest here @Stocky ?

Been hunting and need to shoot some targets to confirm if any changes occurred. Its also had a drop straight onto concrete which has meant a scope swap. Figured no point posting until I have data.

It did kill a good stag at 240m. Will add that here too when I do the next update. May run the brass through it once more Before trying another barrel I have 3x here.

Originally Posted by Stocky

Been hunting and need to shoot some targets to confirm if any changes occurred. Its also had a drop straight onto concrete which has meant a scope swap. Figured no point posting until I have data.

It did kill a good stag at 240m. Will add that here too when I do the next update. May run the brass through it once more Before trying another barrel I have 3x here.

So I realize I never updated this. Solve was a rebed but it made maybe a 10% improvement I'm not sure if even did anything due to not doing enough large sample work beforehand (whilst its a good exclusion measure its not great for telling me much). Have since killed a bit with it and shot a lot of projectiles. It doesn't love anything in any of the 3 barrels but with the latest it shoots 30 rounds of 77tmks, 80 targex, and 80.5 bergers into around 1.5". Every 224 eld from 62 vts to 80 Ms shoot in the 2-2.5" range.

Am going to get started on this again at some stage with large sample sizes only to try prove/disprove some theories.

Do I use the 75s since they are cheap, I have lots, and provide lots of room for improvement?

The stag mentioned shot at 250ish metres with the 77tmk.

Nice stag Stocky, real character animal. Good weight to, but will not be rewarded under Norman's system.

Originally Posted by Dicko

Nice stag Stocky, real character animal. Good weight to, but will not be rewarded under Norman's system.

Not me but my little brother. Id found him a few weeks before. Goal has been to get my younger brother a decent mature head from public land. I get 5 days a year to tey get it done. Couldn't ask for much more really. Good length, mass, and a decent character head. If it was cleaner it'd be unlikely id have left it for him �� i convicted him to leave a couple 12s and a 14 last year due to being young and short so glad this year worked out for him.

@Stocky is this the rifle you shot the caribou with? Tell us about that?

Originally Posted by Tahr

@Stocky is this the rifle you shot the caribou with? Tell us about that?

Nope this is much nicer than that rifle. It now runs factory mags and a hardy barrel. It shoots OK. Every bullet either shot or it didn't. Tweaking never made any significant difference. It shoots fine but not great. Completely functional for a 223.

The rifle i took to Alaska is just a cheap one I picked up from here to play with so i could leave one alone but it's my only mini with a long enough barrel to take stateside. That rifles a older 9 twist I just threw together a couple loads with staball match and tried the usual contenders 75 ends, 80 ends, 77tmks, and then 73 elds to see what it liked best. Found out it was a 9 twist at that stage. And tried the 69tmks. The 73s shot the best (around 1.5-2 moa from 10 shots so I loaded 150 of them got a good zero. Took it out to 500 one time. Flew to the US. Confirmed zero after flights and ending up shooting the caribou in close and from the shoulder around 100ish meters so it ended up being mostly an academic exercise except that the 223 predictably killed. It also shot a black bear successfully too but they are much smaller than a mature caribou bull.

2 shots slightly quartering too it turned on the spot and a second opposite side slightly quartering away down within 20 yard. ~2450fps impacts

Originally Posted by Stocky

Nope this is much nicer than that rifle. It now runs factory mags and a hardy barrel. It shoots OK. Every bullet either shot or it didn't. Tweaking never made any significant difference. It shoots fine but not great. Completely functional for a 223.

The rifle i took to Alaska is just a cheap one I picked up from here to play with so i could leave one alone but it's my only mini with a long enough barrel to take stateside. That rifles a older 9 twist I just threw together a couple loads with staball match and tried the usual contenders 75 ends, 80 ends, 77tmks, and then 73 elds to see what it liked best. Found out it was a 9 twist at that stage. And tried the 69tmks. The 73s shot the best (around 1.5-2 moa from 10 shots so I loaded 150 of them got a good zero. Took it out to 500 one time. Flew to the US. Confirmed zero after flights and ending up shooting the caribou in close and from the shoulder around 100ish meters so it ended up being mostly an academic exercise except that the 223 predictably killed. It also shot a black bear successfully too but they are much smaller than a mature caribou bull.

2 shots slightly quartering too it turned on the spot and a second opposite side slightly quartering away down within 20 yard. ~2450fps impacts

Attachment 282685

Great thanks.