Thread: Testing a conventional approach to load development

With a good rifle, for conventional hunting purposes, the zero-round load development is a real option

Originally Posted by Kelton

I ended up finding sub moa free on IPhone seems alright no tutorials like ballistic X so takes a little figuring out ballistic X wanted a subscription to measure mean radius I was about to get hornday for $10-$11 dollars then read the above so looked for a free IPhone version seems to work wellAttachment 274364

Cheers
I got it today and I must admit that it took a bit of working out ( I’m not exactly the sharpest spoon when it comes to technology) .
I realise now looking at this older target that I was experimenting with that I don’t have the fields set correctly because it was set at 91m not 100m that the true distance was .
Anyway this is a 12 shot group ( 4 x 3 shots to let barrel cool ) that I shot last year as my final zero check before going Chital Deer hunting in North Queensland.
Now that I’ve got this app I’ll show the results of my next session with the Sierra 130 TMK’s when I get the chance next weekend.

Done more range shooting in the last two weeks than I have in The last two years, been good getting back into it even though the results aren't always the best, shots felt OK but I'm pretty rusty so hopefully improve with more practice

Tried some 108gr eldm out of the 6mm creedmoor, 2209 after working a ladder upto max to check for pressure loaded 10 at 1gr below max. Not the best but it is what it is. (Shots are not in order listed)

Originally Posted by c-dog

Done more range shooting in the last two weeks than I have in The last two years, been good getting back into it even though the results aren't always the best, shots felt OK but I'm pretty rusty so hopefully improve with more practice

Tried some 108gr eldm out of the 6mm creedmoor, 2209 after working a ladder upto max to check for pressure loaded 10 at 1gr below max. Not the best but it is what it is. (Shots are not in order listed)
Attachment 274579

Your results mirror a lot of mine over the last two-three years and several rifles. May I ask what is the weight of your rifle? I'm wondering if I accidentally sold a couple of lightish rifles that were possibly "more accurate than me" and due to poor technique I never found what they were capable of . . . I have a few doubts about @gimp s "cut rifled premium quality" barrel theory as two of the most accurate rifles I've had over the years were button rifled. However both the best shooters currently on the rack are of the Gimp preference though!

Originally Posted by Tentman

Your results mirror a lot of mine over the last two-three years and several rifles. May I ask what is the weight of your rifle? I'm wondering if I accidentally sold a couple of lightish rifles that were possibly "more accurate than me" and due to poor technique I never found what they were capable of . . . I have a few doubts about @gimp s "cut rifled premium quality" barrel theory as two of the most accurate rifles I've had over the years were button rifled. However both the best shooters currently on the rack are of the Gimp preference though!

4150 grams all up woth supressor scope etc, it's a Criterion prefit. I don't think it had done much work as it was second hand, but I will never know as I dont have a bore scope. I will keep playing around with it as it doesn't owe me a he'll of a lot but I would like to take it down to sparrohawk at some stage for a bit of testing further out so hopefully get it going a bit better, I'm pretty sure my technique could do with some work so that's why I haven't been too worried about sending a few components down range (practice)

Hmmm , it should be pretty forgiving at 4 + kgs but . . . . I'm learning all the time (and I do a lot of shooting at the range) and refining techniques/equipment (none of mine is flash, I like spending my $$ on rifles rather that accessories like bipods etc.). Recently I've been focusing on the shoulder end of the rifle, things like bag firmness, how the rifle fits on my shoulder and how much tension is in my right hand . . . All the vary POI.

The cut barrel thing. My experience with a sample of one (S&L) is that it shoots everything well, while the many button barrels I have mostly shoot something well but not everything.

Originally Posted by c-dog

Done more range shooting in the last two weeks than I have in The last two years, been good getting back into it even though the results aren't always the best, shots felt OK but I'm pretty rusty so hopefully improve with more practice
Tried some 108gr eldm out of the 6mm creedmoor, 2209 after working a ladder upto max to check for pressure loaded 10 at 1gr below max. Not the best but it is what it is. (Shots are not in order listed)
Attachment 274579

So do you have some type of camera in front of yr target to give you all the data readings.Sorry I've been in the hills to long.

Originally Posted by Trout

So do you have some type of camera in front of yr target to give you all the data readings.Sorry I've been in the hills to long.

It done in a phone app, you take a photo of the target and mark the shots etc on it using the app.

Originally Posted by Tentman

Hmmm , it should be pretty forgiving at 4 + kgs but . . . . I'm learning all the time (and I do a lot of shooting at the range) and refining techniques/equipment (none of mine is flash, I like spending my $$ on rifles rather that accessories like bipods etc.). Recently I've been focusing on the shoulder end of the rifle, things like bag firmness, how the rifle fits on my shoulder and how much tension is in my right hand . . . All the vary POI.

I've got a few things I would like to try but probably not back to the range for a couple of weeks. Will report back

Originally Posted by Tentman

It done in a phone app, you take a photo of the target and mark the shots etc on it using the app.

Cheer Tentman,bit different to my little steel ruler.

So I've not done much reloading for the last year or so, as both my current hunting rifles shoot factory fine, however I've shot through most of my ammo, and have heaps of components so dusted off the reloading gear and went about developing a load for both rifles.

Original plan was to do the usual powder workup however during a bit of interneting I got on to this new stats based approach and ended up at this thread.

My prc is a very precise rifle with factory but I had previously been chasing my tail with seating depths etc on the berger 140 vlds (supposed to be very depth sensitive) as they were showing apparent horizontal stringing. Probably allready shot at least 50 rounds in 4 or 5 shot groups trying to dial it in with less than what I would consider acceptable results for a custom rifle of this potential, average groups around 1.25 moa.

After reading through this thread I thought what have i got to lose, and rather than do more depth testing on this, I'll try the modern method and twiddle the big dial by changing powder. Switched to h1000 a grain under max, and loaded 20 rounds to mag length (so back where I started).

First 10 shots went into like .6, with an 11fps sd (first target), velocity maybe slightly slow @ 2500fps but in reality totally fine for my intended use of sub 500m.
Adjusted zero and sent 5 more to confirm (second target) combined sd across the 15 still 11 fps

Took data, ran a quick ballistic profile and sent a further 3 into less tham moa at 300m. Happy days, data confirmed, hunting load sorted in 18 shots. Really didn't need to confirm zero either so whole thing could have been sorted in 13 shots.

Bonus pic of the little 16.5 inch kimber shooting 5 into less than an inch as per. 130 Eldms at 2650, grain below book max as above. Shot 2 almost identical groups.

Honestly really refreshing to be able to just throw out most of the usual variables and focus on shooting.


Sent from my SM-S926B using Tapatalk

After picking up a 6 creedmoor true-flight kimber barrel of the forum recently I had it fitted and made it down to the range to test it out. I loaded up 13 rounds to get it sighted in and do a ten shot group at a max book charge of 2209 with lapua brass ccibr4 and 108 eldm.

So is that a node or what?
Nice group by the way.