garyb Posted June 14, 2009 Report Share Posted June 14, 2009 (edited) Met up with Maple again yesterday to do some work on my .223 handloads... Before we go any further I should mention the following... Powder - Varget Bullets - Sierra 55grn Spitzer BoatTail Primer - CCI 400 SR Brass - Remington / Federal Anyway, we loaded up with 26.5grn of Varget and begun playing with the length off the lands (checked with a Hornady OAL guage) 1st pic... @ 25 thou 2nd pic... @ 15 thou Im now looking to work this load at 25thou a little more... Question 1 - Should I be increasing the 26.5grn charge, if so how much by? Would 26.6 be a reasonable start or should I go higher ? - FYI Hodgdon list Start and Max as 25.5 and 27.5grn Edited June 14, 2009 by garyb Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Billy. Posted June 14, 2009 Report Share Posted June 14, 2009 Stop showing off Where do you need to go? IMHO, round to mine to collect your car. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
henry d Posted June 14, 2009 Report Share Posted June 14, 2009 If it was for game/vermin shooting I would leave well alone, for paper I would have a little play with the powder and increase by .2 of a grain each time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest RemmySPS Posted June 14, 2009 Report Share Posted June 14, 2009 Are you crimping the bullets if not then you could try that, as it does even out the pressures somewhat. You could also try going down to as little as 5 thou’ off the lands and see what that does to the groups. I am shooting 7 thou’ off the lands using 55grn bullets and this seems to be very good. Just be careful though as you will increase the pressure by crimping, so do this prior to any increase in powder charge. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eyefor Posted June 14, 2009 Report Share Posted June 14, 2009 (edited) Gary, Stop fiddling. Start shooting! I'd try that 25 thou off the lands again at 200 yards & if it is anywhere near a good group I'd stick with it 'cos any extra tweaking will not bring any better results for the shooting that you are doing. It was fairly windy yesterday PLUS you had already shot 15 rounds ( -5 / -10 / -15 / -20?) before getting to that one, so the barrel was fairly warm? Interesting was the factory Norma group compared to your best (-25 thou) load and you are (were?) previously pleased with the accuracy of the rifle? Stick with it. Just make sure you can get a load of the bullets - otherwise its back to square 1. Did you get the varget? Plus I gained an 80% full box of small rifle primers - let me know if you're going passed? Brgds Iain PS. You are obvioulsy better off than me. For my 3 shot groupI could only afford a penny.... Edited June 14, 2009 by Maple Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
magman Posted June 14, 2009 Report Share Posted June 14, 2009 Always make me wonder why people think faster = better groups Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garyb Posted June 14, 2009 Author Report Share Posted June 14, 2009 Had a bit of play earlier today.. Loaded some more with 26.5, 26.6, 26.7 & 27.0 Verdict...? Stick with the 26.5 - I couldnt beat it I'll load up another batch of 10 or so once im all out of Factory and get it zero'd in then... Remmy - How do you Crimp the loads ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
magman Posted June 14, 2009 Report Share Posted June 14, 2009 Had a bit of play earlier today.. Loaded some more with 26.5, 26.6, 26.7 & 27.0 Verdict...? Stick with the 26.5 - I couldnt beat it I'll load up another batch of 10 or so once im all out of Factory and get it zero'd in then... Remmy - How do you Crimp the loads ? Try going lower Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Billy. Posted June 14, 2009 Report Share Posted June 14, 2009 Had a bit of play earlier today.. Failed to explain it was off the roof of a landy, with two fidgety kids inside...! I seriously don't think he'll be happy until he's shooting 1/4" groups 100% of the time at 100 yards Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest RemmySPS Posted June 14, 2009 Report Share Posted June 14, 2009 Had a bit of play earlier today.. Loaded some more with 26.5, 26.6, 26.7 & 27.0 Verdict...? Stick with the 26.5 - I couldnt beat it I'll load up another batch of 10 or so once im all out of Factory and get it zero'd in then... Remmy - How do you Crimp the loads ? You need a “Factory crimp die”, which really depends on the make of dies that you are using whether you have one in the set or not. http://www.midwayuk.com/apps/eproductpage....leitemid=456506 I never used to crimp, but now find that it does make the reloaded rounds more constant from round to round. I use 26grns of Varget myself and find it very accurate, so don’t be fooled into thinking that you need to go to the top loading to get more accuracy. I once had a .308 that I used to load for and started off with a 10% reduced load (45grns of R12 –110gnr JSP). This was so accurate that I never bothered to go any higher and used this for fox right up until Dunblane, when I was told that I could no longer used it for fox. (HMG revenge on nasty shooters) Had to buy a .222 but was still allowed to keep the .308, which meant I had another rifle in my cabinet, so work that one out. As said, the crimping does push the pressures up so don’t go too high with your powder load, and then crimp, as you may be getting too high a pressure. You will also get higher pressures the closer you get to the lands, so again try the seating depth first before pouring more powder into the case. And finally don’t spend all your time trying to find the magic round, as it is really not all that important in the field if you are already shooting into ½ MOA. @ 2 inches at 250yds is more than good enough for fox. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garyb Posted June 15, 2009 Author Report Share Posted June 15, 2009 Thanks for your time Remmy, I'll be having a good look into that Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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