Long range tuning

[JFrank]

Today I reviewed the seating depths I liked from my Tuesday session with special attention towards the +.011 window in .001 increments. I think it’s pretty clear that 1.800 -1.801 keeps shooting small. I plan to take that load for sure.
Oh yeah- these rounds at 500 yards, light head wind.( accounting for some of the vertical )

 

[JFrank]

Reverse engineering these left over rounds from Junes Sunday match, I shot these in heavy gun relay. I pulled every bullet and re weighed each charge and these are all within a kernel or two at the most however the interesting thing is the seating depth was 1.817 , well starting with the bottom 3-1.817
Second from bottom
1.818
next up
1.816
Lastly top row
1.815
( overlooked the one very top right at 1.814)
This is kind of a bummer but at least now I can understand the flyers I had. It’s easy to see what a small amount of difference can make.

 

[horsemen61]

View attachment 1090152 Reverse engineering these left over rounds from Junes Sunday match, I shot these in heavy gun relay. I pulled every bullet and re weighed each charge and these are all within a kernel or two at the most however the interesting thing is the seating depth was 1.817 , well starting with the bottom 3-1.817
Second from bottom
1.818
next up
1.816
Lastly top row
1.815
This is kind of a bummer but at least now I can understand the flyers I had. It’s easy to see what a small amount of difference can make.

I know that’s a very small amount of change in seating depth so my question is twofold A what caused it and B what is the solution?

 

[JFrank]

I know that’s a very small amount of change in seating depth so my question is twofold A what caused it and B what is the solution?

A thousandth is smaller than a human hair but we see how much that small amount can effect the groups shape and size so it’s definitely an important detail now a couple things come to mind, a grim build up on my comparator edge, or not measuring every single round
I’m leaning towards fatigue and lack of concentration or even these old calipers may be in need of replacement, or it could be this is older test brass that I may have to use a smaller bushing which they didn’t seem to like” or the A word ( anneal) heaven forbid! the problem is that IMO annealing softens brass and that’s the opposite direction I believe.
i just remeasured 100 cases of match brass for shoulder set back finding only 5 cases off by .001. That’s pretty good I think..

 

[JFrank]

I’ll try this abbreviated charge ladder , with as perfect seating depth as I can load. I’ll start taking a chrono more often to pull and mark any brass that exhibits low speeds, any with too light of neck tension I’ll mark for future considerations like,( the A word ) lol

 

[JFrank]

I just thought to add a thank you to the moderators for letting this thread continue a bit, personally I have been able work through the details with some trial and error and show failures and set backs as well as improvements and moving in a positive direction with a small budget program.

So.. thx guys

 

[JFrank]

My reloading area is running out of free space and my brain is getting fried.lol anyway with just a few weeks until my match I made another range visit this morning with two loads I’m narrowed down to that need to repeat at 500 yds before they do me any good so off I went and even though we again had a light head wind that’s evident on the targets.
My 30.4 grain at 1.817 ( .015 jam ) shot a 2.3 in group at the June match ( circled ) is on the slow side but repeats and that’s hard to walk away from Also… I think 30.7 at 1.800 ( .011 jam) using a different bullet repeats pretty well even with a touch of vertical. That load gets a look at 1000 yards and may need to nudge the seating another .001
I threw away a few pieces of maverick brass that just displayed odd speed today.. I don’t think they get better so by by

 

[JFrank]

Reviewing my flow chart from the charge ladder through seating then finally adding a touch of powder I think 30.7 at 1.814 ( .025) jam , shooting just out side of a penny at 500 has earned its way ‘Back’ onto the board.

 

[JFrank]

One additional point of interest is that while 30.6 is the smallest sample it’s also shifting horizontally but not vertically followed 30.7 overlapping the other samples with a touch of vertical without the presence of head or tail wind shows that it’s beginning to shift, looking at further samples of that load I see it shooting really small or blowing out the top. But worthy of a look at 1 k imo
Just to clarify I see the load being stable right between 30.6- 30.7 maybe that’s where I end up ..

 

[JFrank]

Back at it this morning I’ll load the recipes that graded out the highest into brass #2, and hopefully they will continue to shoot somewhat consistent.

 

[Nature Boy]

As I keep saying, 30.6-30.8 and ~2,930 FPS is the sweet spot.

 

[JFrank]

Your right about that for sure, the guys at DC like that high node around 2990-3000 but mines likes 2945 ish. I was chatting with a buddy that told me he won the last two nationals running 2929. I should take my chrono more often, especially handy for culling out weird brass.

 

[JFrank]

After review I have backed off on powder to 30.6 and ran this seating test again. I wish I knew how to make these windows bigger than .001

 

[MarshallDodge]

Amazingly consistent!

 

[JFrank]

Amazingly consistent!

I sure hope it continues, this particular seating depth ( 1.800 ) keeps repeating pretty small without a bunch of vertical. Hopefully that’s a good sign.

 

[JFrank]

We are heading out at first light tomorrow, this should be fun.

 

[Nature Boy]

Good luck!

 

[JFrank]

I’ll post some pictures and results when I can, I got a case of heat stroke over the weekend.

No joy

 

[LoonWulf]

I got a case of heat stroke over the weekend.

Hope your feeling better! Heat strokes no joke....tho it does rhyme........

 

[Walkalong]

No joy

Yea, not only no joy, it can be dangerous. Take care of yourself, get well quickly.

 

[JFrank]

https://forum.accurateshooter.com/attachments/match-12-hg-results-pdf.1362242/
https://forum.accurateshooter.com/attachments/match-12-lg-results-pdf.1362243/
https://forum.accurateshooter.com/attachments/2022-2-gun-championship-pdf.1362253/
Our championship weekend is based on a relay point system separate from IBS format, it can a bit confusing , the synopsis is the least point total is first place. I’m a little disappointed in my personal targets as I was reluctant to hold over enough on two of my heavy gun targets for a 1-2:00 wind pushing me high left the correction was at 5:00 in the 8 ring but I just wasn’t processing information very well.
My Light gun group agg for the weekend was around 6 inch’s 48 points good for 8th overall

 

[JFrank]

Here’s a few pictures from the weekend, forgive me for not mustering s better effort.

 

[JFrank]

Well 2 years, 8 pages and 7300 view’s of my trial and errors. As a summary it doesn’t take a high dollar program to compete at long range just simple hand tools and tuning not only the ammunition but the equipment and one’s self.
Just do it..

I think we are done here.

 

[Walkalong]

Why?

Keep posting pics and results......we like it.

 

[JFrank]

We’ll see how it goes, my happy moment is finishing 8th overall on Sunday LG against some of the top shooters in the country and I’m just a ham and egger.
Stay tuned ya’ll
J