338 Again

[Alderman]

Tried going up a couple grains with the 225 AccuBond and 200 Combined Technology.

First two with the AccuBond looked good and the third wasn’t out far enough to keep me from using this as an elk load at the distances I shoot.

Combined technology opened up compared to the limited try with the book starting load. Looking on the bright side the first one hit pretty close to center so probably wouldn’t need shots 2 and 3 anyway.
Will move the impact up a bit to hunt with.

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[JD338]

Your 225 gr AB load looks pretty good. Definitely a MOE (Minute of Elk) load.

JD338

 

[Alderman]

Your 225 gr AB load looks pretty good. Definitely a MOE (Minute of Elk) load.

JD338

If I can duplicate that I’d be comfortable at the distances I have to shoot. Not that I won’t keep playing with the 338. This gun is fun to shoot. Even with the muzzle brake it has quite a recoil but the pad does a great job.
The previous owner had the trigger set up with almost zero creep. Could be a tad lighter pull but not bad as is. I like the way it handles. Got enough supply from the pro shop to allow some experimenting to settle on a load.


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[flyingagg]

On that 225 AB, how would one go about getting the group tighten? Seating depth? +/- on the powder charge? I have a couple of other calibers that I am getting similar results, both with AB and TTSX

 

[Richracer1]

On that 225 AB, how would one go about getting the group tighten? Seating depth? +/- on the powder charge? I have a couple of other calibers that I am getting similar results, both with AB and TTSX

With my load development, I'll choose a powder that'll potentially give me beat velocity and fill as close to 100%. Then I'll find the most accurate powder charge. Next, depending on if I need to, I'll play with the seating depth to see if it can make it even more accurate.

 

[SJB358]

I’d keep creeping up in powder charges with both bullets myself. The 225 will take a bit more 19 I suspect. I’d also try it another .020” shorter.

 

[remingtonman_25_06]

Do a full ladder with powder charge first, then once you find what your rifle/load prefers with the powder charge, you can then start to play with seating depth. And I always start at .010" off the lands with the ladder. That way, you know the only way you can go, is deeper if they dont shoot to your satisfaction. Then you can also try another primer or two Or start the ladder again with a different powder. Should always have 2 or 3 good powders on hand for a certain cartridge/bullet because the rifle will always show a preference for 1 or the other. That's the order in how I go about doing good load development. You cant just pick 1 or 2 loads out of a book and expect them to shoot 1/2 MOA...I mean it does happen, but very rarely...Once I get down to consistent 1/2-3/4 MOA I usually stop because that's plenty good for shooting out to 1000 yards. Remember MOA at 1000 yards is a 10" group, which is still pretty dang good.

 

[flyingagg]

Thanks for your comments. Remimgtonman, If I were to use Alderman's example here, just for discussion, would you then do a ladder test around the 72 grn load? Reason I am asking is I have similar results with on 338 Lapua. Again thanks

 

[Alderman]

Do a full ladder with powder charge first, then once you find what your rifle/load prefers with the powder charge, you can then start to play with seating depth. And I always start at .010" off the lands with the ladder. That way, you know the only way you can go, is deeper if they dont shoot to your satisfaction. Then you can also try another primer or two Or start the ladder again with a different powder. Should always have 2 or 3 good powders on hand for a certain cartridge/bullet because the rifle will always show a preference for 1 or the other. That's the order in how I go about doing good load development. You cant just pick 1 or 2 loads out of a book and expect them to shoot 1/2 MOA...I mean it does happen, but very rarely...Once I get down to consistent 1/2-3/4 MOA I usually stop because that's plenty good for shooting out to 1000 yards. Remember MOA at 1000 yards is a 10" group, which is still pretty dang good.

How many groups do you shoot to have reliable results with each powder level?


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[remingtonman_25_06]

72 has some potential I see since its putting 2 touching and throwing 1, which usually means your pretty close to the right charge, but more than likely seating depth still also needs to be played with as well, but without doing a ladder test, you could potentially be skipping over your best node elsewhere...

Once I've done the ladder/pressure/velocity test, I usually figure the charge weights that I think to be in that node. For example say your ladder puts 71.5/72/72.5 into a nicer group with no vertical than that is more than likely a good node and a good place to start. So I would then load up 3 each at 71.5/72/72.5 and go shoot them see what they look like. Say 72.5 shoots the best, I'll then load up 6 more at 72.5 and shoot (2) 3 shot groups to confirm the consistency/accuracy. I'll show an example of a ladder test with my 7-300 win mag below. It's pretty easy to understand once you get the point of it, and have something to go off of. The above example is directly from my 7-300 with H1000 and 180g ELDMs all done at 300 yards below in the pic. I settled on 72.5g It was rather fast to find a very accurate load this way. It also helps to have a rifle you know is accurate. Also handy to cronograph during all this. I do my ladder testing with custom rifles at 300 yards and factory barreled rifles at 100..I had a 1/2 MOA load in under 20 rounds, and verified that in 25 rounds It has since shot 1/2 MOA on several occasions at 500 and 1000 yards...Hope this helps. Anymore questions, feel free to ask. Oh and dont get to hung up on ES and SD numbers...Accuracy trumps those numbers everytime IMO. As you can see, my 72.5g load has the higher ES but is clearly still shooting 1/2 MOA or better...ES and SD arent everything, you can have an ES of 10 and SD of 3 and it wont shoot, had it happen plenty of times along the way. Looking at my target again, 73.5g also looks like it could be worth exploring if you wanted the extra 50fps, but the 73-74 group was not near as tight and had twice the vertical as the 71.5-72.5 which is why I chose to do my testing with the 71.5-72.5 loads

 

[FOTIS]

God how I despise that 2 and 1 pattern! Drives me nuts.