tddeangelo
Handloader
- May 18, 2011
- 2,023
- 20
I hit the range this evening right before dark.
I wanted to make a last-ditch effort to get my pre-64's shooting well enough to take hunting in NC on my upcoming trip. The 30-06 I felt was close, and might be ready, but would shoot a good group and then throw a much larger one. I shot it tonight thinking, "Ok, if the first group out is good, then it's gotta be barrel heat that cause the bigger groups." All the groups are centered basically the same spot, they just get bigger on a second group with a little heat in the barrel.
So, first (and only, since I ran out of light) group from the '06 is thus:
That's a 2" dot. I miked the group at just a shade under 1.2". That's about what it's done other "first" groups, consistently. I adjusted the elevation to where it should hit about 12 o'clock on the dot. Reshoot will be later this week or Saturday morning. This is a 165PT on 57.0gr of IMR4350. I had thought that was as far as I could push the rifle, but now with a different batch of primers, they don't look so flat as the last batch. Who knows....but no extraction issues and primers look good. I think I'm gonna push it harder after my hunt and see what I get. The chrono tells me to expect 2700, pretty much right on the nose, with this load in this rifle. Not stellar, but I'll take it. Very capable for hunting purposes.
Now, on to the seat depth I mentioned.
I also took the 300H&H. While I got a beautiful new stock for it, I need to slowly work on the bedding epoxy in it from the previous owner. Nice clean work, but for a different rifle. I need to gently work on the bedding to fit my rifle to it, and that means the $$%&@ diamond stock has to remain on it for the NC hunt. After I get back, I'm going to finish fitting the new stock to it and it will be as it should.
Anyway, the setup I was shooting was 72.0gr of RL22 and a 180gr PT. All I changed was seat depth.
Here's the group from round seated to 3.610 (about as long as it'll reliably cycle):
OK, now here's the group produced with rounds seated to 3.590:
And lastly, here's the same load seated to 3.570:
I plan to reshoot that last one. If it repeats even close to a group that size, it's golden.
So...with both pre-64's seeming to finally be cooperative, I am planning to take both the 300H&H and the pre-64 30-06, along with my M70 Extreme Weather in 300WSM for any possible foul weather days.
The load in the 300H&H should be real close to or maybe a little over 2900fps for a 180gr PT. I plan to chrono it when I shoot it to verify the results, and hopefully zero it at the same time.
Anyway, just thought I'd share the results of the seat depth changes. Anymore, I've found that I work a powder/bullet combo in various increments and find the best one. I start with the OAL set to as long as will reliably chamber and work in from there. First, all get that length, run the powders and charge weights. At least one will stand out as better than the others.
Then I take that load and run batches of three, with a 1/2" turn IN of the stem on the seating die. Generally, this yields a change in OAL of 0.015" to 0.020", give or take. One of those seat depths will shine. From there, I might find a need to fine tune the powder charge a little, but generally after passing both "tests", the load should be pretty good.
I wanted to make a last-ditch effort to get my pre-64's shooting well enough to take hunting in NC on my upcoming trip. The 30-06 I felt was close, and might be ready, but would shoot a good group and then throw a much larger one. I shot it tonight thinking, "Ok, if the first group out is good, then it's gotta be barrel heat that cause the bigger groups." All the groups are centered basically the same spot, they just get bigger on a second group with a little heat in the barrel.
So, first (and only, since I ran out of light) group from the '06 is thus:
That's a 2" dot. I miked the group at just a shade under 1.2". That's about what it's done other "first" groups, consistently. I adjusted the elevation to where it should hit about 12 o'clock on the dot. Reshoot will be later this week or Saturday morning. This is a 165PT on 57.0gr of IMR4350. I had thought that was as far as I could push the rifle, but now with a different batch of primers, they don't look so flat as the last batch. Who knows....but no extraction issues and primers look good. I think I'm gonna push it harder after my hunt and see what I get. The chrono tells me to expect 2700, pretty much right on the nose, with this load in this rifle. Not stellar, but I'll take it. Very capable for hunting purposes.
Now, on to the seat depth I mentioned.
I also took the 300H&H. While I got a beautiful new stock for it, I need to slowly work on the bedding epoxy in it from the previous owner. Nice clean work, but for a different rifle. I need to gently work on the bedding to fit my rifle to it, and that means the $$%&@ diamond stock has to remain on it for the NC hunt. After I get back, I'm going to finish fitting the new stock to it and it will be as it should.
Anyway, the setup I was shooting was 72.0gr of RL22 and a 180gr PT. All I changed was seat depth.
Here's the group from round seated to 3.610 (about as long as it'll reliably cycle):
OK, now here's the group produced with rounds seated to 3.590:
And lastly, here's the same load seated to 3.570:
I plan to reshoot that last one. If it repeats even close to a group that size, it's golden.
So...with both pre-64's seeming to finally be cooperative, I am planning to take both the 300H&H and the pre-64 30-06, along with my M70 Extreme Weather in 300WSM for any possible foul weather days.
The load in the 300H&H should be real close to or maybe a little over 2900fps for a 180gr PT. I plan to chrono it when I shoot it to verify the results, and hopefully zero it at the same time.
Anyway, just thought I'd share the results of the seat depth changes. Anymore, I've found that I work a powder/bullet combo in various increments and find the best one. I start with the OAL set to as long as will reliably chamber and work in from there. First, all get that length, run the powders and charge weights. At least one will stand out as better than the others.
Then I take that load and run batches of three, with a 1/2" turn IN of the stem on the seating die. Generally, this yields a change in OAL of 0.015" to 0.020", give or take. One of those seat depths will shine. From there, I might find a need to fine tune the powder charge a little, but generally after passing both "tests", the load should be pretty good.
