truck driver
Ammo Smith
- Mar 11, 2013
- 7,342
- 924
I have been struggling to get the 200gr AB to shoot consistent groups to my satisfaction so I decided to try some different seating depths as suggested by Dewey, Scotty and Preacher. Scotty also told me sometime ago to stop measuring the OAL off the bullet tip for consistency and to measure it off the Ogave of the bullet so all measurements shown here are off the Ogave. For a reference I started with Nosler's OAL off the tip of the bullet 3.330" after measuring several bullets to get a consistent bullet length to get the measurement off the Ogave.
2.592" is 3.340" off the tip and 2.582" is 3.330" of the tip. Dewey suggested I go a 1/4 turn deeper with my seating depth of the 200gr AB since I was getting 2 in and 1 out when I seated to 3.330" off the tip on my last range day and talking with Bobby Hart made me consider that the barrel was heating up so I allowed more time between shoots and I also tried some same loads and lengths in brass that had been fired 5-6 times and brass that had been freshly annealed to see if there was a tension problem with the case necks holding the bullets. I also took my M700 35 Whelen along to try 2 loads in it since Scotty was working on his 35 Whelen and 2 of the targets that I'll post pictures of are from this rifle.
The test load is 66grs of CFE223 that I have been playing with since back last summer when it was in the 70s and today was in the mid 30s and cloudy with the sun peaking threw every now and then.
There was a big difference between annealed brass and unannealed for extreme velocity spread. The loaded seated to 2.575" unannealed showed an extreme spread of 64fps and the annealed loaded seated to the same depth was only 14fps, the annealed brass load also shot a tighter group. It seemed that the deeper I seated the bullet there was an increase in velocity and the extreme spread got smaller. The unannealed brass also had soot on the neck where the annealed didn't.
Here's some picture of the targets any and all suggestions will be appreciated.
2.592" is 3.340" off the tip and 2.582" is 3.330" of the tip. Dewey suggested I go a 1/4 turn deeper with my seating depth of the 200gr AB since I was getting 2 in and 1 out when I seated to 3.330" off the tip on my last range day and talking with Bobby Hart made me consider that the barrel was heating up so I allowed more time between shoots and I also tried some same loads and lengths in brass that had been fired 5-6 times and brass that had been freshly annealed to see if there was a tension problem with the case necks holding the bullets. I also took my M700 35 Whelen along to try 2 loads in it since Scotty was working on his 35 Whelen and 2 of the targets that I'll post pictures of are from this rifle.
The test load is 66grs of CFE223 that I have been playing with since back last summer when it was in the 70s and today was in the mid 30s and cloudy with the sun peaking threw every now and then.
There was a big difference between annealed brass and unannealed for extreme velocity spread. The loaded seated to 2.575" unannealed showed an extreme spread of 64fps and the annealed loaded seated to the same depth was only 14fps, the annealed brass load also shot a tighter group. It seemed that the deeper I seated the bullet there was an increase in velocity and the extreme spread got smaller. The unannealed brass also had soot on the neck where the annealed didn't.
Here's some picture of the targets any and all suggestions will be appreciated.
