Rifle Accuracy "Tuning"

[SJB358]

No problem Mike, you guys have been SUPER helpful to me. New 300WSM in the stable, new 700 Ti on the way in a few days. Us Southererns may not be good for much, but we know how to trick, errr, convince our wives we need more guns.




Do what I do, ask forgiveness never permission.


This is what is fixin' to happen at the Sexton house hold.

Heath's wife says, "is there a reason that we are missing $800?!"

Heath says, "I'm so sorry, here's the deal, and it was a a deal I just couldn't pass up, I am so sorry, I have never seen one of these before and they are usually much more than this."


If permission was asked here is the way it unfolds:

Heath says, " hey guess what I found today, it's a nice rif...."

Wife says, "JUDY CHOP, JUDY CHOP, SPINNING HAMMER FIST, JUDY CHOP."

"uhhhh, bleeding, pain, loosing consciousness........"


It's forgiveness fellas.

Holy smokes Heath, are me and you married to the same woman? I just laughed my butt off. Scared the dog I laughed so hard! Scotty

 

[DrMike]

Well, Heath, when you put it that way, I do understand. Wives are reluctant to divorce us when it is just a new rifle and the deed is already done; but, man-oh-man, the recuperation following the suggestion that we were thinking about buying. My good lady is convinced that bullets and brass must be male and female the way they reproduce in my loading room.

 

[Oldtrader3]

Joel, I have been loading for the .30-06 for 45 years now and my favorite load is 57.5 gr of IMR 4350 with the BR-2 primer and W-W brass. The bullets that I use are primarily 165 gr Partitions and 168 gr CT Silvertips. Both loads shoot under 3/4 inch groups in my Model 70, even with Winchester Supreme 165 CT Silvertips. My OAL is 3.35 and I have used this same load in four different .30-06's with great results each time.

I think that you are probably close to an optimum load and just need to fool around with a little different powder amounts and COAL's a little. Try going a little higher (.5 grs) and maybe try the CT Silvertips or Partitions just for comparison. Also try some shorter COAL's, sometimes they help. Sometimes 4350 works better a little hotter. Good luck.

 

[257 Ackley]

No problem Mike, you guys have been SUPER helpful to me. New 300WSM in the stable, new 700 Ti on the way in a few days. Us Southererns may not be good for much, but we know how to trick, errr, convince our wives we need more guns.




Do what I do, ask forgiveness never permission.


This is what is fixin' to happen at the Sexton house hold.

Heath's wife says, "is there a reason that we are missing $800?!"

Heath says, "I'm so sorry, here's the deal, and it was a a deal I just couldn't pass up, I am so sorry, I have never seen one of these before and they are usually much more than this."


If permission was asked here is the way it unfolds:

Heath says, " hey guess what I found today, it's a nice rif...."

Wife says, "JUDY CHOP, JUDY CHOP, SPINNING HAMMER FIST, JUDY CHOP."

"uhhhh, bleeding, pain, loosing consciousness........"


It's forgiveness fellas.

Holy smokes Heath, are me and you married to the same woman? I just laughed my butt off. Scared the dog I laughed so hard! Scotty

Heath you made me laugh out loud :mrgreen: . The only thing that saved me back when I was married was that I balanced the checkbook every month and Price Waterhouse did not audit the books. :shock:

 

[257 Ackley]

No problem Mike, you guys have been SUPER helpful to me. New 300WSM in the stable, new 700 Ti on the way in a few days. Us Southererns may not be good for much, but we know how to trick, errr, convince our wives we need more guns.




Do what I do, ask forgiveness never permission.


This is what is fixin' to happen at the Sexton house hold.

Heath's wife says, "is there a reason that we are missing $800?!"

Heath says, "I'm so sorry, here's the deal, and it was a a deal I just couldn't pass up, I am so sorry, I have never seen one of these before and they are usually much more than this."


If permission was asked here is the way it unfolds:

Heath says, " hey guess what I found today, it's a nice rif...."

Wife says, "JUDY CHOP, JUDY CHOP, SPINNING HAMMER FIST, JUDY CHOP."

"uhhhh, bleeding, pain, loosing consciousness........"


It's forgiveness fellas.

Holy smokes Heath, are me and you married to the same woman? I just laughed my butt off. Scared the dog I laughed so hard! Scotty

 

[HeathSexton]

Scotty, we may be married to the same woman. Mine is 5'6" about 115lbs and is ferocious, I just cower in the corner when she comes home.


No, I can't lie, she is not ferocious and she lets me buy many toys.


257, she does the check book stuff so it's much harder for me to get things by her.

 

[tddeangelo]

One suggestion I can offer that hasn't been made so far is to look into a bullet comparator. You correctly pointed out that measuring the Cartridge OverAll Length (COAL) with two different bullet styles will give you different "jumps" to the lands for each bullet.

The way you can precisely determine this is to use a comparator, which clamps on your calipers, and measures from the base of the cartridge to where the bullet "makes caliber". This takes the bullet style out of the equation. For instance, once I make this measurement on a rifle, I note it in my loading manual, as I now know the distance to the lands for that rifle (I actually make the note right on the first page for the round in my manual, and I include the rifle's S/N with the note so there's no confusion if I add more rifles later). Now when I load, I can very easily set my bullets to whatever distance from the lands I wish to try.

You have some much more experienced folk than I answering here, but I feel good hearing that what I do for load development is basically what they do as well.

 

[SJB358]

Scotty, we may be married to the same woman. Mine is 5'6" about 115lbs and is ferocious, I just cower in the corner when she comes home.


No, I can't lie, she is not ferocious and she lets me buy many toys.


257, she does the check book stuff so it's much harder for me to get things by her.

Mine is a little taller, but they could be sisters! Man, what a bite they do have though! Scotty

 

[6mm Remington]

You all need to read the story by Patrick McMannus in one of his short story books called "GUNRUNNING". It's completely about all the ways he has conjured up (comically) to get firearms past his wife. It is laugh out loud funny! I wish I could remember which book in the series it is in that he has written. I should check on-line and could probably find it. It's a must read just for that ONE story!

 

[tddeangelo]

You all need to read the story by Patrick McMannus in one of his short story books called "GUNRUNNING". It's completely about all the ways he has conjured up (comically) to get firearms past his wife. It is laugh out loud funny! I wish I could remember which book in the series it is in that he has written. I should check on-line and could probably find it. It's a must read just for that ONE story!

I believe I have all his books, so I'll give a look tonight if you don't find it by then.

 

[SJB358]

Yeah, I think that would be a good one! I think the wife went to the same interrogation course I attended sometimes. She really asks pretty tough questions. Little does she know I practice my resistance to interrogation techniques on her.

HER: "Honey, is that a new rifle"? ME: "Uh, ummm, wow, I am not sure, which one are you looking at?" HER: "this one right here", pointing to an obviously used rifle, but new to the safe. ME: "no honey, that is an old rifle"...

I'll tell you, I only just squeak by sometimes! Scotty

 

[tddeangelo]

I had a once-over on my 300WSM the other day because of how much it cost, and I (correctly) pointed out that 4 guns left the house, one came in, and no money was used out of the bank account to fund the purchase. She sat for a second, clearly wanting to tell me I spent too much on it.....

I continued. I pointed out that the overall "population" of rifles was now down by a net of 3, and no money from the household budget was used. Win-win. I got a rifle I wanted, she got a reduction in the number I have on-hand, and no money out of pocket, so to speak.

I think it frustrated her more that she had nothing to give me grief about than any of the maneuvering I did to get the rifle, lol.

I don't handle interrogation well, Scotty, but I am good at pre-emptive measures.

 

[SJB358]

Well, you really had your ducks in a line Tom. Me on the other hand am very usually flat footed with my mouth open converting perfectly good Oxygen to Carbon Dioxide when she starts her interrogation approaches! Sometimes I win, just cause she knows how smart she is and I know it! She doesn't feel like it is challenging enough sometimes! Scotty

 

[tddeangelo]

Well, you really had your ducks in a line Tom. Me on the other hand am very usually flat footed with my mouth open converting perfectly good Oxygen to Carbon Dioxide when she starts her interrogation approaches! Sometimes I win, just cause she knows how smart she is and I know it! She doesn't feel like it is challenging enough sometimes! Scotty

LOL.....you know, the funny thing is I caught MORE crap about that split-necked brass than the rifle!

Her: "Why the *censored* did you buy it if it was crappy brass?"

Me: "Well, I didn't knowingly buy crappy brass, I thought it was going to be good brass."

Her: "So does this mean you have to take the rifle back?"

Me: "No. But I am going to buy new brass now."

Her: "Does this ever end?"

Me: "Nope. And you knew it when we got married. Love ya, Hun, I'm off to Cabela's."

 

[SJB358]

Yup, that sounds pretty familiar also. I see it from their point, sometimes, but man, it is funny from our point most of the time! Scotty

 

[tddeangelo]

Yup, that sounds pretty familiar also. I see it from their point, sometimes, but man, it is funny from our point most of the time! Scotty

It is indeed.

I work teaching graduate courses in the evenings as a second job, and that's where most of my "play money" comes from. She was on my rear about that a while back (maybe 3-4 years ago), and I sat down and listed all the stuff (truthfully) I bought in a year (she even checked the receipts she filed, lol). Then I subtracted it from the take-home pay I got from my teaching gig. When it was about 30% of all I brought home from my second job, she couldn't believe it. That meant "someone else" spent the other 70%.

 

[DrMike]

All my load work goes into purchases from the local gun store. Mama knows it, but as long as I bring home a smoker, or a few Christmas gifts from time-to-time, it is tolerated. It doesn't hurt that I handle the investments and have earned a bit of money during our marriage.

 

[negeorgia]

What accuracy is acceptable?

FOR HUNTING, where we hunt, i.e., how far away might we want to shoot something, is an essential component to answering this question, as well "How important is eking out a few more fps's?" If you shoot consistent 1-inch groups (at 100 yard), for example, and you adjust the scope to the center of the group, then, theoretically, you will never shoot more than 1/2 inch off of your point of aim. Maybe one inch at 200 yds. One-and-a-half inches at 300 yds., etc. Somebody said that, for deer, the effective target is a 6-inch circle. Well, you can do that at 600 yards, in this example, if there are no other factors. But hunting doesn't always provide the equivalent of a shooting bench, or the opportunity to go prone, no wind, knowing the precise distance to target, so there are never no other factors.

Groups are cool but it's a matter of confidence at the distance at which you want to be able to kill.

Groups are cool but knowing where the FIRST bullet out of a cold barrel is going is essential! Don't loose sight of that, especially if you, like me, don't foul the barrel before goin' huntin'. Well, sometimes I do, like going to the range the day before opening day, but I don't like to leave it dirty all through hunting season.

The real answer is: as long we have the time and other resources to support loading and shooting we keep trying to find something more accurate and faster. When you get to the point where you've tried everything, including modifying the rifle, you know the limits of that rifle. What to do? Say you're satisfied? You don't need to shoot any more? Take up golf?

You get another rifle, of course, and start over.

 

[chet]

You get another rifle, of course, and start over.

YES!!!!!!

 

[257 Ackley]

Early on in my marriage before I had much of a "collection", I would usually go to the range every Saturday to shoot. Some Saturdays the gun case was empty when I left the house and filled when I came home :wink:. Once there were a few started it made it fairly easy to buy and sell without much problem. Once I got my FFL and started to make a little money on the rifles and pistols it didn't matter much anymore.

My ex was 5' 3" and maybe 105 lbs, but she knew how to make me dance in circles when she wanted to :roll: .