Velocity and accuracy

[Wis65x55]

I find a good chronograph to be an essential reloading tool, saying this if I can get a marriage of accuracy and velocity great. In recent years I am transitioning all of my hunting rifles to hammer hunter monolithic bullets for several reasons lower maximum pressure because of reduced surface area on the bullet caused by a series of parabolic band ridges on the bullet. The side benefit of this is increased velocity which seems to mitigate a monolithic bullets reduced g7 BC. While I am no expert on Hammer Hunter monolithic bullets I find them to be substantially easier to find great accuracy compared to cup and core bullets design. By going with this bullet design, it is essential to know the actual barrel twist rate to achieve high bullet stability usually a person has to drop down 10-15% in bullet weight compared to a cup and core bullet design to achieve the desired bullet stability. thus preventing a bullet from key holding on target. My preference is a minimum of 1.7 but prefer a value closer to 2.0 or more. In my 280 Remington I am achieving 3170 fps with a 131 gr hammer bullets with a 5 shot ES of 6 with a sub MOA group. All of this with zero lead to potentially poisoning for birds that will scavenge a gut pile. Sad part is that it takes very little lead to cause lead poisoning to any raptor!

 

[RiverRider]

I reload for peak performance from my rifles which means top velocity and the best consistent groups. If I can't obtain both, I moving on to a different combination.

That's just about the same place I've found myself at the conclusion of my quests. I see it as a matter of balancing accuracy with velocity.

If you look for trajectory, then you realize that velocity is your friend, BUT you also find that to obtain significant trajectory advantages, a LOT more velocity is required...and to achieve "a lot" more velocity a HUGE increase in pressure is required. In light of all that, you're best off choosing the most accurate load you can generate---but with a caveat: if you can gain significant velocity by compromising on accuracy just a little, then it might make sense to do so.

As an example, I might be able to get 0.6 MOA for five shots averaging 2675 fps as opposed to 0.8 MOA at 2900 fps. Is 225 fps worth 0.2 MOA of accuracy? The answer is not always so clearcut. For me, a lot of other factors would play into the decision, but in general I see an extra 50 or 75 fps as being meaningless.

I think we get a lot more hung up on numbers than is good for us.