NorCal's RRT
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I got a Krieger barrel 1:10 5R put on my 700 action at the end of June. I got out and did a break in on it about mid July. After that, its sat in my safe due to my medical issues. Well because I'm not working and I need to build my shooting stregth back as well I decided to try and make it out to the range at least once a week for a while.
All these were shot from a concrete bench. I'm going to go to prone the next trip out to see if that helps with recoil. This is also some loads I had for my old barrel on virgin Lapua brass. Once I get though these 100 rounds I'm going to follow Orkan load development guide to build a load.
My first group I wasn't driving the recoil well enough and the group shows it. The next two groups I tried real hard to do my best and I'm super happy with them, expect the one pulled shot in each group. I went back to 200 yards and sucked butthole. I was getting pretty worn out at that point and the wind picked up pretty good.
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Happy to see you shooting! I'll help where I can. :)
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I went out last Friday and Saturday. I now have 125 round through my new barrel so I'm ready to start load work up.
Saturday I went north into the high desert, just south of Verde Valley for those that know the area. My buddy and I set up a 10" plate ate 530, a 24" plate at 770 and a 10" at 770. Without a chrono I took a guess at my speed and adjusted my calculator till it matched my impacts. I'm shooting somewhere in the 2650fps range. The 530 plate I was able to hit over and over without issue. At 770 on the 10" plate I was hitting is 3 or 4 shots out of 5 in 10-12mph winds. I was real happy with those results.
Friday I worked just on form and making good shots. I put down some real nice 3 shot groups back to back.
Shot 1 at 9, shot 2 at 7, and shot 3 I dotted.
Shot 1 at 9, shot 2 at 6:30, 3 at 9 inside.
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Started load development for my rifle on Friday. Did a round of pressure shots in a ladder test at 200 yards. I got a pretty good idea of where to start for a node now.
Thats all I really shot that day as my son had no school, so I took him. He shot his .22 and my 9mm for a few hours. After 50 rounds of 9mm I said enough, he was ready to crack open another box of 100 and keep going lol.
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Got up early yesterday and made a quick range trip. Took out my AR which I haven't shot in a long time. My first ten round group. The ring is 1", so I'm right at 1 MOA. Really please with that for this gun. I got to stretch this out out soon.
Then I shot some OCW groups. I did a pressure ladder last week and between that and other loads posted here on Gunhive I came up with a range of 41.0-41.9 grains of 4064. I feel like all these were pretty good shots and I did blow any of them. My vertical looks great, but I'm curious as to why I have so much left/right. It was slightly windy with a L-R 10-12 MPH breeze.
It looks like the loads climbed ever so slightly as I went up, but maybe thats just me. At this point I may just load up some at 41.5 grains and play with seating depth, IDK.
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@norcal_in_az I'm kinda partial to your 41.9gr group. I think you could fine tune the horizontal spread and be dead on....
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@oilfieldjosh Yeah I like that one too, I just don't want to jump out of the node too much. Maybe go 41.8 or something.
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@norcal_in_az that sounds like a safe bet!
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Those groups are much better than they were a few months ago! Custom barrel was worth the money.
At 100 a 10-12 mph wind ain’t gonna make much difference. The horizontal is likely a difference in how the gun is held. Depending on where it sits on your shoulder (left/right) it will throw a shot left or right. Depending on how your hand holds the stock it will pull a shot left or right. Depending on how your finger touches the trigger can make a difference. If you are not perfectly straight behind the rifle it will make a difference. Depending on how you pull the trigger will make a difference.
If you can take Greg’s class you will learn to tell why those fliers are there and therefore evetntually eliminate them. I still get fliers as you know from my targets. But I know it should have been a flier and what to do to fix it.
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@dddoo7 said:
Those groups are much better than they were a few months ago! Custom barrel was worth the money.
At 100 a 10-12 mph wind ain’t gonna make much difference. The horizontal is likely a difference in how the gun is held. Depending on where it sits on your shoulder (left/right) it will throw a shot left or right. Depending on how your hand holds the stock it will pull a shot left or right. Depending on how your finger touches the trigger can make a difference. If you are not perfectly straight behind the rifle it will make a difference. Depending on how you pull the trigger will make a difference.
If you can take Greg’s class you will learn to tell why those fliers are there and therefore evetntually eliminate them. I still get fliers as you know from my targets. But I know it should have been a flier and what to do to fix it.
I think my biggest issue to work on right now is breaking my NPA after each shot. I get so OCD about my brass flying out of the chamber and getting flung into the pile at the public range. I should just take a coil off the ejector spring.
Your correct that the custom barrel was well worth the investment. Now I can enjoy my rifle when I shot. I don't come home frustrated from shooting groups.
Taking Greg's class is for sure on my want to do list. Just a matter of commitment to doing it.
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@norcal_in_az
What bullet for above OCW?
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@mamalukino 178 Amax
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Went out with a buddy today to "proof" my load. Settled in on doing the 41.9 grains. Set the bullets back to .020" off the lands. Maybe I could do better if I did some more development, but I'm sitting right at 1/2 MOA to slightly better right now. So I'm going to run through the last 200 Amaxs I have like this, then decide what to do when I switch to the ELD's or another bullet. I also adjusted my trigger to lighten it up a bit as well. That helped a ton.
Checked my zero at 100 and got some bad shots out of my system. Dialed up 12 MOA for this 530 yard target and held 2 MOA left for a 5-7MPH wind. The red red dots are my three shots at this 10" plate. Shot 1 at 8:00, shot 2 at 1:00, and shot 3 at 5:00. I pulled #2 a bit. Put a few on the 18" plate at 780 yards as well. Last round of the day I dropped into the 2" bull.
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Well I'm in commie land for the week, so I planned a trip to the range with my dad and a friend. We went out today and broke in my dads new F-class rifle he put together. He also has a new magnetno speed now so I did him the favor of making sure it worked lol.
Shot 10 rounds over it. High 2621, low 2601, Avg 2611, SD 6, ES 20. I'm really happy with that. I have a lot more confidence now in my hand loads knowing I'm in single digit SD.
I'm still having left right shots. I can't figure out what it is either. I'm not coming off the gun. I just can't but wonder if that cheek riser I have is just to wide.
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Went out for group therapy yesterday. Did okay. I really worked on my trigger control and how much pressure I'm putting on the wrist with my trigger hand. I'm still not driving the rifle as well as I could. I was little frustrated after wards, but I also felt better having forgotten about work, bills, and all the other crap life brings us.
Shot a few groups like this, right at MOA, from the bench. Not very happy with them.
I should have brought my shooting mat and went prone. I did lay down to shoot one group and it was great, except for shot #5. Up layed 1-4 into a nice bug hole, took to long on my trigger pull on #5, forced the shot, and this. At least I know the gun and ammo can do what I want it to do.
Moved my scope back on the rail, as I felt like I was straining to find proper eye relief. I felt much easier behind the gun. Shot this group at 200 yards. Again sub MOA except I pulled one shot. Its still close to MOA even with the flyer though.
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Oh and reading my last post reminded me. I did make a newer thinner cheek riser. So my head is no longer pushed off to the side nowhere near as much.
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I forgot to post this the other day. When I took the boy out shooting, I got to put a whole 5 rounds through my .308 :D
I hung my 10" plate at some random distance That I guessed was between 250-300 yards. Got on my rifle, measured it out with my reticle, pulled up the info in my ballistic calculator, and got a first round hit. 288 yards, cold bore. I just hit the edge, as the wind was pretty bad. Held more wind and hit it a couple more times.
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My buddy and I took our wives out and did some shooting today. It was my first time out with the new chassis. After a quick zero check I was off and running.
The high point for me was shooting water bottles at 550 yards. It was windy, 15mph at times. The first one I hit in two shots, the second one on the first shot.
Now it’s time to do another load work up with the new ELD-X bullets.
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Quick update to this from last weekend. I have my load really dialed in and the barrel is really coming into its prime now with close to 300 rounds on it now.
First 3 shots of the day. Really clean well broke shots. Easily a sub 1/2 MOA group.
Then I helped my buddy sight in his new rifle and didn't shoot for an hour. When I finally got back on my gun, the pressure set in. Target #4 I shot first. Right at MOA, not bad, but not great either. Then target #1 it all went to shit. My heart was jumping the scope, I was pissed at my shooting...ugh...shooting is fun right?
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So not a range report, but I want to post my upcoming venture into working up loads with the 178 ELD-M's.
- I have 370 rounds on my Krieger Barrel.
- I have twice fired Lapua brass from this chamber
- The brass has been annealed, sized with bump back of .003, trimmed
- Going to switch to CCI 200 primers for these rounds vs the WLR.
- I can't find shared data on the 178 ELD-M, but knowing the shape and weight of the bullet is close to the AMax, I'm pretty comfortable with charges in the 42.5-44.0 range with IMR4064
Now here's what I've been thinking. I'm not the greatest group shooter. I just don't have the time to dedicate to practice at this time. The method is finding a pressure node with just ten rounds, not even worried about where the bullets impact. You shoot your rounds over your chrono, then come back and plot the speeds vs the charge weight and look for flat spots in your pressure climb. (for more data, you could shoot 2-3 rounds of each charge weight) This is your pressure node. Once you have your pressure node you can then load up another 5-10 rounds to proof this charge weight. Then play with seating depth. These last two steps you do need to shoot on paper.
Since this place is all about proving and showing your work. I'm going to give this method a run and post how it goes. Worst case, I wasted 10-30 rounds.
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Shot my pressure ladder and plotted it out yesterday. It was hot and I'm happy I'm doing load development in the heat. I figure this way, my loads should be safe anytime of the year. They drop out of the node it much cooler weather, but I'll have to wait to see.
97*, 13% Humidity, 29.76 Station Pressure, Lapua Brass, 178 ELD-M, IMR4064, CCI 200 Primers.
I shot charges from 40.5-43.2 in .3 grain increaments. 40.5 and 40.8, I didn't get my Magneto Speed on correctly and didn't get readings for. No matter, I really don't want that low of a charge anyways. I got pressure signs on the 43.2 charge. Bolt had a little stick to it and I have a light swipe mark. Other than that, everything fired great.
My 42.0 round dropped off, but other than that you can see two flat spots. The low node should be in the 41.0-41.5 range, while the high node is in the 42.3-42.6 range. Thats the spot where I'm going to concentrate next. I'm going to load up 3 rounds each of various charges in that area and see how they group.
