Any Idea why ?? Hornady SST Bullets

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litledab

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I can't figure this out so looking for a bit of insite I am loading a hornady 180 Gr SST bullet 43 gr Varget wlr once fired full lenght sized r-p brass trimmed and crimped in a 308 case
The rounds have a run out of less than .001 lenght 2.74 Hornady manual puts these at 2500 fps I dont have chrono
I am loading these for a friend for hunting so I'm not looking for extreme accuracy just 1 min of deer I did load some test rd to check for stress factors and came up to this powder charge without any
during test firing all rd grouped nicely 1 to 1.5 moa at 100 yds bullet holes in paper looked perfect (sav tr10)
Now I make up a box for him plus some test rounds go out today with him just to check if they will sight in with his scope and gun (Rem Titanium 308) at 100 bullets are good POI good hole in paper good cases are good primers good
At 200 yds things go stupid spread opens to 8 inches bullets hole are ripped and oval almost .I know the two guns are different ,the HOLE in the paper is what concerns me the most why???The spread could of been him the 2 rds I fired with his gun were only 4.5 inches apart
Any ideas why the shape of the bullet hole changed??? is the question

Thks Little
 
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SST in my experience is a very tight shooting bullet. Ive never seen one yaw on paper. If you are certain its not your reloads, maybe he needs to check his rifle over. And you are sure there was no damage to the bullet when seated? meaning it was a perfect jacket? no scratches etc in the bullet before being seated?
roll them on a table and see if it looks like they wobble. watch the red tips and see if they appear to be off center when you roll them.
 
Unless that rifle has a very slow twist rate, it makes no sense for the bullets to become unstable at the speeds 43 grains of Varget launch them.

Something is amiss, pull a bullet or two and recheck the powder weight, double check you used Varget, etc....

Inspect the muzzle of the rifle as well.
 
the rifle shot nice clean hole before and after test rds with factory cor lok loads
Varget only powder on the bench
scale is still set will check it just in case I set it wrong but am pretty sure its right always run check weight onscale before starting to load rcbs beam scale
will check just bullet to see if there round
thks keep them coming
 
did you crimp them? maybe crimped too tight and caused a deformation that causes them to yaw?
There area few things I would suggest, but you have probably done this already.
have his gun on hand when reloading, seat the bullets to fit his gun, I found in my rifles the listed length in the book didn't give me the best results.
take your cleaning rod and place it down the barrel to touch the bolt face ( be sure its on a flat surface of the bolt). mark the rod with tape. Then take a bullet you just started to seat, that is way too long. push this gently into the gun and put your rod against the tip of the bullet. mark with tape again. measure the distance on the tape. This will tell you the distance to his lands. take that number and subtract .020

if you crimped, try not crimping. I have gone away from crimping as I found neck tension was key, but crimping caused me some accuracy headaches.
 
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Well I'm going to load a few more of these rds and give them a try at 200 and 300 yds on Saturday both crimped and non crimped I only crimp hunting rds because they usually get handled a lot more (mags ,chamber un chamber ,in and out of box)
Yes I have found crimping does affect accuracy but never to this extent Usually stay within min of deer
Powder charge checked and was right on
Weighed bullets 5 of then variance 0.5 grs
Could the bullet have started to expand so quick that it caused ragged hole in paper ,Target boards are plywood and 200 yd board was almost brand new where 100 yds shot up pretty good?? Could this make it look like yawing??
 
litledab said:
Could the bullet have started to expand so quick that it caused ragged hole in paper ,Target boards are plywood and 200 yd board was almost brand new where 100 yds shot up pretty good?? Could this make it look like yawing??
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I shoot 165gr sst in my 30-06 at 200 yards in plywood there is a clean round hole. Also I get 1.5"-1.75" groups on a bad day at 200 yards
 
The target at 200 is flat meaning not at an angle. A slight lean forward or back can have a profound effect on the bullet tearing a hole in the paper.
Age of powder?
Age of primers?
Cleanliness of his barrel. If it is so copper fouled it could be tearing the jacket doing what you see.
 
Excellent point about the target being flat (perpendicular to bullet's path). If this is the case, all of the bullet holes should show a similar oval shape. The other thing to consider is the path between rifle and target. Not sure where you are shooting, but if it is an impromptu range (e.g. back 40 on the farm), even the smallest bit of grass can deflect the bullet. I have noticed this on my own farm range. My group size shrinks considerably after I take the trimmer/mower to the shooting lane.

Fat
 
Sorry. this does not compute.

If a bullet does not yaw at 100, it is even more stable at 200.

Other than being 10 gr light on the powder charge (or using 4831 instead of Varget) there is nothing you can do to make that bullet yaw. The savage probably has a 1;10 barrel, more than enough twist.

If you repeat the test, shooting yourself, you should find a good group of nice round holes.
 
I'm with Ganderite, hence my earlier suggestions. Something doesn't add up, or something is glaringly wrong.

As stated, a repeat session at 200 yards is in order, if there is still an issue, I would be looking at the reloading sequence and components.

If a bullet leaves the barrel at 200,000 RPM, it will still be almost exactly 200,000 RPM at longer ranges even though velocity has severely degraded, which makes the bullet more stable at 300 than 100 yards. A tumbling bullet means either there is no rifling, or insanely slow speeds for the twist rate. Which reduces the RPM and the bullet becomes unstable.

Many good suggestions have been given!! Look into them!
 
Cleftwynd said:
Unless that rifle has a very slow twist rate, it makes no sense for the bullets to become unstable at the speeds 43 grains of Varget launch them.

Something is amiss, pull a bullet or two and recheck the powder weight, double check you used Varget, etc....

Inspect the muzzle of the rifle as well.
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My thoughts too. Check the crown. Less likely but possible is a fed up feed ramp or chamber throat. any deformities could destabilize the bullet. Minor deformities could destabilize in a way that became more apparent over distance.

Check the feedpath by chambering and ejecting a few unfired rounds and looking for scratches on the bullets. Visually inspect the crown for nicks and oddities. Visually inspect the bore for lopsided boo boos.
 
curseyou said:
My thoughts too. Check the crown. Less likely but possible is a fed up feed ramp or chamber throat. any deformities could destabilize the bullet. Minor deformities could destabilize in a way that became more apparent over distance.

Check the feedpath by chambering and ejecting a few unfired rounds and looking for scratches on the bullets. Visually inspect the crown for nicks and oddities. Visually inspect the bore for lopsided boo boos.
Click to expand...

I have deliberately shot deformed bullets to see the effect on accuracy. None was noted.

besides, if the holes are round at 100, they have to be round at 200.

By 1000 there would by gyroscopic yaw, and all the holes would be egg shaped, in the same dierection. but not at 200.
 
I think the same way if round at 100 why not round at 200 will be shooting tomorrow will let you know results Going to try and drop powder charge also bought a new box of bullets same ones today going to reload some of those tonight
Hope too have answers tomorrow nite
I have clear line of sight and targets r as close to upright as the ground allows

Question if the bullet starts to yaw does it get worse over distance???
 
I believe that a bullet becomes more stable as it slows down, not the other way around. That's why heavy bullets (long bullets) need a faster twist rate, to get the RPM up to where it stabilizes. So as a bullet loses velocity, it becomes more stable, if it was stable to begin with. Lighter bullets leave the barrel faster and do not need as much twist rate to reach the RPM where they become stable.

Following this logic, if your bullets were stable at 100, they will be stable at least until the velocity drops below the speed of sound, or less.

Looking forward to your results!!!
 
Is it possible that the plywood is splintering and blowing back through the target, making the holes look irregular?

I have seen this happen when the plywood was very wet, or soft on the surface.

Just another thought to throw out there.
 
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