First range sesion with a new rig, chrony and reloads. Suggestions? 200yrd Update.

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tacticalII

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I recently got my first precision rig back from the gunsmith. I'm going to be using this rifle for a Milcun course this summer out to 600yrds. It started life as a SPS Varmint in 223. I had the barrel replaced with a Shilen Select Match barrel 1:8 the action cleaned up, a Shilen trigger all dropped into a AICS 2.0 chassis. Optics are a Bushnell 6500 4.5x30, TPS steel rings and a Badger 20moa rail. I ordered a Sightron 6x24 but it was defective and sent off for warranty so I haven't got a chance to try it out to see how it compares.

I also brought out my new M2 chrony to see what the reloads I worked up were doing. I had to take the screens off and play around since it was overcast but eventually was getting readings even though it was still giving me error messages. The 25.8gr of Varget with the 69gr SMK got me to pretty much max velocity, 26 gr was max in the Lyman book. The Hornady book seemed to be very conservative for the 75gr and looks like I should go higher since it only got to 2700 fps. Factory PPU loads were screaming with the 55gr going 3450 fps.

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For loads I tried some 69gr SMK's and 75gr Hornady's with Varget, Lapua cases and CCI primers.

Here's the groups. All shot at 100yrds, 5 shots. I had fired about 30 rounds of factory stuff before the reloads to dirty the barrel none of which shot good at all.

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It seems that it likes the 69gr better but maybe the 75gr will work better going another 200 fps. I still have another 5 rounds of each of these reloads and was thinking of trying them at 200yrds as well. Any suggestions this is all new to me.
 
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Least vertical in the 25.4 and 23.3 load. Very good ES on the 23.3..very good numbers there. That 23.3 load looks really good to me. Take it out to 300m and test 0.1 each side of this load. Out at distance you will see vertical distribution evolve. Great start on the load testing.

Yes, a higher node may exist for the 75s. Of course, the best load/velocity mix is what you are after to buck the wind better. I would opt for accuracy over velocity at fixed range. A wise ol' f-classer once mentioned to me "Where you can place all your shots into a ragged hole (even at 100m) ...you are off and running when you consider conditions, mirrage, etc at distance. It will provide you the mental feedback to know your bullets will go where you want.
 
If you're still in bullet selection mode, and with that barrel, you might try something heavier. Lots of great choices in the 75 - 80 gr range. I'm having really good results with the 77 matchking. With 1:8 the 75 or 80 gr VLD's or the 77 or 80 gr Matchkings would be my choices. At 600 yards you'll really appreciate the heavier bullets.
 
I have a shilen select match in 8 twist chamered in .223. I switched from varget to IMR XBR 8208 for the 69 and 80 grain SMKs. My 69 SMKs run around the same speeds you were getting with 25.4 load, upper 2900's.
The 80 grains run around 2750.

Guys are getting better speeds with Varget but I found the accuracy node was spread over a wider charge range with XBR. The varget guys still shoot better than me but I shoot better personally with XBR. :D.

FWIW, I think the spreads in your velocity show your doing a nice job of reloading.
 
Here's what I've been getting out of my Tikka action with a 26" Shillen 1/8 twist barrel. Using Winchester brass, once fired, cases trimmed to uniform length (1.55" I think), CCI BR4s, 24.4 gr of Varget, Berger 80 gr VLDs, seated to 4 thousands of jump.

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Disregard the target score for the first group ... I hadn't zero myself yet.

Here are the results at 200 meters.

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The middle group and top right are 23.8, top left is 24.0, the two groups at the bottom are with 24.4 gr all with Varget. The one on the bottom right was made ugly by me and my bipod.

Here are the results at 300 meters. The group on the left is with the 24.4 gr, the one on the right is with 23.8 gr of Varget.

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I think I'm going to keep the load at 24.4 for now and see how things go. I haven't shot too much with it yet, maybe 60-70 rounds, 50 of which were at an electronic target so I didn't get to see my groups too well.
 
Tikka223, that load of 24.4Varget/B80VLD looks very good (half to two-thirds of a minute, and sub-10fps standard deviations).

@tacticall, you might find improved results with your Hdy75BTHPs by trying a hotter load. If you are safely getting ~3025fps with your Sierra 69s, comparable pressures should give you ~2900fps with 75s (so you probably have some room to work up).
 
Thanks guys, I've ordered up some 80gr VLD's to try out. I'm going to try and make it out the range tomorrow and shoot the other half of the loads at 200yrds. I might load up some hotter 75gr to see what they do. Also since I loaded these I've picked up some of the BR primers to try out.

Is the vertical dispersion more important?
 
tacticalII said:
Is the vertical dispersion more important?
Click to expand...

"sometimes; sorta; but not necessarily..."

If you are shooting in windy conditions, the wind tends to have much more of an effect left-to-right than it does up-and-down. So the height of a group can be a good proxy for the group size, when fired under windy conditions.

At long range (1000 yards), a group's height is usually a very good indication of how uniform (or not!) your bullet speed is.

Barrel whip, and some sorts of bedding problem, can manifest themselves as vertical in your groups - so sometimes when "tuning" a load", you might look to tune-out the vertical (this is not always a productive pursuit...)
 
200 yard update

I got a chance to try out the other half of the loads at 200 yards.

These are the 69gr SMKs
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These are the 75gr Hornady
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The velocities. The 75gr is on the bottom. I'm still getting EO errors on my C2 even though it was sunny.
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The best group was just under 1 1/2 inches, I'm a little disappointed and would like to see under an inch.

Should I play with setting depth? Should I have re sized the Lapua brass first?
 
I would suggest managing 1 variable at a time.

Ensure you have match prepared all brass. Jerry has a good write up on his site at Mysticprecision.

Have you measured runout on each round? Your looking for 2 thou max as a goal.

I recently did some volume sorting of fire formed 22-250 brass by weighing a full case volume charge of pistol powder. Wow was my reaction. I ended up sorting +/-0.5 grain in volume and had two batches from 100 pieces.

That 25 - 25.2 gr load with 69smks looks very promising indeed. Have fun.
 
TacticalII are you using a bingo marker to make your targets?? If so its a very clever idea! Ive been looking all over hoping to find a roll of 1" dots or squares in sticker form.
 
Tikka223 said:
TacticalII are you using a bingo marker to make your targets?? If so its a very clever idea! Ive been looking all over hoping to find a roll of 1" dots or squares in sticker form.
Click to expand...

haha i was thinking the same thing, iv been printing some targets off the computer but printer ink is so dam expensive

bingo dabbers are a great idea
 
The bingo dabbers work great, stole the idea off here. My wife bought me a 6 pack and I keep scrap paper from work in the car and I have targets for life.

I've been looking through Jerry's site. I haven't measured for run out but I am using a RCBS comp seating die that has the bushing that holds the bullet. I just used the Lapua brass right out of the box figuring it should be good to go. I have the first 100 rounds in the cleaner right now and I was going to full length re size them or look into just doing the neck and see if it improves things.
 
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