Had a great day at the range with my M305 (Blackfeather, Op Rod Spring Guide, shimmed, 3-9x40 scope on CASM) and put more than 150 rounds down-range over about 4 hours. This was a lot of fun and more range time than I've managed to squeeze into my schedule over about a year 
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Have recently started to reload and have wanted to find a good recipe for 150 to 155 grain bullets since I've had good results with Hornady Commercial ammo in this weight. Thought I'd share my results and observations.
It was a hot day (30+ degrees) and the range was full with a dude shooting a Sharps Quigley 45-70 right next door to me. His shots were a little unnerving to say the least and a number of rounds were pulled when the timing of shots was unfortunate. Anyway, since I am trying to test for loads, COAL and powder type (I know..I know...you stats types will say too many tests, not enough samples) I took some time to record results and do some analysis. See a summary below, all data from 100 yards, 5 round groups:
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What wasn't a surprise is that the order-of-the-group after a target change was a huge factor. The barrel cooling-off period seems to result in over a 1" difference in group size for the group immediately following a target change. This might also be due to the shooter settling-in after a target change but I suspect the former. All-in, the gun (and me) was shooting 2.6" groups for the day, with these reloads. The big surprise is the best group of the day at 0.8 inches - the stars must have aligned for that one (pic at the end).
That said, 40-41 grains of either IMR 3031 or 4895 shows about 0.5" better performance than larger loads. A shorter COAL (1.75") and a longer COAL (2.81") seem to provide marginally smaller groups than anything in-between although I'm measuring base-to-tip rather than from base-to-ogive-reference-point). Interestingly rounds with IMR4895 that were thrown showed 0.3" smaller groups than those where the charges were weighed. There aren't enough rounds to make this significant but it is interesting - makes me wonder if my scale is sufficiently consistent/ accurate.
I played a little with the BF Op. Rod Guide tension and there is a huge POI change. Average group size seemed to change from an average of 2.9" before the change, to 2.1" after. This isn't as compelling as it might sound since there was a target change before the BF tension-change but not after. Also 6 groups before and only 2 groups after (for that batch/recipe of rounds).
Best group-of-the-day pic. IMR4895 - 40.8 gr, Hornady 150 gr SST, 2.75" COAL.
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.Have recently started to reload and have wanted to find a good recipe for 150 to 155 grain bullets since I've had good results with Hornady Commercial ammo in this weight. Thought I'd share my results and observations.
It was a hot day (30+ degrees) and the range was full with a dude shooting a Sharps Quigley 45-70 right next door to me. His shots were a little unnerving to say the least and a number of rounds were pulled when the timing of shots was unfortunate. Anyway, since I am trying to test for loads, COAL and powder type (I know..I know...you stats types will say too many tests, not enough samples) I took some time to record results and do some analysis. See a summary below, all data from 100 yards, 5 round groups:
What wasn't a surprise is that the order-of-the-group after a target change was a huge factor. The barrel cooling-off period seems to result in over a 1" difference in group size for the group immediately following a target change. This might also be due to the shooter settling-in after a target change but I suspect the former. All-in, the gun (and me) was shooting 2.6" groups for the day, with these reloads. The big surprise is the best group of the day at 0.8 inches - the stars must have aligned for that one (pic at the end).
That said, 40-41 grains of either IMR 3031 or 4895 shows about 0.5" better performance than larger loads. A shorter COAL (1.75") and a longer COAL (2.81") seem to provide marginally smaller groups than anything in-between although I'm measuring base-to-tip rather than from base-to-ogive-reference-point). Interestingly rounds with IMR4895 that were thrown showed 0.3" smaller groups than those where the charges were weighed. There aren't enough rounds to make this significant but it is interesting - makes me wonder if my scale is sufficiently consistent/ accurate.
I played a little with the BF Op. Rod Guide tension and there is a huge POI change. Average group size seemed to change from an average of 2.9" before the change, to 2.1" after. This isn't as compelling as it might sound since there was a target change before the BF tension-change but not after. Also 6 groups before and only 2 groups after (for that batch/recipe of rounds).
Best group-of-the-day pic
. IMR4895 - 40.8 gr, Hornady 150 gr SST, 2.75" COAL.
