Help a fella out? Next step in precision.

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calvin5673

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Hey all,

Really starting to chase precision with my .223. Had a shilen match barrel installed and rifle worked over. Bought Lapua brass, some 69gr Sierras and some 75gr amax. Now im shooting about 2" groups at 300 yards. And I'm happy but I'd be happier bringing that down to 1.5" groups.

My process:
Fire form case
Lube
Neck size/ decap with rcbs necksizer
Trim to length as req'd, chamfer and deburr.
Brush inside of case, clean primer pocket. Flash hole deburred previously.
Prime with CCI 400, using Lee ergo prime
Charge by throwing varget then trickling to proper weight. Hornady bench scale and Lee balance beam and Frankford scale as checks.
Seat bullet with rcbs seating die. Check ogive to nearest .001".
Edit to add: Lee challenger press. The one from the starter kit

What's my next best step to bring down the group?

Many thanks!
 
Last edited:
Not an expert but everything above looks okay. Some are going to say to go with a seating die like Forster Benchrest Seater or Redding. That extra 1/2" may have more to do with your shooting ability than reloads - or the ability to read mirage and wind. At 300 yds and beyond charge weight becomes increasingly important so maybe a scale that will read to .02 grain like a Gempro 250.

Of the 5 rifles I own, some are more accurate regardless of how much tailoring I've done to tune the reloads. Good luck!
 
What have you done in working up a load for the rifle. examples being, different powders, primers, bullets seating depths ect.
 
I know my shooting technique needs work, but while I practise that, I would like to improve ammo accuracy.

I have played with a few different powders, but Varget has seemed to be the most consistent.
Seating depth I haven't varied much, but it does seem to like closer to the lands. However, I haven't done a serious test just varying that, so I'll work on getting that set up.
Primers, I have had luck with Rem 7.5's in the past, CCI 400's seem like the easiest for me to get hence why I'm using them.

Any other suggestions?
 
Try using Federal match primers or CCI BR4 primers. Other than that invest in a better seating die like the Forster bench rest or there micrometer seating die and a Redding bushing neck die and body die.
 
calvin5673 said:
Hey all,

Really starting to chase precision with my .223. Had a shilen match barrel installed and rifle worked over. Bought Lapua brass, some 69gr Sierras and some 75gr amax. Now im shooting about 2" groups at 300 yards. And I'm happy but I'd be happier bringing that down to 1.5" groups.

My process:
Fire form case
Lube
Neck size/ decap with rcbs necksizer
Trim to length as req'd, chamfer and deburr.
Brush inside of case, clean primer pocket. Flash hole deburred previously.
Prime with CCI 400, using Lee ergo prime
Charge by throwing varget then trickling to proper weight. Hornady bench scale and Lee balance beam and Frankford scale as checks.
Seat bullet with rcbs seating die. Check ogive to nearest .001".
Edit to add: Lee challenger press. The one from the starter kit

What's my next best step to bring down the group?

Many thanks!
Click to expand...


Check that the internal working volume of each case is identical or as close as you can get. Different lots can have a slight variation in internal volume or dimensions.
Try various case brands.
Uniformed crimping.
A good micrometer seating die.
 
What twist is your Shilen barrel? Mine is 1 in 7 and it seems to like 80 grain bullets much better than the lighter ones. Even 75 grain seems to be in the 0.5 to 0.7 MOA range while 80 grainers are running 0.3 to 0.5 MOA.
 
Consider...

Check clearance on fired brass ... odds are you will need to outside neck turn cases to 10 thou, max 11 thou

better neck sizing die and support dies - Lee collet neck die, Redding body die, Forster or Redding seater.

more accurate scales - the scales you have listed likely perform to a +/- 0.1 to 0.2gr variance. Ideal loading is under 0.1gr variance.

Final, would be to try a Berger.

Jerry
 
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