How do you OCD reloaders get your ES and SD down

There are a ton of factors inherent in accuracy. Velocity and velocity variation are only one of those factors. You have picked a number out of the air and obssessing about it. The only thing you should be worried about is the end result ... the accuracy of the load. If the load is accurate enough for your purposes then NOTHING else matters. Unless you are shooting very long distances, velocity spread is meaningless. When you are shooting very long distances, velocity spread is a minor player in a large set of major variables at work.
 
I also get SD in the mid teens using similar methods.
I full length re-size as I did not not get good results with neck sizing the 308.
I have been told that if I want to bring my SD down, I need to look into neck turning.
The quote being "neck tension is everything".
I am not there yet.
From what I have read, to be really competitive at long range, you want to be in the single digit SD's.
Myself, I would like to see a picture of the read out on the chronograph proving this feet and what their load was.
Good reading on the accurate shooter web site and the rifleman's journal.
FYI, I am using
Fed. match primers
Lapua brass
Varget & BLC2
155 & 168 grain bullets
Good luck
SRSA311
 
mooger31 said:
That's why I'm worried about it. We do get to shoot out 950 yards and that is why I am worrying about it.
Click to expand...

Have you even shot this ammo at long range? Is it a problem? If not then all this means nothing. If so then look at solutions.

A bunch of years ago someone lent me one of those bullet runout gauges. I measured a whack of rounds and sorted them into groups before firing them. At the end I had a pile of ammo with the most runout that I had culled as unacceptable. Not wanting to pull these rounds I shot them at the targets ..... and discovered to my dismay that it was this pile of the worst ammo that shot the best. Since then I have never bothered to measure or sort for bullet runout.

I had the same experience with rimfire ammo. I bought a case of ammo and spent a month sorting thousands of rounds by rim thickness and weight. In the end I had all kinds of different piles of ammo. On paper they shot great but in the field the gopher didn't care if the bullet struck center of chest or centre of head or a half inch to the right. In the field I couldn't tell the difference between any of those piles of ammo I had so laboriously slaved over for so long. So I don't do that kind of sorting anymore either.

My point being that as long as the ammo gives you the results you want when it hits the target, obsessing over some number or another is pointless. Just cause someone on the interwebs says this number or that number is important doesn't make it so. Shoot your rifle at the range you intend to use it, then look at the results and decide if that is good enough or if you need more from the rifle.
 
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I got home from Calgary last night at 7. Took a quick look at this thread and thought the same as Dave and Bruce, but, being wiped out from the week of travel and visiting, thought I would reply later. More snow and lots of family home stuff kept me plenty busy.

I wanted to post that many of my most accurate charges are at the max or slightly over published max. I usually hit 3 "nodes" in my work ups that would be "reasonable" for my purposes, but, as Dave stated, the heavier charges have the least ES and SD and tighter grouping down-range and since I like to make 200yd head shots, or 200yd shots on ground squirrels with the same hunting rifles, I want them as tight as I can get them.

Fill the cases up, watch for pressure signs, and your groups will tighten up, ES and SD will drop.

Enjoy,

Ted
 
Thanks for all the information guys. I will go back and see if I can find another node with a little more powder. This load is not showing any pressure signs at all. At the time I did not go over 45.0 grains of rl-15. Don't worry I will be careful and go up in small increments. Thanks again.
 
I just read this thread as well and have experienced the same as dogleg, Dave and Bruce............however low ES and SD do not an accurate load make....I had a Rem 700 HB 22-250 that I shot 3 consecutive 3/8" groups with a 52 gn load, the load chrono'd with 138 fps ES. I have also chronographed a load last summer that had an ES of 5, 7 and 8 for 3 loads of 4 rounds each, but wouldn't shoot into 2" at 100 mtrs. ES nearly always comes down as pressure goes up, I think we all agree on that. ES also seems to go down as case fill comes up, I almost always try to use a powder which produces a compressed charge. Finally as dogleg said neck tension consistency will affect your ES as well. Until you get your ES down into the 20-30 fps with pressure, fill and neck tensions, you can forget about BR primers and weighing cases and all the other bench prep advice that has been given. Deburring flash holes and uniforming primer pockets, ain't gonna do squat for your ES, sorry.
In nearly all my rifles and calibers that I have loaded for and played with, it has been my experience that moderately heavy-for-caliber bullets with as slow a powder as one can use in that case to produce the highest velocities, when compressed lightly, will NEARLY always give the lowest ES/SD and be one of the most accurate loads for that cartridge/caliber. JMHE and YMMV
 
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