How to gain more consistency from reloads, big e/s

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m-14custom

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Hey guys I'm fairly new to reloading. Had some more experienced family come help me out with initial setup of my reloading station. I know I picked an expensive round to start reloading with ( 338 Lapua) but its so fun to shoot.

So I developed a load that's well under 1moa at 100 yard. But when I stretched the legs on this round at longer distances out to 800 yards I was only able to hit my 12" gong 4 out of 9 rounds. I'm no world class shooter but I figured I should have been able to hit it a lil more than that. So I went to the range and ran that load through the chrono, found I have an extreme spread of damn near 400 fps. Slowest of ten rounds being 2323fps and fastest of 2725. The average of the ten was 2429fps.

I use good quality reloading gear. All brand new. Rcbs chucker press, Rcbs compitition dies, Lyman digital powder measure, digital calipers. That's the basic setup I got a bunch of lil stuff I use too. Anything wrong with this gear?

My load is using all quality reloading Components. Sierra matchkings 300gr, Lapua brass (weight sorted) h1000 powder, and federal match primers.

Every round is measured for oal once it comes out of the press to +-.003

Please help me this is getting expensive lol. What else can I do to make my e/s a lot smaller? I don't care how fast the round is but I would like more long range consistency
 
Get a powder trickler and weigh the powder from every round.

m-14custom said:
Hey guys I'm fairly new to reloading. Had some more experienced family come help me out with initial setup of my reloading station. I know I picked an expensive round to start reloading with ( 338 Lapua) but its so fun to shoot.

So I developed a load that's well under 1moa at 100 yard. But when I stretched the legs on this round at longer distances out to 800 yards I was only able to hit my 12" gong 4 out of 9 rounds. I'm no world class shooter but I figured I should have been able to hit it a lil more than that. So I went to the range and ran that load through the chrono, found I have an extreme spread of damn near 400 fps. Slowest of ten rounds being 2323fps and fastest of 2725. The average of the ten was 2429fps.

I use good quality reloading gear. All brand new. Rcbs chucker press, Rcbs compitition dies, Lyman digital powder measure, digital calipers. That's the basic setup I got a bunch of lil stuff I use too. Anything wrong with this gear?

My load is using all quality reloading Components. Sierra matchkings 300gr, Lapua brass (weight sorted) h1000 powder, and federal match primers.

Every round is measured for oal once it comes out of the press to +-.003

Please help me this is getting expensive lol. What else can I do to make my e/s a lot smaller? I don't care how fast the round is but I would like more long range consistency
Click to expand...
 
How is your brass prepped?
Is it new, or once fired?

Finally my lyman was inconsistent, you need to check every charge to ensure the wt is consistent.

With that ES you have either significant differences in neck tension, or you are looking at significant differences in charge wts
 
IMHO for powder as slow as H1000, you need MAGNUM Primers to get consistent ignition.

With a case capacity as large as the 338 Lapua and that size bore diameter powder charges of + or - 1/10 grain won't even be noticeable over a chrony.

Now, you may have one of two problems.

One, inconsistent ignition. Several causes, from light firing pin strikes to low flame primers. You should notice a definite difference in recoil from a let off that generates 400fps differences in velocity. This is very indicative of an ignition problem. My first change would be to either a faster powder or a hotter primer.

Just so you know, I use magnum primers for all my loads, including Hunter Bench Rest in 308Win. Since I first switched to magnum only primers in all of my centerfire cartridges, inconsistent ignition has become a thing of the past, as far as component oriented problems go.

Sometimes very slow powders in mid range bores, just need a little extra at the start to burn efficiently.

Another thing that will give you inconsistent velocity readings from a standard Chrony, will be cloud cover. If some of your shots are in bright light conditions and some in overcast light conditions you will get some severe velocity differences.

When I'm developing a load for extreme accuracy, I cover the top of the Chrony with a box.

Right over each of the filters, I put a 12 volt bulb. I run a couple of small wires from a motorcycle battery to them for consistent light conditions. Takes out the variables.

You don't mention how much experience you have with long distance shooting.

Once you're shooting past 200 yards, there are all sorts of different things that can change POI, that have nothing to do with your rifle or components.

Wind, bright sunshine causing heat to reflect off the ground, rain, mirage, shadow etc.

Learning to dope all of those elements at the same time as concentrating on centering the reticle and squeezing the trigger can be challenging, to say the least.

I assume you already know how to and appreciate range conditions, so that leaves ignition.

The 338 Lapua is very forgiving, assuming your components are compatible.

It likes 250gr and larger bullets but will shoot the lighter bullets well. It is fussy about powder/primer combinations. I've had similar problems with the 338 Win Mag as well.
 
There is no way in Hell that you are getting 400 fps ES and still hitting your gong half of the time at 800 yards. Do you have some cases comeing out black? Do you have bullets hitting hundreds of yards short? The difference in drop alone would be about 7.5 MOA. What are you useing for come-ups at 800? How does it print on paper at that range? Your 1 MOA groups at 100 could be 8 inches at 800 if you're lucky. 1/2 MOA of windage error is enough for a edge hit at that range if you had zero for a group size.

Chronographs spit out bad numbers, and are especially prone to do that when they get slammed with 100 grains worth of gas.
 
Chronographs spit out bad numbers, and are especially prone to do that when they get slammed with 100 grains worth of gas.
Click to expand...

That would be my first thought. Either you have the chronograph set up too close to the muzzle,the battery is weak, or the lighting conditions are causing false readings.
 
I had good results with fed primers GM215M and CCI 250

fed 215 is no good for this case(tried it with few powders and never had accurate loads)

what is your barrel lenght and twist?

how far is your chrony from the muzzle?
 
If this was my result, I would:

try a hotter primer.

Try more powder.

Increase neck tension by taking expander button off the the decapper.

i would check the chrony with a 22 to make sure it works.

About 20 feet from muzzle.

I would not do any testing at 100. 300 is minimum. 500 is more useful.
 
Dogleg said:
There is no way in Hell that you are getting 400 fps ES and still hitting your gong half of the time at 800 yards. Do you have some cases comeing out black? Do you have bullets hitting hundreds of yards short? The difference in drop alone would be about 7.5 MOA. What are you useing for come-ups at 800? How does it print on paper at that range? Your 1 MOA groups at 100 could be 8 inches at 800 if you're lucky. 1/2 MOA of windage error is enough for a edge hit at that range if you had zero for a group size.

Chronographs spit out bad numbers, and are especially prone to do that when they get slammed with 100 grains worth of gas.
Click to expand...

I would also have to say check the chronograph first for the 400 fps problem. I just had a quick look in one of my reloading manuals and for a 400 fps difference with a 338 Lapua and H1000 powder you need a difference of 10 grains of powder.
As for hitting the gong at 800 yards half the time, doesn’t sound like much of a problem. You say your new at reloading and I would imagine your new a shooting these distances. I think you’re doing pretty well, a lot of things come into play from 100 yards to 800 yards.
Does anyone in your area offer any course to shoot long range or do you know someone who is proficient? Maybe the problem is you are just new to shoot long range. Does your family member who has a lot of experience in reloading shoot those distances? Maybe try a different caliber that is cheaper to shoot to gain experience with.
 
Wow thanks for the help guys :)

Ok I guess I left a some details out.
Rifle is a savage 110fcp hs barrel is 26" 1-9 twist.
I'm using the federal gm215m primers, on a side note I have had a few of these primers fail to fire and with a good firing pin strike.

One of you were asking if my brass comes out black, yes it does but just around the neck and shoulder.

As for my shooting experience, I have taken down elk several times out to 500 yards with the swag method and Kentucky wind age lol. This is my first true long range rifle, how ever I shoot a ton of rounds on my days off around the 500 round count on any given outing. Usually on calibers ranging between .223 to 300wm. My flinch is almost not existent. I do understand what it takes to get out past the 500 yard line, obviously a lot more than I'm putting in haha.

I use a program called isnipe, this has helped any reviews on this program?

They day I was hitting the gong was prior to the chrono. Those rounds were with new brass. Range conditions were near perfect. I dialed in to 400 yards and worked my way out to 800 in 100 yards increments. I had a 100 rounds with me, I didn't shoot all of them cause I had to turn a few buddies onto the long range thing. I probably fired 65 rounds that day myself.

The dope on the scope for the weather conditions was 22MOA elevation and .5 MOA wind, wind was full value left to right. Rounds fired between breezes, range flags used at target and 400yard line.

The rounds I chronoed were with once fired brass, tumbled and neck sized using the rcbs Compitition dies. Tumbled due to the black soot on the case that was mention earlier.

I have the rcbs beam scale that came in the chucker kit, is that accurate enough to verify my Lyman electronic powder trickler and scale? The Lyman is a trickler and scale built in, no idea what I should call it haha.

If I forgot anyone's questions let me know, again thanks for all the response
 
A black sooty case is usually a sign of very low pressure, which leads to poor consistency. What is your charge weight of H1000? 22 MOA come-ups is 4 more than I use at 800 with 300 SMKs. Back calculateing puts the velocity at about 2570, IF the scope is tracking correctly.

The mis-fires are a concern. Since it is a Salv...... er savage your can adjust fireing pin protrusion. You should also make sure there is a bit of free-play at the other end. Throwing the heaviest striker spring you can get into it won't cost more than a few bucks. Brownells sells a 34 or six if I remember right.
 
Dogleg said:
A black sooty case is usually a sign of very low pressure, which leads to poor consistency. What is your charge weight of H1000? 22 MOA come-ups is 4 more than I use at 800 with 300 SMKs. Back calculateing puts the velocity at about 2570, IF the scope is tracking correctly.

The mis-fires are a concern. Since it is a Salv...... er savage your can adjust fireing pin protrusion. You should also make sure there is a bit of free-play at the other end. Throwing the heaviest striker spring you can get into it won't cost more than a few bucks. Brownells sells a 34 or six if I remember right.
Click to expand...

89gr of h1000, i started to see a smiley face on the base of the case at 89.5 so I backed off to 89. I did a tracking test with my 6-24 vortex pst at 300 and it seemed to track fine, it also return so zero perfectly. My firing pin is leaving a very good dent in my primer. And does so consistently
 
Maybe some new load development with some ladder tests , that'll show you if you have actually inconsistencies over what the chronograph shows,especially your 400ft/sec variation if it is true.
 
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