Range day + New load = Your advice please

[AShorvath]

so I was at the range and tried to work up a load for my 300wsm with 150gr TTSX and H43450 powder. Bullet is seated as long as my finnlight magazine will allow.

Results of the ladder... this was at 200 yrds unfortunately. I could not make it too my long range area due to high snow level still.

#1 63.5gr no reading
#2 64gr 2915 fps
#3 64.5gr 2907 fps
#4 65gr 2992 fps
#5 65.5gr 2994 fps
#6 66gr 3077 fps
#7 66.5gr 3083 fps
#8 67gr 3141 fps
#9 67.5gr 3148 fps
#10 68gr 3220 fps
#11 68.5gr 3382 fps

I was totally confused with the ladder because it looked to me at if 2, 3, 4, and 5 were good spreads as well as 9,10, 11.

Not wanting to waste the day I sent off three rounds of each at 200 YRDS until I ran out of light. Here are the results with the averaged velocity.

200yrd results:

What would you guys get from these results? I was very hesitant to start the group shots with the 63.5gr and 64gr loads as they gave me 30.06 velocity and well, I am shooting a 300wsm not a 30.06...

What Next?

 

[yodave]

how long between shots? what power scope? what kind of rest? are you looking for accuracy or velocity? and what is your primary use?


I load for two 270WSM's and if I get the barrel warm groups open right up at 100.......shooting 5 shot groups isn't even easy with the rifle due to the barrel temperatures........

 

[AShorvath]

4.5x14 Zeiss
rest was a lead-sled equivalent, pretty stable.
2 minutes or so between shots on the ladder and 2 minutes for each bullet for the groups too.

I was hoping for a longer range rifle so I want to maintain velocity as well as have nice tight groups.

 

[yodave]

I would start looking for some match bullets then.........and go to hogdons website for data, they list a powder that will get you another 200fps with 6k less pressure.....then I would start over.

178 match kings or the like is what you should be shooting, if you don't want to go that heavy then try a 155.5 palma or a 168 match

 

[AShorvath]

Another question:

Why is my tightest 200yrd group have three different powder changes??????????

shots# 9-10-11 are 1.25" at 200yrds

 

[rnbra-shooter]

I am presuming that this a factory (Sako) hunting rifle?

My interpretation of your results:

1 - you, your rifle, your scope and your ammo are all shooting very well.
2 - What you have at this point is are MOA to sub-MOA groups at 200y.
3 - including an 11-shot group made using powder charges that varied over a 5-grain interval.

The purpose of ladder testing is to find if there are any significant POI shifts as a function of speed, and if so, to find the best "region" for your load (i.e. a region where a modest change in powder charge makes little to no difference in POI).

What you have found, is that your rifle's POI is very insensitive to powder charge weight and bullet speed, over a very wide interval. THIS IS GOOD, in fact it's great.

Any of those charges you used would probably be a very good load (presuming that there are no pressure signs, etc).

In interpreting your data, don't 'over-interpret' the little blips and variations. For example, if I shoot a three shot group with ammo X, and the shoot another three shot group with the exact same ammo X, it will almost certainly be the case that I'll have two groups of two fairly different sizes. This is due simply to the random fluctuations in group size from one sample to the next, EVEN WHEN THE AMMO IS IDENTICAL. Be sure to keep this in mind when you are trying to figure out if X grains of powder is shooting better/worse for you than "X+0.5 grains" of powder.

 

[horseman2]

2, 3, 4, and 5 are in a horizonal string.
6, 7, & 8 start showing a group.
9, 10, and 11 are a better group and if they are without pressure signs, load three of each. Shoot each load as separate groups to see if they continue to group.

#11 looks like it. That is better than a minute of angle.

You must have been beat.
After a good cleaning, tomorrow is another day.