when to stop looking for a better load..

fish_e_o

CGN Regular
Rating - 100%
29   0   0
i got my new x bolt down to 0.598" @ 100 measured from the outsides and subtracting the bullet diameter. should i keep trying?

its a 300wsm i have only tried one bullet in it, the hornady interbonds and only one powder, varget (i had it laying around).

i did go out and buy 760 and magnum primers... should i expect more out of the gun or not?

i hate to say it but my weatherby in .223 shoots a smaller group
 
The only way to find out is try some other loads and see. Sounds pretty good to me though. Back up to 200 yards if you can and see what happens there. By the way an easy way to measure groups instead of doing the math is the outside of one hole to the inside of the other and you now have center to center. How many shots in that group? To get a better idea minimum of 5.
 
If you're looking for the absolute tightest groups then your quest will never end...

What I normally do is set a goal right away for my loads, both in terms of velocity and accuracy, and when I reach my goal I stop. While I enjoy shooting, spending lots of time and money on load development seems like a waste to me; I'd rather get in more practice with one proven load.
 
Bench it, or bipod it. Shoot 10 rnds. If that is "better enough" then how you shoot from your best relaxed practical position, then make a couple hundred, and go shoot. If not, bench it, and try something else.

Or, if you want to spend your shooting time on the bench in pursuit of best, go and buy 1lb of every powder out there, and every 30 cal tip. Also 100 of as many types of primers as you can find, and many different types of brass. Also, don't forget various sizers, seaters, neck turners, pocket uniformers, flash hole deburrers, extractor grove regrovers, etc.

Then, call up Rick at ATR, and ask for a subscription service for re-barrels, and shoot databook after databook of loads, and take pics of the new "best" load each time. Rebarrel as you burn the tubes. They'll fail way before you run out of 30 cal variations in pursuit of best.

Does a good baker ever come up with the best chocolate chip cookie receipe? I have no idea, but I sure want to eat the cookies.
 
What is the intended use of the load?

If for fclass, you may want to try to work it down a little more.

If for perfection, every bullet through the same hole, you have more work still.

If it is for precision shooting, you're happy.

If for hunting, anything except flies, very happy.

Make the load fit the goal.
 
I have my "go to " loads for all my rifles but I love to tinker so I keep messing around whenever I can up with a reason for a specialized load ( like for a 130 to 135 lb deer load) :). The more shooting and reloading you do the better you'll get at both.
 
i got my new x bolt down to 0.598" @ 100 measured from the outsides and subtracting the bullet diameter. should i keep trying?

I don't judge a load by a group or two,if you shoot ten groups and average them,what would the result be?If it's under 3/4" or so,it's better than what the vast majority of hunters use.
 
i got my new x bolt down to 0.598" @ 100 measured from the outsides and subtracting the bullet diameter. should i keep trying?

its a 300wsm i have only tried one bullet in it, the hornady interbonds and only one powder, varget (i had it laying around).

i did go out and buy 760 and magnum primers... should i expect more out of the gun or not?

i hate to say it but my weatherby in .223 shoots a smaller group

fish

If you can try you load at 200 yards and see how well it groups. FS
 
You never stop until you have tried every bullet, every powder, every primer, every case, every OAL in every possible combination. You should be finished in 40 years or so.
Then you can switch calibers and do it all again.
 
What is the purpose of the rifle? If it's to shoot at bottle caps at 100 then you're already there. If it's to shoot at 500 or 1000 you better go to 500 or 1000 and try it. You may be happy, or you may get a rude awakening.
 
perfect. i just started reloading so i thought 100 yards and 3 shots was it...

i'm going to drag the target out to 200 and see what it does.. what sort of groups should i be looking for at 200?
 
i haven't tried the 300wsm at 200 but i noticed that my .223 was shooting a 3" group at 200yards and about a .5" group at 100yards

does that mean i should switch powders or should i put more powder in? (it's stringing vertically btw while maintaining approx .5" horizontally)
 
You'd ordinarily expect groups at 200 to be approximately double the size of groups at 100, perhaps *slightly* bigger.

If your load is mild (according to, in order of preference, chrongraph, pressure signs, load manual data), you might find it worthwhile to work up to hotter loads, up to and including max. It's quite common that hot loads are uniform and accurate.
 
You'd ordinarily expect groups at 200 to be approximately double the size of groups at 100, perhaps *slightly* bigger.

If your load is mild (according to, in order of preference, chrongraph, pressure signs, load manual data), you might find it worthwhile to work up to hotter loads, up to and including max. It's quite common that hot loads are uniform and accurate.

now in the case of the 300 i found that the most accurate load at 100 was not my highest charge. if it does the same thing should i sacrifice accuracy at 100 for accuracy at 200?? or look at changing something?
 
now in the case of the 300 i found that the most accurate load at 100 was not my highest charge. if it does the same thing should i sacrifice accuracy at 100 for accuracy at 200?? or look at changing something?

What is the difference between 100 and 200 with the 200 accurate load? Ordinarily, accuracy does not improve with distance unless you are having parallax problems with your scope.

Mark
 
Mark excellent point about parallax being a possible cause of larger-than-they-ought-to-be 100 yard groups. (most scopes that don't have a parallax adjustment, that are intended for centrefire rifles, are set up to be parallax-free at about 200 yards).

fish_e_o how do you know which load is more accurate? (how many groups of a particular load did you fire, how many shots in each group, etc). It is in the nature of groups that their size fluctuates from one to the next, even with absolutely identical loads, shooting conditions, shooter skill etc. It can be easy to get a "false positive" when interpreting your groups - it might seem that load A is better than load B, but it could be the case that group A was smaller than group B not because it was better but because that's how the dice happened to land for those two particular groups.
 
Mark excellent point about parallax being a possible cause of larger-than-they-ought-to-be 100 yard groups. (most scopes that don't have a parallax adjustment, that are intended for centrefire rifles, are set up to be parallax-free at about 200 yards).

I have a ziess conquest and it has no parallax adjustment... can you explain why this is?

fish_e_o how do you know which load is more accurate? (how many groups of a particular load did you fire, how many shots in each group, etc). It is in the nature of groups that their size fluctuates from one to the next, even with absolutely identical loads, shooting conditions, shooter skill etc. It can be easy to get a "false positive" when interpreting your groups - it might seem that load A is better than load B, but it could be the case that group A was smaller than group B not because it was better but because that's how the dice happened to land for those two particular groups.

i shot 2, 3 shot groups of each weight at 100 yards. my shooting rest isn't very good i have one of those red plastic ones so results aren't always perfect...
 
I have a ziess conquest and it has no parallax adjustment... can you explain why this is?

It's near-universal practice among scope makers to not include a parallax adjustment in hunting scopes. I've never seen it on a 9X or less scope, and I was also surprised to see it missing from a 4.5-14X Leupold varmint scope.

Without an adjustment for parallax, the scope maker gets to choose on distance at which the scope's parallax is zero; at any other distance there will be (positive or negative) parallax. Typically 200 yards is chosen to be parallax-free for scopes intended for centrefire rifles, 75 yards for scopes intended for shotguns (slugs), and 25 or something like that for rimfire scopes. These are chosen because they seem to be the "best compromise".

If you want to do precision shooting with a non-parallax-adjustable scope, there is a shooting technique that allows you keep the parallax exactly constant from shot to shot:

- change your scope or eye position so that the image you see in the eyepiece is smaller than the eyepiece. You can do this by either being "too close" to the eyepiece or "too far" from the eyepiece. Choosing "too far" is usually the best choice.

- hold your eye position such that the partial image you see in the eyepiece while you aim and shoot, is centred in the eyepiece (this ensures that your eye is always in the same position for each shot that you fire).


i shot 2, 3 shot groups of each weight at 100 yards. my shooting rest isn't very good i have one of those red plastic ones so results aren't always perfect...

OK. Take what you have shot so far being the best information you have so far. But as you shoot more groups with your rifle, that will help you refine your estimate of what size groups you are shooting at each distance or with each load.

You generally want to know what size of group you can typically expect, i.e. the size of an average group. Knowing the size of the smallest group you ever shot, while kinda fulfilling, isn't actually particularly useful information.
 
Back
Top Bottom