I went today to do a ladder test at 500 yards, and test a few random loads for my AI AX308 w/24" Bartlein.
First I'd like to say I couldn't have made it happen if Matt2143 hadn't met me at 9 last night to let me borrow his magneto speed chrono after mine crapped out. Huge thanks to Matt!
Also Magnetospeeds are fucking awesome the weather was nasty, raining all day and that read every round perfectly.
Now to the testing. Last night I loaded up a pressure/ladder test with Berger Juggernauts .15 off the lands with Lapua brass, WLR primers and Varget at 38.5-46. In addition to that I loaded up another 5 round of each at 44, 44.5, 45, and 45.5 just to get a base line. I set up my ladder target at 500 and with the rain you can imagine I wasn't running to the target to mark every round. Needless to say after the first three rounds I said fuck this and watch the chrono data. No pressure to 45.5 and 46 blew a little bit of shit by the primer, nothing major. Tw accuracy nodes where the the velocities were close.
Now time to move back to 100 and shoot some groups, this is where it got good. First was 5x 44gr, good accuracy, decent SE, spread was 20 something. 44.5 same thing. The barrel wasn't even warm but I let it cool a bit anyway and shot another rifle. I came back to it and ran 45gr... 2695, 2704, 2696, 2696, 2695... FUCKING BINGO, the SD was 1. It went into one little ragged hole to boot. I went to 45.5gr and after that excitement I don't know how I managed another little bughole group but I did, all the 45.5's went in one hole. My sand bag slipped after the 3rd round of it (8 total since cooling) and it tool me a few seconds to get back on the target since I had the scope cranked up so needless to say the round cooked a little bit and I'm going to say that's why round 4 went 25fps higher, 5th was back on and those 4 had a velocity spread of 15, all 5 an SD of 6.
I brought extra primed brass, bullets, powder, and dies with me because I knew there was a loading setup where I shot so I loaded 10 more of 45gr. I decided to try it first since 45.5 was only .5gr from pressure, and the 22FPS avg gain over 45 wasn't worth the possible barrel life reduction. I loaded them up and went to a plate at 500 yards and put 5 on it, they went around 2.5", very good. Came back, put it on the freahly painted 890yd plate and just guessed 7.8mils dope. First round smack, so I put the last 4 in it. I couldn't see my group at all because of the rain. When I rode up to check all 5 rounds were in a group 3 1/8" center to center according to the 25' Stanley, I can't remember ever shooting a group that tight at that distance, let alone during load development.
I had to share this. I've had load development that went easy numerous times but never this easy. One thing is for certain, if I miss a target it's no the gun or load.
First I'd like to say I couldn't have made it happen if Matt2143 hadn't met me at 9 last night to let me borrow his magneto speed chrono after mine crapped out. Huge thanks to Matt!
Also Magnetospeeds are fucking awesome the weather was nasty, raining all day and that read every round perfectly.
Now to the testing. Last night I loaded up a pressure/ladder test with Berger Juggernauts .15 off the lands with Lapua brass, WLR primers and Varget at 38.5-46. In addition to that I loaded up another 5 round of each at 44, 44.5, 45, and 45.5 just to get a base line. I set up my ladder target at 500 and with the rain you can imagine I wasn't running to the target to mark every round. Needless to say after the first three rounds I said fuck this and watch the chrono data. No pressure to 45.5 and 46 blew a little bit of shit by the primer, nothing major. Tw accuracy nodes where the the velocities were close.
Now time to move back to 100 and shoot some groups, this is where it got good. First was 5x 44gr, good accuracy, decent SE, spread was 20 something. 44.5 same thing. The barrel wasn't even warm but I let it cool a bit anyway and shot another rifle. I came back to it and ran 45gr... 2695, 2704, 2696, 2696, 2695... FUCKING BINGO, the SD was 1. It went into one little ragged hole to boot. I went to 45.5gr and after that excitement I don't know how I managed another little bughole group but I did, all the 45.5's went in one hole. My sand bag slipped after the 3rd round of it (8 total since cooling) and it tool me a few seconds to get back on the target since I had the scope cranked up so needless to say the round cooked a little bit and I'm going to say that's why round 4 went 25fps higher, 5th was back on and those 4 had a velocity spread of 15, all 5 an SD of 6.
I brought extra primed brass, bullets, powder, and dies with me because I knew there was a loading setup where I shot so I loaded 10 more of 45gr. I decided to try it first since 45.5 was only .5gr from pressure, and the 22FPS avg gain over 45 wasn't worth the possible barrel life reduction. I loaded them up and went to a plate at 500 yards and put 5 on it, they went around 2.5", very good. Came back, put it on the freahly painted 890yd plate and just guessed 7.8mils dope. First round smack, so I put the last 4 in it. I couldn't see my group at all because of the rain. When I rode up to check all 5 rounds were in a group 3 1/8" center to center according to the 25' Stanley, I can't remember ever shooting a group that tight at that distance, let alone during load development.
I had to share this. I've had load development that went easy numerous times but never this easy. One thing is for certain, if I miss a target it's no the gun or load.
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