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Best practices and consitent results

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Russell3812

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Full Member
Minuteman
Apr 4, 2011
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Maryland
As I get ready to purchase my first chronograph I thought to myself...self...it would be great if you had a list of best reloading practices so you can achieve consistent results with your reloads and not have wildly different readings with every shot.

If you have been down this road already and have advice on how best to achieve this please let me know. I'm thinking a
1-5 kind of thing or do A-B-C and BAM! Perfect ammo! Ok go.
grin.gif
 
Re: Best practices and consitent results

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Russell3812</div><div class="ubbcode-body"> As I get ready to purchase my first chronograph I thought to myself...self...it would be great if you had a list of best reloading practices so you can achieve consistent results with your reloads and not have wildly different readings with every shot.

If you have been down this road already and have advice on how best to achieve this please let me know. I'm thinking a
1-5 kind of thing or do A-B-C and BAM! Perfect ammo! Ok go.
grin.gif
</div></div>

Umm, check out the stickies at the top of this page. They helped me a lot...
 
Re: Best practices and consitent results

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Russell3812</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Wow... did I do something wrong here? No one? </div></div>
It's because you don't have a bolt knob listed, you have your gun listed, but no aftermarket bolt knob mentioned.
It doesn't matter if it's Savage, Remington, or custom, if you don't have a gigantic custom bolt knob, you're gun will never shoot, and you are not worthy of any advice.
laugh.gif
 
Re: Best practices and consitent results

man..... I'm gonna have to create another post asking about bolt knobs......
whistle.gif
 
Re: Best practices and consitent results

Russ,
Sorry about the smartass post.

If you do your brass prep, load a consistant charge, seat the bullets to the same depth, there is no reason to get erratic readings through a chrono.
Some people need a low SD, and low ES numbers, me not so.
I shoot groups at 200 yards, if i like it, I shoot them at 700 or 900 to see how they work, If they gruop at 900, I could care less about chrono numbers.
I take it you have reloading equipment?
 
Re: Best practices and consitent results

No problem I thought it was hilarious.

So, reloading equipment, yes. I am currently reloading 175g or 168g SMK with H4895, Lapua Brass and CCI large rifle primers.

Primarily interested in the chronograph to check "the reloading process." I would think consistent MV would be an indicator that I'm doing something right.

Also want to establish some good DOPE. I've found a range where I can shoot out to 1000 yards and I want to enter good info into my ballistics calculator. Right now it's all a guess......
 
Re: Best practices and consitent results

Russell3812,

One place to start is with a change of bullets; the 175 will get you to 1,000 in a 308. The 168 will not. You should be good on your components here, but then, it's almost harder to come up with a BAD load for the 308 than it is a good one. Can't go wrong with 4895 in a 308, ever. Other good choices out there are well, but 4895 is the old standby. I'f usually had better results with Federal 210Ms than the CCI, but it's always worth trying a variety. Your gun may have a preference, and that's what you want to feed it.

There's a lot of things that can impact SDs and ESs, and eliminating them is a trial and error. Neck tension, seating depths, primers and a host of others. Experimentation is the way you isolate, and correct these little buggers. Just remember, there will ALWAYS be some variation, and it may, or may not make a difference. Significant ESs can have a major impact on the verticals at long range, but even some horrendous spreads and SDs will often not be visible at all on targets at 200-300 yards. Simply isn't the issue at short ranges that a lot of folks think it is. Worth playing with, but you see what I'm getting at here.
 
Re: Best practices and consitent results

What would you say is an "acceptable" variation in speed for those longer ranges.

BTW... I'm guessing you recommend Lapua bullets
grin.gif
 
Re: Best practices and consitent results

Well, they DID increase my scores, and that was after shooting that green box stuff for the previous 20+ years
grin.gif
.

Believe it or not, the Army accepts something like an SD of 28 fps in their M118LR ammo, and that stuff is all tested for acceptance at 1,000 yards. That's what I had to hold it to during our 300 meter testing and certification, but as I said, you really don't see much (if any) difference at the shorter distances like this. Personally, I try to get the SDs down to 10-12 fps for Long Range ammo. The testing is really where it's at, but unfortunately, not many of us can always test out ammo at a full distance. Here in mid-MO, I'm pretty well limited to 600 yards at any of the various ranges I shoot at regularly.
 
Re: Best practices and consitent results

Best practices for hand loading are available on many many sites, and many many books. How about you read up, then ask specific questions? After all, if you don't know -why- things are done, knowing what is "best" is pretty meaningless.

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Russell3812</div><div class="ubbcode-body"> As I get ready to purchase my first chronograph I thought to myself...self...it would be great if you had a list of best reloading practices so you can achieve consistent results with your reloads and not have wildly different readings with every shot.

</div></div>
 
Re: Best practices and consitent results

Thanks everyone. I have been "reading up" for about a year now. Posts on this website along with several books. I just finished Precision Shooting Reloading by Dave Brennan. I have full length sized and neck sized, deburred and chamfered, neck turned and annealed, uniformed the primer pocket and deburred the flash hole. I am not not bragging in the least here I'm still a complete new comer to all of this and know very little in comparision to many of the folks here.
Reading has taught me how to perform those operations mentioned above but everyone seems to have a different opinion as to whether one reloading practice actually makes the results worth the effort. For example I drove myself nuts reading about annealing and just gave up entirely on it as it seemed that 1) It was a 50/50 split between those who thought they were actually achieving anything 2) Everyone had their own unique method of annealing from candles and blow torches to reading the reddish glow in the dark to Tempelac color changes.
Neck turning is similar in that one article will argue its greatest benefit is consistent neck tension while another argues it's achieving optimal concentricity from the brass.
I just finished reading through a post aruing whether making sure your rounds are "concentric" is actually worth doing as the bolt closing on a completed round will true it up when contacting the rifling! Point being I've sought out the "why" and have some "best" practices of my own. I'm just fishing for your best practices to improve upon what I already know. And now I may go out and buy some Lapua rounds and see if I want to give up my green boxes......
smirk.gif
 
Re: Best practices and consitent results

Good luck Russ.
Advice, buy a chrono you can afford to replace, I've yet to see one that hasn't taken a bullet. It might be you, a buddy, no matter, sooner or later, it's going to get blasted!

I sure hope you didn't derive anything from that "concentic round thread", that one should go down in history as the most retarded cluster fuck ever.
 
Re: Best practices and consitent results

Milo-2,

I'll second that. I haven't bothered posting anything there, simply because I'm still completely flumoxed as to why anyone would start such a thread. Started to read it, and all I could think was . . . Wow!
 
Re: Best practices and consitent results

Please Kevin,
Don't be so PC, really , it's ok to call some people fuckin idiots!
 
Re: Best practices and consitent results

For years I tried to get he most accurate ammo possible. Accurate powder weight, matched cases, Competition Dies, etc.

The largest single improvement in my results was uniform NECK TENSION.

All of my cases are annealed at regular intervals and sizing operations are finished with a mandrel expander die. I also pay close attention to seating pressure with any cartridge requiring noticably more seating pressure than the others being separated for use as sighter/fouler.

Second most beneficial step was findng a bullet that shot well at magazine length. It's nice to just single load a nice long VLD bullet but I prefer to be able to shoot rounds I can load from a standard magazine. For me that means tangent ogive bullets or hybrid's due to the long freebore in my 5R Milspec.

Picking ONE that improved my group sizes the most, it was paying close attention to neck tension, not just measurements but "feel".
 
Re: Best practices and consitent results

What Deadshot2 said re neck tension. Years ago a friend had a sweet shooting rifle refuse to group and he felt that perhaps he needed to rebarrel. Another BR shooter asked him how many times his brass had been fired and he had no idea, but said many times. Rounds loaded on new brass restored the accuracy. Many anneal every time, I do after 3 times fired.
 
Re: Best practices and consitent results

After watching the election returns last night, trust me, I've been calling all kinds of people fucking idiots this morning.

Fucking idiots!
 
Re: Best practices and consitent results

Kevin, my man,
You're making me proud son.
blush.gif
 
Re: Best practices and consitent results

Deadshot... I am not familiar with "Expander Mandrel Dies." Which one are you using? Also what is your method for annealing if you don't mind.

I'm with Kevin... fucking idiots. So damn depressed today that I have to look at Barry O for another 4 years.
 
Re: Best practices and consitent results

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Russell3812</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Deadshot... I am not familiar with "Expander Mandrel Dies." Which one are you using? Also what is your method for annealing if you don't mind.

I'm with Kevin... fucking idiots. So damn depressed today that I have to look at Barry O for another 4 years. </div></div> I am with russell3812 what mandrel and expander do you use? Is it like the same ones they use to neck turn? Or something completely different

I'm with Kevin Too .... Fucking Idiots!!!!! And I am Mormon and don't even swear usually but that is exactly how I feel right now!'
 
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