Some of you may have read my post a week ago about the direction I've gone in order to reload more consistent ammunition.
To paraphrase, I have a very accurate digital balance that weighs down to the individual kernel of extruded rifle powders.
I am using Lapua .260 brass (once fired then neck resized as of now) and BR-2 primers and Nosler 140 gr. custom comps.
I am checking concentricity of the loaded bullets, and despite the warnings of at least one Hider, I am straightening any that have more than .002" runout at the ogive.
About half of the rounds are better than .002" out of the bullet seater and require no tweaking.
Due to the unavailability of H4340, I switched to AA4350, and ran an OCW last week, arriving at 41.9 grains as the middle of a node.
Being as AA4350 book data shows charges about a grain lower than H4350, this comes as no surprise; in fact, based on the ballistics (I did not chrono today) 41.9 gr A4350 is about the same as 42.7 gr H4350, which shoots well out of probably 80% of the .260s out there.
I bought the last Coax press Midway had in stock (! arriving Wednesday) and plan to switch to neck sizing/FL sizing dies with bushings and no expander ball if I can't get more concentric ammo out of my current tools; my research suggests that seating the bullet does not induce runout, that any runout in the loaded round was already present in the case, and the bullet pretty much follows the neck.
I shot at 100 and 400 yards today and got some mixed results.
One 5 shot group at 100 yards is the tightest I've ever shot, and 2 others were spoiled by "fliers".
Those results followed out to 400 yards, with most of the shots grouping tightly but the groups ultimately spoiled by an errant round (or 2).
If I could go back in time, I would mark the rounds I had to correct, and hopefully I would find a correlation there.
If I could ignore the fliers (which I can't) 2 of the groups at 400 would be astoundingly good (for me and my ability).
Note that regardless of my skill level, I know when I'm shooting well and when I screw up a shot, and I wasn't doing that today. The wind was 1 MPH or less the entire time I was there, in other words, perfect conditions.
Joe
To paraphrase, I have a very accurate digital balance that weighs down to the individual kernel of extruded rifle powders.
I am using Lapua .260 brass (once fired then neck resized as of now) and BR-2 primers and Nosler 140 gr. custom comps.
I am checking concentricity of the loaded bullets, and despite the warnings of at least one Hider, I am straightening any that have more than .002" runout at the ogive.
About half of the rounds are better than .002" out of the bullet seater and require no tweaking.
Due to the unavailability of H4340, I switched to AA4350, and ran an OCW last week, arriving at 41.9 grains as the middle of a node.
Being as AA4350 book data shows charges about a grain lower than H4350, this comes as no surprise; in fact, based on the ballistics (I did not chrono today) 41.9 gr A4350 is about the same as 42.7 gr H4350, which shoots well out of probably 80% of the .260s out there.
I bought the last Coax press Midway had in stock (! arriving Wednesday) and plan to switch to neck sizing/FL sizing dies with bushings and no expander ball if I can't get more concentric ammo out of my current tools; my research suggests that seating the bullet does not induce runout, that any runout in the loaded round was already present in the case, and the bullet pretty much follows the neck.
I shot at 100 and 400 yards today and got some mixed results.
One 5 shot group at 100 yards is the tightest I've ever shot, and 2 others were spoiled by "fliers".
Those results followed out to 400 yards, with most of the shots grouping tightly but the groups ultimately spoiled by an errant round (or 2).
If I could go back in time, I would mark the rounds I had to correct, and hopefully I would find a correlation there.
If I could ignore the fliers (which I can't) 2 of the groups at 400 would be astoundingly good (for me and my ability).
Note that regardless of my skill level, I know when I'm shooting well and when I screw up a shot, and I wasn't doing that today. The wind was 1 MPH or less the entire time I was there, in other words, perfect conditions.
Joe
