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Loading .308 advice

L8N137

Private
Minuteman
Nov 20, 2018
11
2
7070946

Looking for some advice....shooting a Remington 700 SPS Varmint .308 24” 1:12. Loaded up 168gr Hornady ELD-Match with 43.0gr of Varget at 2.800” COAL 2.171” CBTO. On a Facebook group, someone said to stay with 43.0gr and adjust seating depth. They Said up and down is adjusted with powder, left and right is adjusted with bullet seating depth. Anyone heard of this?
 
They Said up and down is adjusted with powder, left and right is adjusted with bullet seating depth. Anyone heard of this?
It is a commonly repeated saying, but it is demonstrably false.

Look at any well done OCW and you will see the groups open and close as well as string vertically and horizontally before tightening up to a round shape. Any well done seating depth test with the exact same powder charge will often exhibit the same pattern.

Take that load you have there and shoot 4 groups of 5 at the same point of aim at 200 yards. That will show you what it will do.
 
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@Skookum beat me to it. I like to take my 100 yard "looks good load", take it out to 200-300 for 3-5 groups of 3-5 rounds each. That's my "load proofing" process.

IMG_20190427_0856381.jpg


All groupings were to the upper left-ish of the spots, then the final group went low center of point of aim, circular, and had best numbers, AND was sub-MOA. So, I subsequently loaded a munch of the lower-right load and am going to "Proof test" it out tomorrow in the desert from 100 out to 1000+
 
View attachment 7070946
Looking for some advice....shooting a Remington 700 SPS Varmint .308 24” 1:12. Loaded up 168gr Hornady ELD-Match with 43.0gr of Varget at 2.800” COAL 2.171” CBTO. On a Facebook group, someone said to stay with 43.0gr and adjust seating depth. They Said up and down is adjusted with powder, left and right is adjusted with bullet seating depth. Anyone heard of this?

What brass are you using?
 
Someone wrote something on the internet that might not be exactly right? <swoon> Say it ain't so !!!!

Your group is about 0.6 inches. If I could get that every time, 100% of the time no matter the conditions, I would be really happy. After shooting for a long time, having good equipment, developing good loads and learning some skills, I can usually shoot a 4 with an occasional 3 but there are enough 6s and 7s to prove that my conditions-reading and gun-driving skills are not perfect.

Like the man said above, 1 group don't mean s**t. Shoot 4 or 5 groups because without that you don't know anything. Any gun in the word can shoot a 0.1-inch group once - accidents happen. Three or four, especially three or four in a row, is significant.