More speed or call it good?? New .243 report.

[BgBmBoo]

Ok....so I am much more a shooter then a reloader. I only reload out of necessity. That being said...

I took my new rifle (Surgeon Scalpel in .243 w/25" Krieger barrel) out today to sight in and do some load development. All groups were at 100 yards. All groups are 5 shot.

I found a load that shoots REALLY good. But the speed is not quite what folks posting are getting/claiming.
The group you see below has a avg. speed of 2918 fps. ES is 44 and SD is 19.

I am hoping/wanting to be closer to 2950-3000 fps. I have zero pressure sign and plan on stepping the charge weight up in .3 grain steps and see how it shoots there. But I have a feeling I will not be able to reach the next node.

Input please.

I plan to use this rifle for 600 and 1000 yard matches.

Take care,Stan


Lapua brass
Sierra 107 SMK's
H4350 powder
CCI BR-2 primers
Seated to 2.858 OAL and 2.296 ogive

 

[BgBmBoo]

Re: More speed or call it good?? New .243 report.

Twist is 1:8. I too had a 6XC, but it had a 28" 1:7.5 twist barrel and I shot 115 DTAC's through it. I used the same powder charge (39.5) of H4350 in the 6XC as well and it would shoot similar groups. Not sure what the velocity was in the 6XC....did not own a chrono then.

And that brings me to the question of how accurate is my chrono...it is a cheap, ProChrono model, but seems to work well as far as reading the shots,etc.

Take care,Stan

 

[BgBmBoo]

Re: More speed or call it good?? New .243 report.

Good deal. I was planning on doing that. Now that I have a load that will shoot...its time to see how it does at distance.

Take care,Stan

 

[buffybuster]

Re: More speed or call it good?? New .243 report.

It the groups hold together at longer range, I'd call it good. An extra 50fps is going to get you nothing.

 

[desertHK]

Re: More speed or call it good?? New .243 report.

Look like you have your load right there. The question is how does it behave at 300, 500 and 1K? I am certain that it will hold up well.

 

[BgBmBoo]

Re: More speed or call it good?? New .243 report.

Hk!!! How are things? Yep. I plan on doing some more testing at distance. Today was not the day....wind was blowing pretty good. And hot. So I need to get to the range early(er).

I will post more results then.

Take care,Stan

 

[308sako]

Re: More speed or call it good?? New .243 report.

deleted in protest

 

[CAG55]

Re: More speed or call it good?? New .243 report.

BGBMBO,
You have got a lot of good advice. The groups you shot are AWESOME! I feel that you have a perfet match, barrel, case, bullet, powder, and powder charge. Why try to get more speed? Yes we all have the need for speed but that isn't biggest factor! You have reached your goal all ready!! This of course is just my 2 cents! Back in 1975 I had it in my mind that the faster the better, Not True!!! Like the others have told you, shoot a group at 400yds and if you get good groups, if you get good groups then I see no need for making anymore adjustments.
Later
CAG55

 

[Mudcat-NC]

Re: More speed or call it good?? New .243 report.

Stay with accuracy, period. Extra velocity is useless cause even if the accuracy stays, what are you really getting out of another 50 or even 100 fps? Just more chance of a bullet coming apart, more pressure (ie wear and tear on brass, bbl, etc), etc. Just run what ya got and call it a day....you wont notice it on the target.

John

 

[Chiller]

Re: More speed or call it good?? New .243 report.

I know it has been said before. Once you have a baseline I would push out to 300+ yards to see how it really behaves. Things can hide at 100 yards.

 

[BgBmBoo]

Re: More speed or call it good?? New .243 report.

Thanks gents.
My next step is the seating depth. I am jammed in the lands right now but I personally like to have a bit of jump,etc. That has always worked best for most of my rifles.

Take care,Stan

 

[TEAMSENDIT]

Re: More speed or call it good?? New .243 report.

I think you will get better es and dev when you switch to jumping them. plus when you start eating your throat away you won't have a sudden huge loss in velocity or accuracy. I refuse to jam bullets into lands for this reason alone (unless they are vld type bullets). I have had friends have their load fall apart in a match because the went from jammed to jumping. however when you jump them you may have to increase you powder charge to get the same velocity. if interested you should be able to go up at least another grain to 1.5gr of H4350 at least i did on my 243.

good luck

 

[shooter308]

Re: More speed or call it good?? New .243 report.

awesome groups i have a hammer 243 too. Try RL-17 i was sold on 4350 til i started using 38.3 of rl-15 then i went to rl-17 and havent looked back. But it does appear your load is shooting very NICE

 

[BgBmBoo]

Re: More speed or call it good?? New .243 report.

Shooter...what charge weight and bullet(s) are you using with RL-17. I have 5 lbs. of RL-17 but have not been able to come up with any solid load info for the .243.

Take care,Stan