OCW help...

[bh-ltr]

Interested to hear thoughts on this one..

Shot from a Remington 700 LTR 20" barrel.
175SMK
2.800 COAL
Lapua Brass
Varget Powder

I chose 44.5g as my load but would like to know what others think. I believe that perhaps 44.3 would be a better choice. The 7's were chosen for aim points but on one I made a mistake and chose the 8. To make up for it I continued to use that 8...

I found it VERY odd that the lower charges didn't seem to do anywhere near as well as the higher charges.

 

[nickforney]

so make .1 increments from 44.2-44.6?

 

[HobbyShooter]

I kind of like 44.3, actually. It seems 44.1, 44.3, and 44.5 all have the same general POI. 44.5 is starting to scoot left a touch and 44.7 is definitely to the left. 44.3 may be more in the middle of those impact points. I bet 44.4 may also be good.

 

[nickforney]

This is why I do the .1's in the area that seems be working. If you can find a really nice middle you won't have issues later with deviations in temp or minor charge mistakes. My rifle likes 175s with 44.3 behind them when in lapua brass. So you can do smaller increments if you want or move right on to working length.

 

[melloyello]

Very confusing way to do an OCW test. I would prefer to use all like targets instead of aiming at numbers. Use a diamond, square, circle, etc for POA. This will give you the same sight picture everytime.
Looking at what you have though I would probably go with 44.3 or you could load some from 44.1-44.7
44.3-44.5 will probably give more of the same results. That way even if your charge was to vary a little bit or there is a temp change or some other variable you will get the same result. Running 44.5gr Varget/175SMK/RP brass/WLR primers/2.86"OAL myself
If you plan on leaving OAL at 2.800" then pick whatever shoots best 44.3 or 44.5 and get to shooting.

 

[nickforney]

Very confusing way to do an OCW test. I would prefer to use all like targets instead of aiming at numbers. Use a diamond, square, circle, etc for POA. This will give you the same sight picture everytime.
Looking at what you have though I would probably go with 44.3 or you could load some from 44.1-44.7
Maybe 44.1, 44.3, 44.5, 44.7
44.3-44.5 will probably give more of the same results. That way even if your charge was to vary a little bit or there is a temp change or some other variable you will get the same result. Running 44.5gr Varget/175SMK/RP brass/WLR primers/2.86"OAL myself

I believe there are ocw targets in the reloading section here. I always just google ocw target before I do another load and print them off or use diamonds as mentioned above that are nicely spaced that I can mark all load info next to.

 

[bh-ltr]

The sight picture was the same for me on all the shots. When I shot at the middle target I shot at the 10. When I shot at the outsides I shot at those numbers. The main reason I did this was because there was a match going on at the member range and so I shot this on the public range and I didn't want to wait to run down and put up my own targets. I also fired one round from each charge weight and then shot the second round from each charge weight and so on thus barrel fouling, barrel temp and wind should be fairly well averaged across the shot string.