Working up new loads. Question on round counts....

[Cape_hunter]

In regards to working up loads and finding the right projectile, how many rounds does it usually take you?

When I am working on a load for a new rifle or trying a new projectile I generally do as most, start in the middle then make changes. We all know the things I am talking about so no need to list them. I usually load up 15 rounds of each step and shoot 5, 3 shot groups. Normal cleaning and cool off between sets. May not be the norm here but that is what I was taught and it has served me well over the past 25 years.

How may rounds do you load for each step/change? When do you decide that a projectile just doesnt shoot for your rifle?


Thanks
Cape

 

[ChrisGarrett]

Re: Working up new loads. Question on round counts....

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Cape_hunter</div><div class="ubbcode-body">In regards to working up loads and finding the right projectile, how many rounds does it usually take you?

When I am working on a load for a new rifle or trying a new projectile I generally do as most, start in the middle then make changes. We all know the things I am talking about so no need to list them. I usually load up 15 rounds of each step and shoot 5, 3 shot groups. Normal cleaning and cool off between sets. May not be the norm here but that is what I was taught and it has served me well over the past 25 years.

How may rounds do you load for each step/change? When do you decide that a projectile just doesnt shoot for your rifle?


Thanks
Cape </div></div>

I have a lot of different bullets, but if I'm testing something I have a couple/few boxes of, I'll take 50 bullets and do something like 10 rounds on the low side, 15, above that, 15 above that and 10 to finish for a total of 50. It could also be 10, 10, 10, 10 and 10.

I like shooting groups of 5, so I'll work with that number. When I'm close to getting it right, I might do 25 & 25, preferring to stick with 50 round lots.

I'm a fiddler though, so I'm not somebody who's going to find a something and then load up 2000 rounds of that combo and call it a season.

I once read that a group of 7 is statistically more relevant than 3 groups of 3 shots, I think it was, but 7 doesn't fit into 50 evenly and I'll have a couple of orphans left over from a typical box of 100 bullets.

Chris

 

[Greg Langelius *]

Re: Working up new loads. Question on round counts....

Unless the case capacity is large (like .280 Rem/.30-'06), I'll space my charge increments by .3gr. I do 15 of each for 5 different increments, 45 rounds in full. I shoot 3 groups of five for each increment, but fire them round-robin, to get some handle on fouling effects.

The reason for the .3gr increments is that when one charge shows best promise, I only need to increment/decrement by .1gr to find out if I'm precisely at the node.

Greg

 

[fastex500]

Re: Working up new loads. Question on round counts....

Hmm... maybe I'm shortcutting. When developing a completely new load, I hate pulling bullets on a bad load, so I usually run .3-.4 steps from suggest min to max and only load 3 of each initially.

Once I chrono those, and find the velocity I'm looking for, I go back and load 5 of each in .1's a few steps below and above. Once I get a few accuracy nodes, I'll load 10 of the 2 or 3 best accuracy loads and then I'm usually satisfied... unless I start to play with seating depths.... then I start over and do the same thing for said powder weight and adjust seating depth. You know, now that I think about it, maybe it isn't a shortcut...