Load devoloment procedures?

[Guest sneakboxer]

I'm currently working up a accurate hunting load for my Ruger M77 308 with a 22in barrel and a 1-10 twist. I'm using Reloader-15, Nosler 165gr BT bullets, necksized win brass, and CCI standard primers.

I worked up from 37gr to near max of 44.5gr. I found 44.5gr to shoot the best 5-shot group at .8in. All my loadings showed no excess pressure and i had a second opinion inspect the brass.

These bullets were seated to max COL of 2.8in

Where should i go from here?

Should i step the powder down and exceed the COL? I made a dummy by chambering a fired case with a bullet started and it was measured at 2.944in. I'm thinking about cutting the difference in half and trying 2.872ish and running a batch from 43gr to 44.5 with .2gr intervals.

or

Run a batch at .1gr intervals from 44.2gr to 45.0gr at max COL of 2.8in

I'm not looking to set any records but i'd like to safely reach the full potential of this combo.

Thanks for all the help with my new reloading addiction,

[Dolomite_supafly]

If you are going to be using your magazine then load to magazine length and work on load development. If not then load to the lands. I would start over at the low end of the charges again though. Jumping the bullet is still jumping the bullet, yeah shortening the distance it jumps may help but you are still having the bullet jump.

I have found that having the bullets seated at the lands they tend to be more accurate but with that being said all firearms are different. On my Savage if I seat to the lands I would get groups in the .4" range. Now if I took those same exact bullet and seated them to magazine length the groups would open up to .75". Nothing else changed other than seating the bullets deeper in the case.

You might try some other bullets as well, maybe your rifle doesn't like the Nosler offerings. Try some Sierra bullets as they tend to be pretty accurate for my needs.

Also, .8 inch at 100 yards for a hunting load is going to do all you need it to. .8" at 100 is 1.6" at 200, 2.4" at 300 and 3.2" at 400. By the time you reach that distance wind and other factors such as humidity and temp changes from the day you zeroed are going to variables you need to consider as well. Realistically if you are hitting within 3.2" of your point of aim at 400 yards you are probably going to have a successful kill.

Just my thoughts

Dolomite

[Guest sneakboxer]

Thanks for the quick response. I'm loading by myself and i need a second opinion to keep me on track. On second thought .8 is as good as a 3x9 power scope and i can shoot. The factory load I'm currently using (win 150gr BT) will shoot 1.25in and i have done pretty good with that. I'll try my hand at making some more 44.5gr loads to ensure that it was not a fluke. Then my next experiment will be: finding the max length my rifle will feed. Then do a full work up from starting load up.

I don't have a Sierra book (yet) so i might give Hornady A-max a shot.

Thanks for the reality check. Reloading is making shooting much more fun, and i just started!

[gregintenn]

Different rifles react differently to things. I have some rifles that shoot better with a round loaded shorter than the max OAL, while others shoot better with the bullet seated closer to the lands. Others still don't really show a preference to any particular OAL. You just have to keep experimenting until you are satisfied or bored with experimenting and ready to move on. As Dolomite said, .8 is a really respectable group for a deer rifle. When I get less than an inch group, I'm usually done with the load development phase and ready to go hunting.

[Guest sneakboxer]

44.5 gr was not a fluke, thanks Just my thoughts Dolomite for the tip. I abandoned the idea of messing with OAL (for now) and made 10 rounds at 44.5gr and three rounds at 44.7 and 45.0. The hotter loads did not show any excessive pressure signs but they did not shoot as good at 44.5gr. I shot two 5-shot groups at 100yds and i'm still having trouble believing that my old 308 can shoot that well. Prior to reloading the best 3-shot group i could muster was 1.25 to 1.5in. After all it is just a bone stock deer rifle with a 3x9 on top that i bought used when i was a kid. It looks like i found my recipe and its time to start making rounds. The only excuse for missing a deer will be the guy behind the trigger. Thanks for all the help with my new hobby. A light varmint round sounds cool.

SAFETY DISCLAIMER: Work all loads with the manual. The above loads were above MAX in some (but not all) publications.

[Dolomite_supafly]

The groups have more to do with the reloads than the age of the rifle. Even the best factory ammunition will not compare to most people's handloads once you find a handload your rifle likes.

People ask me if relaoding saves me money and I reply that it doesn't save me any moeny at all. After the puzzled look I explain I spend just as much money as I did before but now I get to shoot more. Also, quality improves a lot when handloading and that is my main reason for reloading and not cost.

A few more things to look at on your rifle. Make sure the barrel isn't touching the stock anywhere whether it is on or off a bag. If it has a synthetic stock the end can flex enough to touch the barrel. Even the light pressure can change the harmonics and throw rounds. Wood isn't as bad but the barrel still needs to be free flaoted because wood can change with humidity and temp causing issues as well. I was working on a Ruger 77/22 yesterday that had this issue. It wouldn't group better than 1" at 50 yards. After I put a spacer between the stock and the action at the front screw the barrel was no longer touching. The next set of groups had the rounds touching. To test take a dollar bill and slide it between the stock and barrel. It should not bind until it reaches the recoil lug. If it does then some releiving needs to be done. You can do it by using a spacer like I did or the better way is to sand the abrrel channel of the stock to give you the clearance it needs.

Something I did that resulted in more consistent rounds was prep the brass to be the same. I use a flash hole uniformer as well as a primer pocket uniformer. The tools cost less than a pound of powder and in my opinion are worth the effort. You only have to do it once and after that continue to receive the benefits. And with that try to sort the brass by the same brand, mixing up brass can results in irratic results because some brass has smaller volumes resulting in higher pressures and higher velocities.

You could also look into bedding the action in the stock. This helps keep the variables induced by the weather at bay. It does take a littel bit of skill and some patients to get a decent bed but once it is done it can be very satisfying once you see the gains.

And finally make sure your barrel is free of copper. Clean it good using a decent copper remover. After that fire a few rounds to foul the barrel again. I have found that most barrels shoot better after they have started to foul. This applies to centerfires as well as rimfires. One of my previous Savages wouldn't group well until I had a lot of rounds through it. It fired the best group ever after firing roughly 250 rounds over the course of 6 months without cleaning.

Every rifle is a different animal and as such you need to develop what your "animal" needs to perform. It looks like you are on your way but I would be willing to bet you can get better with a little more tweaking of the variables.

There are a lot more things you can do to increase accuracy but most are overkill on a hunting rig.

Dolomite

[gregintenn]

Looks good! There's no reason to take that load now and adjust the OAL and see what effect that has. Another cheap trick you can try is to insert a piece of plastic, such as a credit card under the foreend, between it and the barrel. Shoot a group. Add another thickness and shoot another group. Sometimes a bit of pressure helps, somtimes it hurts. If you don't want the added trouble, you have a great deer rig just as it sits. TO prevent boredom, I like to see exactly how much accuracy I can get from one.