I loaded up 50 rounds of hunting ammo and took them to the range this week. After getting all zeroed at 200, I fired a 5-shot group that measured 1.308". I took my time at the 200 and fired those five rounds in about 5 minutes. I was running out of time and had to rush through the 300 yard portion, so I fired those five rounds in about a minute to a minute and a half which should probably explain why I went from 0.6 MOA at 200 to 1.1 MOA. at 300.



These are the first rounds I've ever loaded through the Redding small base Type-S bushing die. I used a 0.331" bushing. The brass was commercial Winchester brass. I used 42.8 grains of IMR-4064 with a Remington 9-1/2 primer. I seated them using the Redding competition seater die with the micrometer.

I LOVE the seater die! It's so easy to set your COL with this thing!

My hunting trip is in a week, so I'll head out one more time to fine tune my zeroes. I'm all plotted out at 100, 200 and 300 yards.

This was a generic load that I used with 168 grain bullets in my M14's that shot really good. I took the same recipe and replaced the 168 with a 165 grain Nosler Accu-bond. I haven't had time to do a proper ladder test or a proper seating depth test. I'll get that sorted out before next year. Headspace was set to 1.628" which is 0.002" under SAAMI spec since I run these through autoloaders. My chamber is set at 1.632" so I've got about 0.004" difference between my case and chamber headspace.

Now that I've got an accurate bolt gun, I'll start messing with Varget and maybe some Berger hunting bullets and get all set for the 2018 hunting season.

Tony.

Nice results! You've made more progress than me! I only have 3 more weeks until elk hunting season.

Did you measure the shoulder bump, or just back off the FL dies an 1/8 turn or so? Or a different process?

quote:

Originally posted by 1967Goat:
Nice results! You've made more progress than me! I only have 3 more weeks until elk hunting season.

Did you measure the shoulder bump, or just back off the FL dies an 1/8 turn or so? Or a different process?

I use a Hornady headspace gauge comparator, a PTG GO gauge and a digital caliper. I inserted a GO gauge into the comparator and zero the caliper so it reads zero at 1.630". I measure the sized cases and adjust my sizing die until it reads -0.002" in my comparator. This puts my sized cases at 1.628".

The headspace Comparator and digital calipers by themselves are inaccurate. You need the calibrated GO gauge for this method to work. If I use them as advertised and check a GO gauge, the reading comes up short at 1.619". Until I got the GO gauge and checked the accuracy of the comparator, I was not sizing my cases properly. I thought my cases were 1.628" when in fact they were actually 1.639"!!!

Tony.

You will get better brass life if you only push the shoulder back 0.001"-0.002". 0.004" is a little too much. The case gauge is good for actually testing the accuracy of your Hornady gauge but you don't need to push the shoulder back to a min spec, just need to fit your gun. If you have more than one gun and sharing the ammo between them you should be the tightest chamber, or make separate loads.

quote:

Originally posted by Blue68f100:
You will get better brass life if you only push the shoulder back 0.001"-0.002". 0.004" is a little too much. The case gauge is good for actually testing the accuracy of your Hornady gauge but you don't need to push the shoulder back to a min spec, just need to fit your gun. If you have more than one gun and sharing the ammo between them you should be the tightest chamber, or make separate loads.

Agreed. This batch of hunting loads will be spread between two to three rifles. Two of them have headspace of 1.632" while one of them is set to 1.630". One of them is also an M14 so the batch was made to work in all three rifles. The accuracy out of all three rifles is more than sufficient for the whitetails, muleys, black bears or big cats I may run into. I don't anticipate a shot longer than 200 yards but I'm all set for 300 if the opportunity presents itself. I may stretch it out farther if we see some yotes, just for fun.

Tony.