Beat a dead Horse What Method on Load Development
- Thread starter rickyb
- Start date
K9 Stalker
New member
Hopefully the dust has settled....
After reading through most of this and taking advise of some that have rolled their own long before I was born, I managed to take a little different approach.
First and foremost - Prep work. Close is not good enough. I want everything to be as identical as I can get it. Brass trim, champering,...
I run a series of loads starting about 2.0 under max (pending cart. size/bullet weight,...at .5 gr incriments with a seating depth about .025 off the lands.
Shoot my series of tests until I get a load that gives me a decent group.
Retest that load
If I repeat the group, then I use that charge to work on my seating depth. Given that the longer oal will work in my firearm, I start at .005 off the lands and work away at steps of .005.
When I get my best group, I retest that load/depth
If I repeat the group, I tweak the charge up and down to see if I am gaining concentration or falling apart.
If I am not satisfied, I'll tweak the seating depth up and down by .002 that final charge
In some cases, like a load I was working for my Browning .270, it just didn't come all the way together - I changed powders and started all over.
Ultimately, I chronoy my load and see what it is really doing. In some cases I'm pleasantly surprised that I'm a bit faster than expected; or slower. If I'm considerably slower than what thwat charge should be, I'll look for different brass, primer or even powder.
Maybe not the right way, but it works well for me!
After reading through most of this and taking advise of some that have rolled their own long before I was born, I managed to take a little different approach.
First and foremost - Prep work. Close is not good enough. I want everything to be as identical as I can get it. Brass trim, champering,...
I run a series of loads starting about 2.0 under max (pending cart. size/bullet weight,...at .5 gr incriments with a seating depth about .025 off the lands.
Shoot my series of tests until I get a load that gives me a decent group.
Retest that load
If I repeat the group, then I use that charge to work on my seating depth. Given that the longer oal will work in my firearm, I start at .005 off the lands and work away at steps of .005.
When I get my best group, I retest that load/depth
If I repeat the group, I tweak the charge up and down to see if I am gaining concentration or falling apart.
If I am not satisfied, I'll tweak the seating depth up and down by .002 that final charge
In some cases, like a load I was working for my Browning .270, it just didn't come all the way together - I changed powders and started all over.
Ultimately, I chronoy my load and see what it is really doing. In some cases I'm pleasantly surprised that I'm a bit faster than expected; or slower. If I'm considerably slower than what thwat charge should be, I'll look for different brass, primer or even powder.
Maybe not the right way, but it works well for me!
UtahShooter
New member
Wow. I love seeing grown men insulting others especially on a world wide forum. Must be some pretty "big men" out there.