Did some initial load development today with Varget and Power Pro and 95gr SMK.
Barrel: Craddock Precision 22" 6.7 twist Rock Creek +2 gas
Brass: 1x fired Federal. Match prepped. Deprime, SS tumble, Redding FL sizer .003" bump, Sinclair expander mandrel, trim to 1.590" on Giraud.
Primer: Remington #7.5 Small Rifle Benchrest seated .002" deep.
Bullet: 95gr Sierra Matchking seated 2.30" OAL. .049" jump to lands.
Varget ladder over Magnetospeed V3:
21.2gr 2280
21.4gr 2310
21.6gr 2328
21.8gr 2354
22.0gr 2356 21.2-22gr went through one little ragged hole, sub .1mil outside to outside
22.2gr 2437 .2mil POI shift left
22.4gr 2427
22.6gr 2446
22.8gr 2470
23.0gr 2488
23.2gr 2507
23.4gr 2519 light ejection mark
I picked what I thought may be 3 sweet spots and loaded 3 each to test. These are the ones you see on the top of the target:
21.9gr 2397, 2365, 2358. SD 20 .582" group
22.3gr 2416, 2432, 2418. SD 8.7 .475" group
22.9gr 2473, 2474, 2479. SD 3.1 .090" group
Retested 22.9gr because it had the best SD and group and the second string was 2480, 2483, 2487. SD 3.4 .295" group. The barrel was very hot at this point and I was taking longer to fire the rounds due to mirage off the suppressor which I believe is the reason for the slightly higher velocity and the group opening up some. Shots broke clean but the image was slightly distorted.
I got the info I needed and moved onto Power Pro 2000MR. Decided to do .3gr increments on this one since it was a wider window.
22.9gr 2361
23.2gr 2364
23.5gr 2392
23.8gr 2401
24.1gr 2443
24.4gr 2455
24.7gr 2481 this round shift down and left out of the main group. It's the one high center in the red dot. Broke clean.
25.0gr 2514 this round was still low but shifted back right some. It's the lowest one at 2 o clock just out of the edge. Broke clean.
25.3gr 2549 this round went partially through the same hole as 25.0. Broke clean.
25.6gr 2593 this round made it's way back up into the main cluster.
25.9gr 2611
26.2gr 2670 this round went high of the main cluster, the more left hole.
26.5gr 2685 this round is the one just to the right of 26.2. Possible light ejector swipe. Very faint
Test charges which you will see towards the bottom of the target:
24.3gr 2411, 2405, 2435 SD 15.8 1.028" group. All shots broke clean but the last shot went low and a little left. It also cooked in a chamber a few seconds longer than the others which may partially explain the velocity jump but not the flyer.
25.7gr 2582, 2591, 2592 SD 5.4 .248" The was some mirage off the suppressor but image didn't seem too distorted, doubt it cause the one to go out a little.
26.3gr 2639, 2653, 2676 SD 18.6 .437" group. Some good mirage coming off the can at this point but not much distortion is seemed. None of these rounds cooked in the chamber any longer than the other ones. I believe this just starting to get into pressure and doing weird shit.
Retested 25.7gr 2600, 2585, 2603 SD 9.6 group .423".. I dialed my dope down .5 mil so that I could use the same dot on this one since I forgot to put a 4th. I was battling heavy mirage off the suppressor on this one, there was no air moving at this point. Shot 1 and 2 I got a clean image but shot 3 I waited and waited and sent it with a distorted image when I figured it had cooked enough. Round 2 was in the chamber a solid 10 second less than shot 1 and probably 20 seconds less than shot 3.
All in all I'm very happy with the initial testing. The barrel is shooting great and seems to loves the 95 SMK's. I also got a reminder of how dirty power pro is, you can even see on the target how much blacker the bullet holes are on the paper from the fouling as it progressed. Pretty crazy.
Tomorrow I'll be testing RL15 and H4350.