Gentlemen,
I am a relative newbie at reloading, but I take the craft seriously and with proper safety in mind. That being said, I have been experimenting with some rounds for my Remington 700P .338 LM.
I am having some issues keeping my groups tight. I shoot off of a Caldwell Lead Sled so I know I'm holding pretty steady when the trigger is pulled. So, I've at least removed that from my equation.
I am loading the following:
Norma Brass
Retumbo Powder
Federal 215M primers
Sierra SMK 300 gr. bullets
3.680 COAL
I'm loading with a Hornady single stage press and using an RCBS Match .338 die set.
I started at 90 gr of powder the first go around and worked up to a nice hot load of 94 gr. I was firing at 100 yards and with the 93 and 94 grain I was able to hold about a quarter size group for most of the rounds - 2 rounds floated around 1" or so from my group (I fired 10 rounds of each load).
I loaded up another set of rounds at the 93 and 94 grain. This time around I fired about 40 of each load and I'm not sure if I was able to even keep 2-3 rounds consistent. (BTW, I wrote down all of the specs from my first load and followed them to an absolute T).
When I spoke with a friend who loads rounds for his .308 he thought that my COAL might be affecting the bullet flight. So, he recommended loading 0.020 off the lands. Now, I don't have all the equipment in the world, so the way I calculated that distance was as follows:
- First, I took a previously fired casing that a bullet would slide in and out of with just a slight bit of tension.
- I then ever so slightly started the bullet into the neck and then loaded the bullet into my chamber.
- I pushed the round all the way in till the bolt locked and then carefully removed the bullet.
- I then measured the COAL of the cartridge.
I came up with 3.744 and 3.745 consistently across 9-10 attempts. My quandry is that even by dropping .020 off of the lands, I'm still 0.044 from being at the proper COAL of 3.680 according to the Sierra reloading manual (and I surely can't fit a 3.724 sized round into my magazine).
Also, I'm getting some "denting" in my fired rounds along the rim of the neck and also midway down the neck. It would almost remind you of stovepiping in a semi auto, but it's obviously not (it's also not quite as pronounced as stovepiping)
If anyone might know what I am doing wrong I would greatly appreciate it.
Some things to note in case you might ask:
- I measure each bullet for weight before I load to ensure it is spot on 300 gr and within +/- .1 grain.
- I measure each load of powder on a digital scale to ensure I'm hitting the loads precisely.
- I also originally "broke" my barrel in by firing 2 rounds and then cleaning, all the way up to 30 rounds. Then 3 rounds and cleaning up to 30 rounds. Then 4 rounds and then cleaning up to 40 rounds.
- I try and clean my barrel when I'm shooting for accuracy about every 5-10 rounds.
I am a relative newbie at reloading, but I take the craft seriously and with proper safety in mind. That being said, I have been experimenting with some rounds for my Remington 700P .338 LM.
I am having some issues keeping my groups tight. I shoot off of a Caldwell Lead Sled so I know I'm holding pretty steady when the trigger is pulled. So, I've at least removed that from my equation.
I am loading the following:
Norma Brass
Retumbo Powder
Federal 215M primers
Sierra SMK 300 gr. bullets
3.680 COAL
I'm loading with a Hornady single stage press and using an RCBS Match .338 die set.
I started at 90 gr of powder the first go around and worked up to a nice hot load of 94 gr. I was firing at 100 yards and with the 93 and 94 grain I was able to hold about a quarter size group for most of the rounds - 2 rounds floated around 1" or so from my group (I fired 10 rounds of each load).
I loaded up another set of rounds at the 93 and 94 grain. This time around I fired about 40 of each load and I'm not sure if I was able to even keep 2-3 rounds consistent. (BTW, I wrote down all of the specs from my first load and followed them to an absolute T).
When I spoke with a friend who loads rounds for his .308 he thought that my COAL might be affecting the bullet flight. So, he recommended loading 0.020 off the lands. Now, I don't have all the equipment in the world, so the way I calculated that distance was as follows:
- First, I took a previously fired casing that a bullet would slide in and out of with just a slight bit of tension.
- I then ever so slightly started the bullet into the neck and then loaded the bullet into my chamber.
- I pushed the round all the way in till the bolt locked and then carefully removed the bullet.
- I then measured the COAL of the cartridge.
I came up with 3.744 and 3.745 consistently across 9-10 attempts. My quandry is that even by dropping .020 off of the lands, I'm still 0.044 from being at the proper COAL of 3.680 according to the Sierra reloading manual (and I surely can't fit a 3.724 sized round into my magazine).
Also, I'm getting some "denting" in my fired rounds along the rim of the neck and also midway down the neck. It would almost remind you of stovepiping in a semi auto, but it's obviously not (it's also not quite as pronounced as stovepiping)
If anyone might know what I am doing wrong I would greatly appreciate it.
Some things to note in case you might ask:
- I measure each bullet for weight before I load to ensure it is spot on 300 gr and within +/- .1 grain.
- I measure each load of powder on a digital scale to ensure I'm hitting the loads precisely.
- I also originally "broke" my barrel in by firing 2 rounds and then cleaning, all the way up to 30 rounds. Then 3 rounds and cleaning up to 30 rounds. Then 4 rounds and then cleaning up to 40 rounds.
- I try and clean my barrel when I'm shooting for accuracy about every 5-10 rounds.
