Load Development For My Howa

[Pete E]

Gents,

Thanks to everybody for their help and comments so far.

To put them in context, I'm working up load to ring steel, hopefully out to 800m possibly 1000m with my .308win Howa.

This is where I am at the moment:

These are three seperate groups fire on two different visits to the range. They were fired in a round robin method as per the OWC system. The three groups average about 1/2" centre to centre.

This load consists of 155grn Lapua Scenars, 45grns Varget, CCI primers, and Lapua brass. The bullets are just kissing the lands and function through the mag ok..

The groups .5 grain either side were nearly as tight and the worst group of theentire process with 46.5 grns of powder was 1 1/8" centre to centre. These scenars really want to shoot!

There seemed to be another accuracy node around 48grns but my bolt lift was getting a touch "sticky", so I stopped without pursuing this..

Next I want to run the 45grn load over a chro and see what velocities I'm getting...

Any suggestions or comments most welcome.

PS: Sorry about the 3 round groups, but this is a Howa with a sporter weight barrel.

Regards,

Pete

 

[skeetlee]

Re: Load Development For My Howa

Your top load shows some vertical. That would tell me a couple things. Either the load isn't going to work all that well or you need to seat your bullets differently.

The last 2 groups tell me your velocity isn't wear it needs to be.



Walt Berger shared this info with me on how to look at a group and determine what needs to be done next with it. It would be much better to see 5 groups of each so you could eliminate the human factor. A bullet that goes low tells you that you need a different velocity a bullet that goes high shows wrong seating depth. Now this is just a guideline and not concrete evidence. Lee

 

[Pete E]

Re: Load Development For My Howa

Lee,

Thanks for that..I'll try some five round groups next time I'm out..At the moment I think *I'm* the biggest limiting factor and I think that is going to be my problem as I try to refine my loads from here..

Regards,

Peter

 

[Greg Langelius *]

Re: Load Development For My Howa

Coupla things...

Generic OCW load experience suggests the 150/155gr family of match bullets perform in generic rifles with a node at about 46.0gr of Varget. I am not surprised that you had bolt lift issues several grains above that.

Vertical can also be caused by breathing when firing without solid support. If you're shooting from a position and sling, this could be pertinent. If you're using rest/bipod/bag/etc., it would a lot less so.

Greg

 

[skeetlee]

Re: Load Development For My Howa

Greg is correct. Its really to hard to tell without more evidence. Shoot some more groups and see if there is a pattern then we can look into whats going on. You will get there. This is all part of the fun! Lee