New To reloading - .223/.308 Match Grade Reloading Setup Help

[Guest]

Well I completed my first reloading session. I reloaded 100 rds with Varget and 175 SMK as follows, 10x40gr, 10x40.5gr, 10x41gr, 20x41.5gr, 10x42gr, 20x42.5 and 10x43gr and 10 fouler rds out of the 10 cases that had odd weights. All other cases were matched in groups by weight as well as the bullets. I triple checked everything to ensure there were no mistakes. Very happy with how my first 100rds turned out. Now time to test these tomorrow then work up new loads in .3 increments around the best groups.

I want to thank everyone that helped me out and the members that suggested I buy following equipment:

Forster Ultra NM Micrometer seating die - Once I got it set it pumped out 100rds with practically zero variance in measurement.

Omega 2 Powered Powder Trickler - I set my Chargemaster loads light and trickled to perfection with the Omega. Amazing how I could drop 1 piece of stick powder on call every time

Saturn Funnels - awesome high quality funnels. These things are great compared to the cheap funnel I tried using until the mail man showed up this afternoon.

 

[Pinecone]

My Lyman 49th Edition reloading book for .308 175gr Jacketed HPBT using Varget should be loaded between 40 - 45.2 grains.

I am loading Sierra 175 SMK for my POF P308 14.5" Mike Rock barrel with pinned brake.

It's now time to drop powder and I'm not sure where to start in the range suggested by my Lyman reloading manual. My goal is to load an accurate round with high velocity to shoot mostly between 200-800 but hit steel a few times at 1000 in a precision rifle class coming up the end of October. Should I load as follows?

40 - 5rds
41 - 10rds
42 - 10rds
43 - 10rds
44 - 5rds


Then take the best group or two out of the above and load another 5 or 6 5rd groups in .3gr increments up and down from that best original group?

Read this and follow it - OCW Overview - Dan Newberry's OCW Load Development System

And this will help with doing the charge weight increments - http://www.snipershide.com/shooting/snipers-hide-reloading/193057-ocw-excel-template.html

0.5 grain increments are more than 1% and could cause you to skip over accuracy nodes.

 

[Guest]

Thanks, Ill read the above threads.

Shot all 100rds today. 40gr and 42.5 were the most accurate.

Edit: Here's the numbers of my best groups

0.466" 40gr FGMM FC case Fouler rds. I was really surprised by this because they were mismatched case and bullet weights that I said I would use just to heat up the barrel.
(All groups below had matched weight cases and bullets)

0.671" 40gr FGMM FC case
0.501" 40gr Hornady Match case
0.430" 42.5gr FGMM FC case
0.515" 42.5gr Hornday Match case

Now the question is do I start over and work up loads in 0.3gr increments from 40gr to 46gr as some suggested I should have done in the first place in case I missed a node? Or should I make some refined loads in 0.2gr increments above and below the best groups noted above? I didn't make any loads over 43gr this first round. Might also make loads above 43gr up to just over the max. Here's what I'm thinking:



Or here's the OCW suggested loads per the above linked Excel file

 

[TheBelgian]

0.466" 40gr FGMM FC case Fouler rds. I was really surprised by this because they were mismatched case and bullet weights that I said I would use just to heat up the barrel.
(All groups below had matched weight cases and bullets)

Cold bore shots tend to group better... Unless you're shooting bench rest, sorting your brass and bullets by weight is over kill and you'll barely notice a spread. Also, a ladder test is best done at at least 200 yards giving the bullet more time to stabilize.

 

[Guest]

My range only goes to 100 yds which is why Im not performing the "ladder test". I will be doing the above noted OCW my next round

Will have to find my best load on the 100yd range and load 250 rds for my Precision rifle class in October.

 

[TheBelgian]

My range only goes to 100 yds which is why Im not performing the "ladder test". I will be doing the above noted OCW my next round

Will have to find my best load on the 100yd range and load 250 rds for my Precision rifle class in October.

Gotcha... So PA is actually worse than CA huh?

 

[Guest]

No, just the area I live. Lewistown has a 1000yd+ range about 2 hours away where Im taking the precision rifle class in october and there is New Holland that goes to 500-600 I believe but I looked and think there membership has a wait list.

Dont want to drive 2 hours back and forth 2-3 times to work up a load at distance. May go out there once with whatever load I end up with 1 time before the class

 

[Road_Clam]

I've tested about 32 different combinations and my R700 Varmint seems to group the tightest keeping my velocity around 2570 fps regardless of powder used . I start pushing over 2640 fps and my groups start opening up. With 4064 i'm around 41.6 gr , with W748 im at 41.9 , and Benchmark i'm at about 39.9 . This is with 168 smk's .

 

[Guest]

Im currently doing load development with CCI #200 LR Primers.

What will happen if I change to BR2 primers after Im done load development and found the most accurage load?

Do I need to do load development over again with BR2 primers? Or will they just increase velocity?

 

[Pinecone]

Changing from standard to match primers will have little difference. In theory, the match primers should be more consistent, leading to slightly smaller groups.

I would go back and do an OCW as per Dan's method. 0.3 grain increments, shot round robin, with cooling time between shots.

Once you find the best charge weight, play with seating depth.

 

[Guest]

Ok, thanks for the response.

I have the OCW spreadsheet printed out on the reloading bench. Brass is ready to go, will prime with CCI 200 primers again. Im out of 175 SMK and more wont be here till Friday. Will make loads per OCW speeadsheet once they arrive and test.

 

[mike.h.]

Ok, thanks for the response.

I have the OCW spreadsheet printed out on the reloading bench. Brass is ready to go, will prime with CCI 200 primers again. Im out of 175 SMK and more wont be here till Friday. Will make loads per OCW speeadsheet once they arrive and test.

This is a great thread for any reloader looking for accuracy. But I have a question, why develop a load at the low accuracy node? I too, recently started reloading the 175smk with varget and felt that the lower "node" just wasn't fast enough for those longer ranges. My local range only stretches to 300 yards, but a couple times a year I get to stretch 'er out.

Thanks for the great thread and have fun.

 

[Guest]

I want to find both the low and high nodes so I can use the low node at my local 200yd range to save on barrel wear and powder and high node for long range shooting.

I need to find the high node right now so I can develop a load for 200-1000

 

[Guest]

Ok so I made it to the range today to shoot my OCW loads. Here is the sighters and OCW load groups in the first picture. In the second picture I added 3 loads below the first OCW load group. All shots were fired over my ProChrono Digital with Chrono numbers for each load below. When firing the 45gr load, the first 2 shots were ok but the third shot popped the primer out half way. This did not happen on any other loads. As the loads got hotter there were more and more extractor marks on the cases.

OCW Sighters and Loads



Additional Loads I added below first 3 shot OCW group



Chrono Numbers

40.7= 2237
41.5= 2275
42.3= 2318, 2335, 2326 Avg 2326
42.5= 2314, 2339, 2326 Avg 2326
42.8= 2355, 2359, 2364 Avg 2359
43.2= 2364, 2376, 2376 Avg 2372
43.5= 2380, 2393, 2411 Avg 2395
43.8= 2419, 2402, 2406 Avg 2409
44.1= 2433, 2428, 2428 Avg 2430
44.4= 2419, 2450, 2419 Avg 2429
44.7= 2469, 2464, 2455 Avg 2463
45.0= 2487, 2501, 2506 Avg 2498

Based off the above groups, I'm not sure which loads I should start working around? Any help?

 

[Guest]

I selected the 44.1gr load out of the above 175smk / Varget OCW test. I decided to load 3 more groups at 43.9, 44.1 and 44.3. I don't like 43.9 as its impacting high right but both 44.1 and 44.3 have the same point of impact and good velocity. I am going to test seating depth with 44.2.



I also loaded up OCW rounds to test the 178 amax bullet with IMR 4064 today. Results are below. Aiming point for all shots was top right corner of each black square.



42.9 was most accurate with 42.9, 43.5 and 43.8 all having pretty much the same point of impact. So I guess I will select the 43.5 load and test seating depth

 

[Guest]

I'm really happy with the 178 amax/4064 load. I believe this is going to be my long range combo for the BHTC Precision rifle class the end of October. I didn't chrono any of the amax loads yet but will load up some more to test seating depth this week and chrono those loads.

Really happy with my reloading progress so far since I've only been reloading 3 weeks. I finally feel like all the hard work is paying off with my latest round of testing today. A big thank you to everyone that has helped me out!

 

[Guest]

double post

 

[Guest]

After performing the OCW test for 175smk/Varget I picked 44.3gr and for 178amax/4064 I selected 43.8gr.

Today I tested seating depth with the 178amax and 43.8gr of IMR 4064. Most accurate group was 178amax seated to 2.1805 ogive which shot 0.527" at 100yds and it was windy out. 2.1795" ogive was pretty accurate as well and 2.1810 ogive I think I pulled that one shot but not sure. I'm going to load 5 shots each of these 3 different seating depths and test again and chrono. Here is exact load specs

178 Amax
43.8gr IMR 4064 (Chargemaster 1500 to 43.5g then Omega II trickled exactly to 43.8g)
1xLC brass FL sized to .004" under fired case size and trimmed to 2.005" (SS tumbled after primer pockets uniformed, flash hole debur, case mouth debur and chamfered)
CCI BR2 primers

And here's my 175smk/Varget load

175smk seated to 2.2265 ogive
44.3gr Varget (Chargemaster 1500 to 43.8g then Omega II trickled exactly to 44.3g)
1xLC brass FL sized to .004" under fired case size and trimmed to 2.005" (SS tumbled after primer pockets uniformed, flash hole debur, case mouth debur and chamfered)
CCI BR2 primers

I'm shooting right around .50" with both of these loads

 

[4Quangs]

I would choose a micrometer seating die, it's especially useful in load development. I which I had bought those first , for my 223 and 30-06 loading. I also use a Dillon 550 for rifle and pistol. I keep thinking I need a Forester CO-Ax, but I can't come up with a better reason than it looks so cool.

The Forster co-ax has a sliding clamp type shell holder that allows the case to move either left or right as needed to align with the sizing and seating die. The sizing and seating die floats from front to rear to finish the alignment with the case in the shell holder. The co-ax is famous for little to no run out on completed rounds.

Changing dies can be done in under two seconds, though changing from large caliber to small caliber may require that the shell holder be flipped over to handle the smaller cases. This can take a couple of minutes Two hex screws removed, plates flipped and screws replaced.

 

[Greg Langelius *]

My only/ever reloading press has been a Dillon RL550B, bought well-used two decades ago.

I use standard 2-Die F/L die sets, usually RCBS. More sophisticated dies are nice to use, but what I use gets the job done well to my satisfaction. The Dillon toolhead allows the dies to be set up once and left that way, so nothing significant changes between loading sessions.

I recently added a Hornady Lock-N-Load automated powder dispenser. It takes some tuning to get it to work well with Varget and IMR-4064, but with that tuning, it becomes this handloader's dream dispenser.

While the press works well when used as a progressive, I tend to do my brass work first, then pick up with the powder charge following through to completed ammo progressively.

I load a bunch of chamberings on this press. 222, 223, 25-'06, 260, 280, 30BR. 30-'06, 762x39, 762x54R, 44Mag for the record. Being able to switch over calibers in a very few minutes is very convenient.

Match grade ammo has its most significant basis in careful load development and keen attention to consistency during ammo fabrication. It's (maybe) easier to control using sophisticated dies, etc., and decent experience, the handloader can accomplish enough using standard dies.

Another key to balancing effort vs results is to stop trying for perfection; damned few of us fail by using inadequate handloads. Most of us already make better ammo than we can use to its full effect; insisting that only the best ammo will do is really more a matter of failing to get one's hubris back on the leash where it belongs. The really important step is in developing and proving a good load to begin with.

Greg