Sako 30-06

[M Olivier]

Good morning All, I was hoping someone could steer me in the right direction. I am developing loads for my Sako 30-06 in an attempt to make it as accurate as possible. It has a 1 in 11 twist. As I understand it, all individual rifles have thier own "sweet spot" or "happy load".
I have just started loading 5 batches of 5 rounds each of 165 Grain Boattails touching the lands. The 1st batch is loaded with 51 grains of Somchem S365 the next batch with 52 grains, then next with 53 grains and so on. The next step would be to back the seating depth about 1/500 of an inch off the lands and start again. I am preparing to carry on testing in this manner until I have covered from 150 grain bullets through 200 grain bullets in an effort to find the best group. Does anyone have any advice for me which can perhaps shortcut what looks like a long haul. I will be most appreciative,
Thanks
Matt

 

[bohem]

Re: Sako 30-06

You can go in much bigger steps than 0.002" for seating depth. Berger recommends 4 different steps when playing with bullet seating depth. According to them: Touching, 40 thou, 80 thou and 120 thou jump. You'll see something generally shoot much better than the other 3, do a little fine tuning around this range if you see the need.

For powder you can do yourself a ladder test and see what you get. I spent Saturday working on some loads for my 30-06 with heavier stuff (180 and 208 gr bullets) and I was shooting the VLD's for the first time.

On the VLD's I have been shooting that weight of bullet for a while so I knew right about where the right charge would be. I took 2 charge weights and loaded 5 rounds of each different seating depth for each of the 4 sets, then did that on both charges. It required me to shoot 40 rounds. I think I know which charge to shoot and very close to what the seating depth needs to be now.

50gr BLC-2, 045 off the lands. It ran a 5 shot group about 3/4" at 200y with 3 holes touching. I'm going to load up a couple more strings and shoot them to see what I get from it.

The 208's I was shooting with RL-22 and I didn't know what the charge should be or the jump from the lands. I'm set on charge, but I need to know what the jump needs to be. At this point I'm working at 60.0gr of powder and I'm going to shoot 5 shot groups of 5 thou jump, 15 thou jump, 25 thou jump.

Watch velocity, ES, and look at the group. I started to do this with 60.5gr of powder but a few of the loads were WAY too hot so I held off on finishing the strings.

Hope that gives some insight to what you're looking to do, basically you'll spend a ton of components and wasted time moving in such small increments. You might try a different bullet weight too unless you really like the 165's in your rifle. My dad's light barreled 1:11 twist shoots them well, his heavy barreled 1:11 twist shoots them marginally. The heavy barreled rifle REALLY likes 155's though.

Mine's not particularly keen on lighter bullets, it has a heavy varmint contoured, 26" 1:10 on it. The 180, 190, 210 grainers are great in it though.

 

[nashlaw]

Re: Sako 30-06

Detailed responses like that by Bohem are why I love this site. That kind of information saves a ton of work for guys like me.

On the subject of seating depth, I talked to Jerry Newman, who knows a bit about seating depth and how it affects accuracy, and he told me that for the rifle he is building for me, seating depth can be varied by 40, 60, 80 thou and still be shooting little groups.

Having the bullet kissing or jammed into the lands is not always the right answer.

David