Same load throught life of barrel?

[Speedgoat]

First off I'll throw this out there, I'm both new to reloading and new to precision / long range shooting.

My gunsmith should be done here in a week or two with my fairly custom Model 70 in 30-06. My question is that once I've gotten my 'go to' loads for accuracy and hunting, will these 'sweet spot' loads stay accurate throughout the life of my barrel, hopefully several thousand rounds, or as the barrel wears will I have to go adjusting my load for it?

My reasoning for asking this is my wondering if it would be worthwhile to load up a bunch of rounds and store them for a rainy day, or if I'd be wise to only keep as many loaded rounds to supply a few trips to the range?

Thanks for the advice.

 

[leadbullet]

To keep accuracy the same throughout the barrel life, you'll need to chase the throat erosion and seat your bullets longer and longer, so I wouldn't load more than 4-500 at a time in a 30-06.
Cheers.

 

[High Binder]

, will these 'sweet spot' loads stay accurate throughout the life of my barrel, hopefully several thousand rounds, or as the barrel wears will I have to go adjusting my load for it? .

AS already mentioned, you will have to modify your loads as the gas from each firing will wear away the throat and the bullet will start engaging the lands later and later. It's a constant battle.

 

[Icewater]

Interesting, makes sense, good to know

 

[milo 2.0]

AS already mentioned, you will have to modify your loads as the gas from each firing will wear away the throat and the bullet will start engaging the lands later and later. It's a constant battle.

I've noticed one thing that contradicts what the previous 2 poster said, if you start with the Berger Hybrid, or a Lapua scenar, it's not a given that you'll chase the lands. Some bullets are jump tolerant through the range of throat erosion.

 

[JBNj]

You will have to adjust as the throat wears. Most use some type of gauge to measure the distance to the rifling. Your measurment that is important to you is from the case head to the bullets ogive. Once you find a seating depth your rifle likes. You will have to chase this measurment as your throat wears. Only problem with this is once your throat becomes long your cartridge may not fit your magazine (Becoming a single shot). If you played it smart having your smith chamber the rifle so you have plenty of room in the magazine to chase the rifling. But to small of a throat may prevent you from using factory ammo.

First thing you want to do is get a gauge to measure your chamber so you can size your brass to just fit. Then you'll want to know where the throat begins so you can seat your bullets jammed or jumped.

 

[KYpatriot]

Unless you are shooting vld type bullets with a secant profile ogive I wouldn't worry about it. Load em up.

 

[[email protected]]

I'm going to be testing this very thing today. I found an awesome load with my 300wm and new norma Brass.
I have 20 new norma left, and 20 1X norma, going to test at 100 and at 600 yards.

The things different: shoulder moved 10 thou out, neck tension .001" less, annealed, and FL sized (LCD than redding body die). The 1X also has less than .001" runout while new has .003" runout.

Should be interesting!

 

[High Binder]

I've noticed one thing that contradicts what the previous 2 poster said, if you start with the Berger Hybrid, or a Lapua scenar, it's not a given that you'll chase the lands. Some bullets are jump tolerant through the range of throat erosion.

Good point.

 

[[email protected]]

Didn't get a chance to shot them at 600 . However I am very certain this is the exact same node, makes me happy

This paper likes to tear both under .5"