seating depth w/ Hornady 75 bthps in .223 wylde ar

[jLorenzo]

So I'm fairly new to reloading but have the basics down. Have Hornady heads pace comparator kit, honestly a Lil confused how to use will look up some youtube. Right now my best accuracy has been 23.8gr varget, cci br4, LC 5.56 brass, 2.25 coal, brass prepped on rcbs trim station using Hornady .223 match grade custom dies.
Here's a 20 round mag of that load at 100. I know each gun is an individual but any advice on seating depth or charges? I tried a Lil more and a Lil less powder and 23.8 did OK but I'd like to get it just a Lil tighter. Weirdly it shoot American Eagle 50gr HP predator very well and that is a COAL of 2.1475. Wouldn't think the 50s would do well in my 1:7 but they do.last pick is my best day would like to get these groups consistent.

 

[jLorenzo]

So I'm fairly new to reloading but have the basics down. Have Hornady heads pace comparator kit, honestly a Lil confused how to use will look up some youtube. Right now my best accuracy has been 23.8gr varget, cci br4, LC 5.56 brass, 2.25 coal, brass prepped on rcbs trim station using Hornady .223 match grade custom dies.
Here's a 20 round mag of that load at 100. I know each gun is an individual but any advice on seating depth or charges? I tried a Lil more and a Lil less powder and 23.8 did OK but I'd like to get it just a Lil tighter. Weirdly it shoot American Eagle 50gr HP predator very well and that is a COAL of 2.1475. Wouldn't think the 50s would do well in my 1:7 but they do.last pick is my best day would like to get these groups consistent.
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That's the 50gr American Eagle in the middle of last pic and berger 77 tactical otms on top.

 

[Raffica762]

Oh wow I may need to check out the 75Gr pills myself

 

[jLorenzo]

Oh wow I may need to check out the 75Gr pills myself

Good stuff for 19.99 a box of 100. Cheaper online in bulk. Pretty much all I load for my 18" AR.

 

[jLorenzo]

So I'm guessing it's more powder charge than seating depth but I've had that same load shoot 1.2 MOA. Maybe just the nut behind the but though. Any advice on upping consistency?

 

[jLorenzo]

Heres a more typical example of how that load shoots those groups I posted before do shoot but not always. That's what I'm getting at.

 

[spife7980]

It could be powder, it could be seating depth, it could be both.

Have you done a real ocw?

 

[jLorenzo]

Only with my .308 bolt. Where you shoot one round of each one after the other letting gun cool in between shots?

 

[jLorenzo]

It could be powder, it could be seating depth, it could be both.

Have you done a real ocw?

With the 223 I started with 24gr varget went up and down some in weight and just shot groups.

 

[jLorenzo]

It could be powder, it could be seating depth, it could be both.

Have you done a real ocw?

Any suggestions where to start? Sorry I'm new, my die was loading rounds with wildly different COALs last night and leaving nasty rings around the ogive.

 

[jLorenzo]

I'm thinking the die is dirty. Hornady custom match .223 dies FL.

 

[spife7980]

Any suggestions where to start? Sorry I'm new, my die was loading rounds with wildly different COALs last night and leaving nasty rings around the ogive.

First I would disassemble your dies and clean them. Then I would stop measuring oal (other than to verify they fit in your mags) and only measure the ogive length. Your over all length can vary wildly, it’s your ogive that really matters and is much more consistent.

Then I would load up in .2 increments from what Hodgden reloading says is your min and max charges. So 22.5-25gr in two tenths increments.
http://www.hodgdonreloading.com/data/rifle

Do that, shoot them in a daisey chain, start going up one way and then come back the other. Dont hang a magneato speed on it, don’t try new things in the middle. Just shoot it exactly the same each time. Give 2-3 minutes between shots so as to not over cook your barrel. Get a paper target long enough in a line so that you can have them all in a logical row, not randomly scatted around on different shreds of paper. Have your zero close to the point of aim. Make it easy on yourself to see what is actually happening down range with each trigger pull and take a pic and report it back to us.

 

[jLorenzo]

Well die is clean and loaded a good one last night so I will listen to spiff as soon as I have some time off.