[rant]
I have been unable to get much better than 1.25" or so out of a custom-built heavy-barreled remington 700. The smith damn sure knows what he's doing, so I know it wasn't put together wrong. Past targets with several other guns over the years have illustrated I have progressed nicely as a shooter, so I know the problem was highly unlikely to be me. After much frustration, thinking it was maybe me, then the scope, then the thread protector, etc. etc., I was able to shoot some quite impressive groups at 100 with Hornady Superformance factory 178's. So I felt a lot better knowing the rifle (and I) can shoot, and the scope isn't wonky.
After some closer inspection of my handloads, I learned the seating depths have been varying as much as .020" at the ogive from one projectile to another (when seating, I use a Hornady CGND die, and will set it with the first round to the desired depth, and then churn them out--i have never had a problem in the past until this lot of SMK's, which is all i've shot out of this rifle so far). While SMK's tend to be fairly forgiving regarding jump to the lands, this is absolutely unacceptable from a consistency standpoint. I can understand .003" or so variation, maybe even .005". But .020" is WAY the hell too much when you claim uniformity and consistency of your product is top-notch.
Measured the lengths of some projectiles tonight (just the bullets, not loaded rounds) at the ogive. Here's what I got:
.657
.639
.645
.637
.655
.655
.653
.656
.658
.648
.656
.640
.656
.639
.643
.656
.644
.655
.637
.648
OAL from base to meplat varies just as much, and isn't even consistent--two projectiles that measure .656 at the ogive, for example, were over .010" apart on overall length.
I find this lack of consistency in manufacture absolutely ridiculous, and will be moving on to Hornady A-Max projectiles for load development.
[/rant]
I have been unable to get much better than 1.25" or so out of a custom-built heavy-barreled remington 700. The smith damn sure knows what he's doing, so I know it wasn't put together wrong. Past targets with several other guns over the years have illustrated I have progressed nicely as a shooter, so I know the problem was highly unlikely to be me. After much frustration, thinking it was maybe me, then the scope, then the thread protector, etc. etc., I was able to shoot some quite impressive groups at 100 with Hornady Superformance factory 178's. So I felt a lot better knowing the rifle (and I) can shoot, and the scope isn't wonky.
After some closer inspection of my handloads, I learned the seating depths have been varying as much as .020" at the ogive from one projectile to another (when seating, I use a Hornady CGND die, and will set it with the first round to the desired depth, and then churn them out--i have never had a problem in the past until this lot of SMK's, which is all i've shot out of this rifle so far). While SMK's tend to be fairly forgiving regarding jump to the lands, this is absolutely unacceptable from a consistency standpoint. I can understand .003" or so variation, maybe even .005". But .020" is WAY the hell too much when you claim uniformity and consistency of your product is top-notch.
Measured the lengths of some projectiles tonight (just the bullets, not loaded rounds) at the ogive. Here's what I got:
.657
.639
.645
.637
.655
.655
.653
.656
.658
.648
.656
.640
.656
.639
.643
.656
.644
.655
.637
.648
OAL from base to meplat varies just as much, and isn't even consistent--two projectiles that measure .656 at the ogive, for example, were over .010" apart on overall length.
I find this lack of consistency in manufacture absolutely ridiculous, and will be moving on to Hornady A-Max projectiles for load development.
[/rant]
