Yesterday afternoon, I finally had a chance to apply some of the shooting and reloading advice I have obtained here. And, it worked!
I used the "push into the bipod", proper alignment behind the rifle, solid cheek weld, natural point of aim, close your eye for a few seconds and check to confirm natural POA, and ladder test advice to test my first batch of precision loaded 308 ammunition in my LMT MWSE semi auto.
This was a challenge as shooting a semiauto rifle is much different than shooting either handguns (which I am reasonably good at) or bolt rifles (I have never tried), and I have only a few range session with the LMT under my belt.
But, I took over 30 minutes before I ever fired a shot, trying to find that comfortable, natural POA, aligned position. The 5/8" QD riser I had added under my scope rings really solved the problem I had had with my cheekbone running into the stock before I could get truly behind the scope. The 2.811 to 2.815" COAL 175g Sierra Matchking cartridges cycled just fine through the Pmag magazines. The .003" neck tension (via Redding .336" bushing on Lapua cases) seemed to work.
The 100 yards indoor range was an issue, since that was insufficient to fully separate the groups in the ladder test. But, it was do it now at the 100 yards range, or wait until 12-24 to do it at the outdoor range with 100 and 250 yards paper target capability. I also still fired many "wild" shots (bad technique
)which polluted the otherwise good ladder test results, and the 0.5 grain ladder steps were insufficient to truly separate the groups, but I persisted, and used masking tape applied to the back of the target holes,and labeling of each shot in each group, to keep track when the groups overlapped.
The results were great! EVERY group was decent, but the best load with this rifle and the 175g Matchkings was 42.0 grains of IMR 4895. Using a round robin approach (to ensure that my fatigue did not penalize the last load tested) the 42.0 grain load really delivered. I don't have the necessary fatigue resistance yet to fire the many strings of 5 shots in a row that a ladder test requires, so I used 3 shot groups in the round robin.The two best 3- shot groups with it at 100 yards were 9/16" and 5/8", and it was ALWAYS the 42.0 grain load that beat all the others.
This was also the first firing of these brand new Lapua cases, so they were still "too small" when loaded, to "fill out" the chamber properly (which will end up being with .003" clearance after 2nd and subsequent firings).
I wanted you guys and gals to know that the advice I got here WORKED. I am looking forward to learning MORE.
Jim G
I used the "push into the bipod", proper alignment behind the rifle, solid cheek weld, natural point of aim, close your eye for a few seconds and check to confirm natural POA, and ladder test advice to test my first batch of precision loaded 308 ammunition in my LMT MWSE semi auto.
This was a challenge as shooting a semiauto rifle is much different than shooting either handguns (which I am reasonably good at) or bolt rifles (I have never tried), and I have only a few range session with the LMT under my belt.
But, I took over 30 minutes before I ever fired a shot, trying to find that comfortable, natural POA, aligned position. The 5/8" QD riser I had added under my scope rings really solved the problem I had had with my cheekbone running into the stock before I could get truly behind the scope. The 2.811 to 2.815" COAL 175g Sierra Matchking cartridges cycled just fine through the Pmag magazines. The .003" neck tension (via Redding .336" bushing on Lapua cases) seemed to work.
The 100 yards indoor range was an issue, since that was insufficient to fully separate the groups in the ladder test. But, it was do it now at the 100 yards range, or wait until 12-24 to do it at the outdoor range with 100 and 250 yards paper target capability. I also still fired many "wild" shots (bad technique
The results were great! EVERY group was decent, but the best load with this rifle and the 175g Matchkings was 42.0 grains of IMR 4895. Using a round robin approach (to ensure that my fatigue did not penalize the last load tested) the 42.0 grain load really delivered. I don't have the necessary fatigue resistance yet to fire the many strings of 5 shots in a row that a ladder test requires, so I used 3 shot groups in the round robin.The two best 3- shot groups with it at 100 yards were 9/16" and 5/8", and it was ALWAYS the 42.0 grain load that beat all the others.
This was also the first firing of these brand new Lapua cases, so they were still "too small" when loaded, to "fill out" the chamber properly (which will end up being with .003" clearance after 2nd and subsequent firings).
I wanted you guys and gals to know that the advice I got here WORKED. I am looking forward to learning MORE.
Jim G
