So went to the range today to play around with a ladder test on a GAP Rock 300WM and decided to do a confirmatory one on a GAP 308 that previous load work had already pointed me in a direction.
On the 300WM, 24" using RWS brass, 210 SMK's, Fed match mag primers and H1000.
On the 308, 20" using Lapua brass, 178 Amax, Fed match primers and Varget.
Previous ladder test on the 308 pointed towards 43.5gr of Varget, and had shot up to 45.8gr without pressure signs in that original string. (Weird pressure issue in a minute). Yesterday, it was nice out and fired a few groups playing with different seating depths at 100 yards and sighting in the 300WM and firing a short string for testing pressure with the RWS brass since seem to have less capacity. Here are two of the groups from that session.
So today, shot two ladders at 500yrds and think I screwed the 308 one up about as much as possible. As the bullets climbed up the page I got nervous they were going to climb off paper, so moved over to give more vertical room on the target I was using, but they did not climb, just printed to almost same vertical as the first string, just appx 1 MOA to the left as that's the shift I made--until the final two which showed a significant jump in velocity. It started raining right as I got to the range, so did not set up my chrony.
The 43.5 load seems to fall within somewhat of a node. Every round today showed faint marking from ejector button. No sticky bolt or other pressure sign, but my brass from last weekends ladder and the groups yesterday did not show any pressure signs at all. So I'm stumped as to why the show of reassure today, same brass, powder, primer, etc--all same lot. Temps even close--each day in the 20's/30's. Cleaned the barrel tonight real well hoping that's my issue--but otherwise stumped.
The 300WM Ladder seemed to show a node in that mid 74 gr area, which 74.5gr decent the day before.
On the 300WM, 24" using RWS brass, 210 SMK's, Fed match mag primers and H1000.
On the 308, 20" using Lapua brass, 178 Amax, Fed match primers and Varget.
Previous ladder test on the 308 pointed towards 43.5gr of Varget, and had shot up to 45.8gr without pressure signs in that original string. (Weird pressure issue in a minute). Yesterday, it was nice out and fired a few groups playing with different seating depths at 100 yards and sighting in the 300WM and firing a short string for testing pressure with the RWS brass since seem to have less capacity. Here are two of the groups from that session.
So today, shot two ladders at 500yrds and think I screwed the 308 one up about as much as possible. As the bullets climbed up the page I got nervous they were going to climb off paper, so moved over to give more vertical room on the target I was using, but they did not climb, just printed to almost same vertical as the first string, just appx 1 MOA to the left as that's the shift I made--until the final two which showed a significant jump in velocity. It started raining right as I got to the range, so did not set up my chrony.
The 43.5 load seems to fall within somewhat of a node. Every round today showed faint marking from ejector button. No sticky bolt or other pressure sign, but my brass from last weekends ladder and the groups yesterday did not show any pressure signs at all. So I'm stumped as to why the show of reassure today, same brass, powder, primer, etc--all same lot. Temps even close--each day in the 20's/30's. Cleaned the barrel tonight real well hoping that's my issue--but otherwise stumped.
The 300WM Ladder seemed to show a node in that mid 74 gr area, which 74.5gr decent the day before.