On Thursday the weather improved and I was testing Staball in my Tikka T3x TAC A1 with 153.5 Berger Hybrids. The best result was at 41.0gr with a Velocity=2407, ES=6, and SD=4.4 and it got me a .35" group at 100 yards ... but that was (unfortunately) at the top end of the loads I built.
Next I'll build a ladder test in .2gr increments from 41gr to 43gr increments, and see what's up. I'll also build a range for Hornady ELDM 147's since I've got 500 of them laying around. I do love the Berger 153.5's though ... even with crappy loads and velocities all over the map, everything I fired was sub-MOA.
BTW ... testing included charge increments at .5gr for Shooters World 4350 and Accurate 4350 ... but the Staball was the only one that gave me single-digit SD's. Next closest was Accurate 4350 at 40.0gr with ES=15 and SD=10.3 and a .20" group.
The Shooters World 4350 was singularly unimpressive across the board.
NEWBIE LESSON LEARNED ... Don't waste your time building at the low end near the "Start" range. Just go straight to the "Max", back off 1 or 2gr's ... and start from there. I wasted probably 60 rounds at the low end watching the numbers improve as I got to heavier charge weights.
I LOVE my Tikka ... it's a very consistent platform for this testing. The quest for the perfect load ... continues.