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Posted: 10/12/2009 12:07:22 PM EDT
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I reloaded my first ever rifle rounds a few days ago and I went and shot 10 rounds of them today to test the accuracy against my factory loaded rounds. Firing at 100 yards, I got about 3/4 of an inch groups with my reloads, and about 1 1/4 inch groups with factory. I was thinking that I would get way worse with my first reloads. About the same as factory loads. I was extremely surprised.
Is this normal to get that good on my first sets of reloads? Can I possibly get better or is that about as good as it gets? The weapon is a remington model 7 cambered in .300 remington Short action ultra mag. I loaded them with 150 grain hornady fmj with 62 grains of Hodgdon H414 (the recomended minimum in my lyman manual) in remingotn factory ammo cases. I think I could get even better if I wasnt shaking so bad. Too much coffee before I went shooting. Again I ask, Is this normal? |
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Quoted:
Guess I will post this in GD to get some more responses. Or just be willing to wait more than 14 1/2 minutes for some responses to start rolling in. For what it's worth, my son and I got similar grouping out of the first batch we worked up for his .243. Sometimes you just get beginner's luck. |
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Sounds like you got lucky.
I wouldn't end your quest there. Try a few different powder charges and a few different bullets. Not all bullets of the same weight will yield the same results. I assume this rifle isn't a plinker, given the caliber. Get some hunting bullets and work up a load with those. |
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Here is how I did it when I started loading for my .308 and 5.56
Start at the minimum. Load 5 rounds. Add .5 gr, load 5 more rounds (KEEP THEM SEPARATE AND LABELED) Continue to max load. Get a good base, (sandbags or shooting rest) and do 5 shot groups with your ammo. The should start open, then start getting to be smaller groups as you near your sweet spot., and then start opening up again. Once I found the sweet spot, I started over, using .2 grain increments. Repeat the group shooting. Bingo, you should have your load, and it should be very accurate. Load lots of em, and shoot em. Good luck. And yes, your hand loads should be more accurate for your rifle than even premium ammo. TXL |
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Quoted:
Here is how I did it when I started loading for my .308 and 5.56 Start at the minimum. Load 5 rounds. Add .5 gr, load 5 more rounds (KEEP THEM SEPARATE AND LABELED) Continue to max load. Get a good base, (sandbags or shooting rest) and do 5 shot groups with your ammo. The should start open, then start getting to be smaller groups as you near your sweet spot., and then start opening up again. Once I found the sweet spot, I started over, using .2 grain increments. Repeat the group shooting. Bingo, you should have your load, and it should be very accurate. Load lots of em, and shoot em. Good luck. And yes, your hand loads should be more accurate for your rifle than even premium ammo. TXL Thank you for this information, I have been reading up on this and it seems like more of an art than a science. "Change the OAL" or "Change powders" or "change the charge" sometimes all three at the same time. Noone seems to have a method, this actually makes sense. I guess if you stick to one variable at a time you are bound to get to a sweet spot. |
lol....my first rifle rounds were for my 5R 308 and I had a very similar reaction. I thought I was some kind of genius but learned that I wasn't even an idiot savant.
I couldn't find any Varget or RL15 locally.....I saw that Benchmark was listed as a usable powder, so being ignorant, I picked up a pound. I tried a listed load, seated a few 175gr SMKs to 2.800 and headed out to the back yard. 9 shots inside a half inch at 100 yds––WOOHOO!!!! (I have witnesses!) Benchmark isn't exactly thought of a 'go to' powder in .308 shooting circles, so I figured that I must have stumbled upon something, right? Yeah....Not so much.  There's a reason BM isn't a widely used for .308, especially for the heavier projectiles.
I went to a friend's farm and tried my uber accurate loads at about 450 yds. My shots went everywhere but the target. I broke down and bought a chronograph that evening....and soon learned that my sooper-dooper load was crossing the chrono screens at a whopping 2230 FPS. I was hitting about 20 inches lower at 450 yds than expected, and the wind blew 'em around a whole lot more than I had anticipated. With a little experimentation, I found out that while my rifle really likes 175gr SMKs, it LOVES 178gr AMAX––especially with 43.8gr of RL15 for 2600 FPS. (44gr Varget is a close second at 2650 FPS, but the RL15 seems a bit more consistent) These loads shoot great at 450, and they should be fine and dandy all the way out to 1000. (If I ever get a chance to shoot that far, I'll let you know how it turns out.) Keep good records, and experiment to learn what your rifle likes. If you're being anal about your prep and load, you'll probably always do better than factory hunting ammo. Half the fun of reloading is wringing that last .1 MOA from the rifle and you'll always have something more to do than just blasting away at the range––unless you want to  Keeping track of and trading recipes, chronograph data, and general research is a pasttime all by itself.
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