.243 reloading help

[Dannyboj]

Hey guys, long time since i last visited.

I need your help.

I went out today after reloading rounds for my .243 Tikka Varmint.

I came up with more questions than answers!!!!!

I was shooting out to 100metres.

Conditions were sweet - 23degrees cel, no wind.

After my cold bore shot i shot 3 shot groups cleaning in between each group and allowing the barrel to cool down.

MY GROUPS SUCKED!!!!!!!

Best group i had all day was .628MOA shooting 87g V-Max with 39.5grain AR2208. Average Velocity was 2629 fps.

The hotter the loads got the worse my groups became opening up to 2.847MOA when loaded with 45grains of powder at an average velocity of 3031 fps.

i didnt have any lighter loads than the 39.5g coz that was book minimum according to Nick Harvey.

Granted i was shooting off a bipod unsupported rear but i have consistently shot better group than that the exact same way in worse conditions with Fed Power Shock 80 grain. I tested them and they have around 47grains of powder at 3284 fps.

Any ideas on how to improve my groupings or where to go from here?

Next thing, when reloading, i noticed that the rounds were really difficult to cycle through the rifle. Upon closer inspection, i discovered that the brass seemed to be stretched out, too long. This is once fired Federal brass. Could it be from the fact that i have a small base die thus the resizing process elongates the brass coz it is narrow?

From my reloading book i thought i wouldnt have to trim brass after at least 4 or 5 reloads.

Any thoughts?

Thanks in advance guys.

 

[tripcrow]

Danny, is it possible that with your SB dies you’re squeezing down the body but not bumping back the shoulder? Check to see if the shoulder is bulging. I had trouble once with a small base 30.06 die that was doing just that. I had to take some off the shell holder to get it far enough into the die to bump the shoulder. They were RCBSs and RCBS said to send the dies into them and not touch the shellholder for fear it’d be used for other dies. They were going to grind off the bottom of the die to match my chamber. It'd get marked and put away just for that gun. A set of headspace gages is a great investment for a reloader.


Buy another set of dies. You don’t want to be using small base dies with a Tika Varminter unless you’re sharing the same ammo with an automatic. I wore out pump barrels with mostly neck sized ammo and never had a feeding problem. Get a set of Lee deluxe dies, $25 US, with the collet die and start neck sizing your brass instead of working it over so hard. Your groups will improve.

You need to be shooting at least 1 fouling shot right after you clean or your groups will most likely be larger than they need to be.

 

[Dannyboj]

Hey Trip, thank you so much for that.

I have spoken to a few people and have had a lot of info.

It turns out i am not loading anywhere near enough and am underpressure. The die is also not doing me anygood and i am going to bin it and get a new set.

So far the recommendations are:

Lee Delux Set
Lee RGB
Redding S
RCBS X

I am going to get chamber length guages as well.

If you want to see pics and a thorough explanation of my issues click on the following:

http://www.snipercentral.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=8991&start=30