284 Winchester 1000 yard load testing

[22BRGUY]

Gotta ask some of you more experienced competition guys why this caliber is not seen much in the equipment lists of the benchrest results. It would seem to be very competitive.

Less recoil is a advantage when group shooting so not to upset the tracking of the rifle. I have shot some bench and I prefer a 6mm for that reason,especially with the light gun. I run it @ 22lb for fclass and it behaves better. The course of fire is very different.

Thanks Mike....makes sense. I shoot 6 dasher and like it alot, but am looking for something a little more stout to build. So far the 6.5's seem to maybe offer a nice compromise.

 

[Immike]

Jerry Kloppell shot the 260AI in 600 bench a few years back and was whipping us with that thing. I shot the 6xc at the bench and nobody else was on the equipment lists same as Jerry but I managed to win the natls 600 light gun in 2010. I think we both had good barrels for the most part.

 

[lawrence97]

I had to tap into a different lot of H4831SC and start all over. The groups were shot at 1000 yards. Temps ranged from 68-72 DEG and towards the middle of the session I encountered some head wind with gusts from left to right. I focused on groups and I maintained the same POA throughout.

Now, I ask for your advice. Should I load up the charge that gave least amount of ES spread and run with it or do seating depth test, test .1gns above and below that charge or ?

Data:

54.7
2860
2863
2857
2842
2858
AVG. 2856
ES 21
SD 8

55
2890
2881
2880
2888
2891
AVG. 2886
ES 11
SD 5

55.3
2900
2900
2893
2901
2918
AVG. 2902
ES 25
SD 9

55.6
2906
2920
2923
2910
2927
AVG. 2917
ES 21
SD 8

 

[Erik Cortina]

I would load 55.1 gr. That would put you between 55 and 55.3 which both shot great.

 

[savageshooter86]

that is some fine shooting. To me 55 and 55.3 have same POI on target and both have good vertical and group size. Split the difference and shoot them.

 

[Immike]

This is why I shoot 2 groups of 5 shots in 1/10 testing. You have two test targets that look promising but still not sure. I think you should test that area and be confident in your load.

 

[Keith Glasscock]

I'm with Erik on this. I'd go 55.1 and call it a success. Two groups that look like that at 1k proves that you are in a node.

As for chrono results, it looks like your final shot at 55.3 had something go on with it. The previous 4 shots had an ES of 8. Might have been a chrono hiccup. There certainly isn't a high shot to account for the fast reading.

 

[savageshooter86]

must be nice to be able to test at 1000 yards :'(

 

[lawrence97]

Gotta love Southwest Arizona…. Not too crowded, lots of open space and a gun totting community. The only negative to the 1000 yard range is that there is always some sort of wind and that is not the best to test loads.

Thank You All for the input. I have a local match this weekend and will post results!

 

[normmatzen]

Don't forget, the whole reason for this exercise is to tune the load to the barrel.
When you have tuned the load correctly, the band width of the tune will accept a fairly large ES and still put all holes close together. Read up on Optimal Barrel Time.
Once you have the load tuned, you can look into the ES. Maybe it is anything from too tight necks making seating inconsistent, or a powder weighing system that allows deviations in weight.
I switched to ultrasonic cleaning my cases after each firing and found seating force going through the roof and inconsistent. My ES numbers degraded as well. I went back to doing nothing but cleaning the inside of the neck with a nylon brush in a hand drill and seating force dropped more than a factor of 2 and became consistent and ES dropped as well.
One of the tricks some folks use to tune a barrel tuner is fire three shot groups with powder charges of nominal + and - maybe 0.3gn. Then, tune the tuner for minimum vertical spread. Once the barrel is on the correct side of the node, the variations in MV will be corrected for by the tune and the vertical spread minimizes. Then, we do it at the other range we shoot! Once we find the tune, we get first order correction for most loading slop as well as weather effects. Unfortunately, no correction for wind!