I had an issue a couple of weeks ago where my twice fired brass started popping 205M primers. It cost me a new Jewell trigger; the pierced primers broke the sear. There never was a problem with the 205's during fire forming, load development or my first 600 yard match. But while practicing a few weeks ago, they suddenly started popping. It turns out that I was oversizing my brass by a few thousandths....too much headspace.
My load has always been 32.5 Varget, 105 Hybrids sitting .010 off the lands, 205M primers, with a velocity right at 2993 and a measly 3 to 10 FPS Extreme Spread. When the new trigger came, I went back to the range with 450 primers and shot the same load over the chrono at 100 yards. Also, I adjusted my F/L Redding bushing die to only push the shouler back .0015.
The new primers dropped my velocity by 50 FPS and the groups opened up a little bit. Hmmmm? I ran the bullets in to + .010 and jacked the Varget up by a tenth to 32.6. Velocity went right back up to 3000 with ES in the single digits, according to my new Oehler 35P.
I got to the range later than I wanted that morning and didn't have a lot of time for the new load development, because I wanted to practice at 600. A few groups with the new primer, less shouldr bump, jack the powder by a tenth.....see how they do at 100. Presto....done.
Here is how the new load did at 100. It's only a three shot group. Like I said, I was sort of in a hurry. Well, rats. For some reason, the picture of the 100 yard group won't show up here. Anyway, it measured .085. Good enough...time to move to 600 yards.
I shot five, 5 shot groups. My intent was to shoot them as fast as I could accurately, with my Remington 700. Guessing that my average 5 shot time was about 40 seconds. We have a remote camera at 600 yards that you control with your laptop. I had it sitting on a stool where I could look down at the screen but didn't look at it during my shot string. Only after I was done shooting a group. You will see that I most always had one shot that went high or low; I don't know which shots those were. Barrel getting hot, stock upsetting in the bags, not getting quite back to the point of aim before I fired, wind? I have no clue. At any rate, this is as good as I have done with 5 five shot groups at 600 yards. No complaints on my part but I want to do better. I am sure I will.
My load has always been 32.5 Varget, 105 Hybrids sitting .010 off the lands, 205M primers, with a velocity right at 2993 and a measly 3 to 10 FPS Extreme Spread. When the new trigger came, I went back to the range with 450 primers and shot the same load over the chrono at 100 yards. Also, I adjusted my F/L Redding bushing die to only push the shouler back .0015.
The new primers dropped my velocity by 50 FPS and the groups opened up a little bit. Hmmmm? I ran the bullets in to + .010 and jacked the Varget up by a tenth to 32.6. Velocity went right back up to 3000 with ES in the single digits, according to my new Oehler 35P.
I got to the range later than I wanted that morning and didn't have a lot of time for the new load development, because I wanted to practice at 600. A few groups with the new primer, less shouldr bump, jack the powder by a tenth.....see how they do at 100. Presto....done.
Here is how the new load did at 100. It's only a three shot group. Like I said, I was sort of in a hurry. Well, rats. For some reason, the picture of the 100 yard group won't show up here. Anyway, it measured .085. Good enough...time to move to 600 yards.
I shot five, 5 shot groups. My intent was to shoot them as fast as I could accurately, with my Remington 700. Guessing that my average 5 shot time was about 40 seconds. We have a remote camera at 600 yards that you control with your laptop. I had it sitting on a stool where I could look down at the screen but didn't look at it during my shot string. Only after I was done shooting a group. You will see that I most always had one shot that went high or low; I don't know which shots those were. Barrel getting hot, stock upsetting in the bags, not getting quite back to the point of aim before I fired, wind? I have no clue. At any rate, this is as good as I have done with 5 five shot groups at 600 yards. No complaints on my part but I want to do better. I am sure I will.
