Achieving the best accuracy….What to do next????

[22DASHER]

So I have been working on getting one of my 22 Dashers to shoot and have had some pretty good luck. It consistently shoots 1/2 MOA out to 600 yards, with the best 5 shot group of 2.1". I am happy with this but I feel the rifle can do better. I worked up my loads using Erik C's method and felt like it did a great job, but I want more. I just don't know how to get to the next level without going overboard. I only shoot off a harris bipod and a small wedge sand bag in the rear. Any thoughts or ideas would be greatly appreciated. i.e. neck turing, annealing, sorting, etc??

Rifle Specs: Rem 40x, 28" Krieger 8 Twist, 22 Dasher, .254 Neck, shooting 75 grn A-maxs with a .010 jump.

Reloading steps: De-prime brass, clean in SS tumbler, bump shoulders back .002 and neck size, trim to same length, chamfer, polish, and load'em up.

Concerns are: My brass has three firings on them now. When I seat the bullets they have a varying amount of force required to seat them. I would assume this can be controlled by annealing. Anyways, let me know what you guys would do next and why?

Thanks!

 

[22BRGUY]

Excellent shooting IMHO. Are your groups showing more vertical or more horizontal?

 

[22DASHER]

The groups are usually showing more horizontal than vertical.

Although one shot dropped low here...

 

[22BRGUY]

My guess then would be wind reading skills and mirage reading skills would pay off the most but other slight modifications could also help. Neck turning to uniform case necks a little better and annealing may help also. Best Wishes

 

[stgw77]

Try to improve your wind reading skills and load cases with some custom made bullets... nice shooting anyway.

 

[Tim Singleton]

Another vote here to switch to a custom bullet or to a Berger

 

[Erik Cortina]

Start F/L sizing.
Ditch bipod and buy a front rest (SEB) and properly fitted rear bag.
Turn necks - will need to rechamber barrel with no turn neck.
Anneal.
Install a BR stock on your gun and add weight to make it around 20 lbs. Balance gun properly.
Install Blueprinted Jewell BR trigger.
Bluprint bolt.
Get a high power scope.
Buy a hydro-press and sort by seating depth.
Buy custom bullets and sort them.
Sort bullets.
Weigh powder down to .002 grains.
Learn how to read the wind.

If you do all that, you might get the groups down to 1" - 2" at 600 yards... Or you can be happy with what you have now shooting off a Harris bipod! You've got to know when to hold them, know when to fold them...

 

[Turbulent Turtle]

Start F/L sizing.
Ditch bipod and buy a front rest (SEB) and properly fitted rear bag.
Turn necks - will need to rechamber barrel with no turn neck.
Anneal.
Install a BR stock on your gun and add weight to make it around 20 lbs. Balance gun properly.
Install Blueprinted Jewell BR trigger.
Bluprint bolt.
Get a high power scope.
Buy a hydro-press and sort by seating depth.
Buy custom bullets and sort them.
Sort bullets.
Weigh powder down to .002 grains.
Learn how to read the wind.

If you do all that, you might get the groups down to 1" - 2" at 600 yards... Or you can be happy with what you have now shooting off a Harris bipod! You've got to know when to hold them, know when to fold them...

I think my friend Erik means .02 grains. Getting a scale to get to .002 would be prohibitively expensive and not useful.

 

[Erik Cortina]

Start F/L sizing.
Ditch bipod and buy a front rest (SEB) and properly fitted rear bag.
Turn necks - will need to rechamber barrel with no turn neck.
Anneal.
Install a BR stock on your gun and add weight to make it around 20 lbs. Balance gun properly.
Install Blueprinted Jewell BR trigger.
Bluprint bolt.
Get a high power scope.
Buy a hydro-press and sort by seating depth.
Buy custom bullets and sort them.
Sort bullets.
Weigh powder down to .002 grains.
Learn how to read the wind.

If you do all that, you might get the groups down to 1" - 2" at 600 yards... Or you can be happy with what you have now shooting off a Harris bipod! You've got to know when to hold them, know when to fold them...

I think my friend Erik means .02 grains. Getting a scale to get to .002 would be prohibitively expensive and not useful.

I meant .002, but I might be wrong as my Sortorious GD503 reads to 3 decimal places. However, due to the powder kernel size, .02 is as good as it gets for most powders.

 

[Turbulent Turtle]

I think my friend Erik means .02 grains. Getting a scale to get to .002 would be prohibitively expensive and not useful.

I meant .002, but I might be wrong as my Sortorious GD503 reads to 3 decimal places. However, due to the powder kernel size, .02 is as good as it gets for most powders.

Sartorius GD-503: $1,429. That might be seen as prohibitively expensive by some.
Who needs .002 when you only need .02?

However the rest of your points are dead on, especially about doing F/L sizing.

 

[dkhunt14]

Erik you forgot one thing that could really help a 22 Dasher. A muzzle brake. The brakes really help on the smaller recoiling guns. It will make a 22-250 so you can spot your own shots. I built my first couple 6 dashers without a Brake and thought that a 17 pound gun in a Dasher wouldn't need a brake when shot in 1000 yard BR. My last one my gunsmith said to add a brake because he used a brake on his from day one. It made a big difference. Matt

 

[Erik Cortina]

I think my friend Erik means .02 grains. Getting a scale to get to .002 would be prohibitively expensive and not useful.

I meant .002, but I might be wrong as my Sortorious GD503 reads to 3 decimal places. However, due to the powder kernel size, .02 is as good as it gets for most powders.

Sartorius GD-503: $1,429. That might be seen as prohibitively expensive by some.
Who needs .002 when you only need .02?

This is where resolution and sensitivity come in.

You need .005" (I believe that is the resolution of the Sartorious GD503) to reliably measure .02
A scale with .02 resolution will not have .02 sensitivity.

 

[Erik Cortina]

Erik you forgot one thing that could really help a 22 Dasher. A muzzle brake. The brakes really help on the smaller recoiling guns. It will make a 22-250 so you can spot your own shots. I built my first couple 6 dashers without a Brake and thought that a 17 pound gun in a Dasher wouldn't need a brake when shot in 1000 yard BR. My last one my gunsmith said to add a brake because he used a brake on his from day one. It made a big difference. Matt

I have never used a brake so I am not familiar with the accuracy improvements. But I can see where it would be helpful as less recoil usually translates into more accuracy (from shooter).

 

[Elkbane]

If you're "feeling" differential seating force, it's probably because the SS cleaning is getting your necks "too clean". Once you remove all the carbon fouling in the necks, it's brass-on-copper drag you are feeling during seating. I'd either ditch the SS cleaning (or do it every X firings) and/or try to lube the necks with dry graphite before loading.

I've experienced the same thing and finally realized that my "old" dirty cases that I just brush the boulders out of the necks, load and shoot tend to shoot better than my "clean - look better than new" ones....

YMMV, but that's been my experience.
Elkbane

 

[boltfluter]

If you're "feeling" differential seating force, it's probably because the SS cleaning is getting your necks "too clean". Once you remove all the carbon fouling in the necks, it's brass-on-copper drag you are feeling during seating. I'd either ditch the SS cleaning (or do it every X firings) and/or try to lube the necks with dry graphite before loading.

I've experienced the same thing and finally realized that my "old" dirty cases that I just brush the boulders out of the necks, load and shoot tend to shoot better than my "clean - look better than new" ones....

YMMV, but that's been my experience.
Elkbane

+1. You need a little carbon or something in the necks for proper seating. Good point Elk.

Regards, Paul

www.boltfluting.com

 

[Turbulent Turtle]

This is where resolution and sensitivity come in.

You need .005" (I believe that is the resolution of the Sartorious GD503) to reliably measure .02
A scale with .02 resolution will not have .02 sensitivity.

The reality of the situation is that the degree of repeatability is the important aspect here. For my purposes I load to the indicated .02gr, which is equivalent to a kernel of Varget; the only powder I use for match purposes. Adding or removing a single kernel will be detected and shown on the display. So the test is then to remove the charge from the scale and put it back to see if you get the exact same weight and in my case, the display unerringly and decisively indicates the same weight as before. The degree of repeatability is exactly what is needed for powder loading purposes when the smallest granularity is a kernel that weighs .02gr. I do not need to measure parts of a kernel.

Back to the OP, I don't know that doing anything in the loading will automagically increase the accuracy of you shooting. With the setup that you describe, I believe there are other aspects that can be upgraded before revisiting the loading process and definitely the bipod and the small wedge can be upgrade to something more conducive to precision shooting. I would do those things before worrying about annealing and other such things.

 

[Erik Cortina]

Bayou Shooter, that's precisely my point, that you do not know if a kernel of Varget is indeed .02 because if it is .03, your scale will not pick it up due to its resolution.

However, for our intended purposes, it's all we need. As a matter of fact, I made LR high master with a Chargemaster!

 

[Turbulent Turtle]

It would have been faster with a rifle.

 

[Tim Singleton]

It would have been faster with a rifle.

snorted my drink out my nose good one
;D ;D

 

[Iowa Fox]

Thats some nice shooting your already doing. Anneal every few firings for consistant neck pull. Don't seat bullets until the day before you fire them.I would quit ss tumbling to clean. Quit polishing them which was mentioned a second time. I would also play with the shoulder bump, .0005 to .0015 and them play with bullet jump, use good tools for accurate measuring. You almost have to take your bolt apart to get a feel for propper should bump. Make and keep accurate notes. Tumbling or vibratory cleaning does nothing but nick up case necks to make them look pretty for nothing, carbon helps on bullet pull. Use a loupe under a good light for case inspection.