I think its gonna shoot

[garandman]

Spent some range time yesterday with @Stan Taylor developing 6 Dasher loads. On his recommend, I loaded up some 31.6 / 31.8 / 32.0 Varget loads and placed the bullets in the case mouths upside down to seat at the range.

It was suggested to me to get a shooting mentor, and I gotta say ... spending time with a very accomplished shooter who's already been where I'm trying to go is invaluable. I was shooting his 28" straight taper Douglas bbl. Having a second pair of eyes on the targets / bullet seating and his knowledge was pretty awesome. I cannot thank Stan enuf. (This forum is excellent...and range time with a great shooter is excellenter. )

Anyway.... we found a pretty good (5-shot clover leaf) node at 30.6 gr Varget just touching the lands (loads I brought with me) and also got a seating depth range of +0.005 to touching to -0.005 to do further load development. Bbl didn't like -0.020 or +0.020. Or 10 or 15 into / off the lands (By "didn't like" I mean 0.50" + / - grps at 120 yds, at that particular powder charge. .)

I'm gonna try for a little more speed, as @BartsBullets and Stan suggested, prolly find a accuracy node ever 50 fps or so. Bart's been a help here, too. So a public "thank you" to both.

Did I mention this was off an Atlas bipod and a rear bag?

Question: When you've found multiple accuracy nodes, do they all shoot about same size groups, or is there some variation in group size with different nodes?

Question 2 : Velocity matters mostly to minimize drop over distance, right?

Yesterdays work:

 

[OmegaRed]

Anytime a group looks like a twig and berries I go with it. That's just me.

 

[Dave M.]

Spent some range time yesterday with @Stan Taylor developing 6 Dasher loads. On his recommend, I loaded up some 31.6 / 31.8 / 32.0 Varget loads and placed the bullets in the case mouths upside down to seat at the range.

It was suggested to me to get a shooting mentor, and I gotta say ... spending time with a very accomplished shooter who's already been where I'm trying to go is invaluable. I was shooting his 28" straight taper Douglas bbl. Having a second pair of eyes on the targets / bullet seating and his knowledge was pretty awesome. I cannot thank Stan enuf. (This forum is excellent...and range time with a great shooter is excellenter. )

Anyway.... we found a pretty good (5-shot clover leaf) node at 30.6 gr Varget just touching the lands (loads I brought with me) and also got a seating depth range of +0.005 to touching to -0.005 to do further load development. Bbl didn't like -0.020 or +0.020. Or 10 or 15 into / off the lands (By "didn't like" I mean 0.50" + / - grps at 120 yds, at that particular powder charge. .)

I'm gonna try for a little more speed, as @BartsBullets and Stan suggested, prolly find a accuracy node ever 50 fps or so. Bart's been a help here, too. So a public "thank you" to both.

Did I mention this was off an Atlas bipod and a rear bag?

Question: When you've found multiple accuracy nodes, do they all shoot about same size groups, or is there some variation in group size with different nodes?

Question 2 : Velocity matters mostly to minimize drop over distance, right?

Yesterdays work:
View attachment 1289126

View attachment 1289127

Answer 1 - they may shoot similar but if you analyze them closely you will see some have more vertical and others tend to spread in a circular or even horizontal fashion.

Answer 2 - in my experience, rarely is the top node the most accurate. Also, for what you may gain in speed, you give up even more in accuracy, brass life and barrel wear. For a 6 dasher with a 28” barrel lots of great shooters find the accuracy node just over 3000fps. I shoot RL-15, not varget; and at 60F I get 3076fps average with a 20 shot SD of 3.7fps. I shoot berger 105g VLDs over 33.1g of RL-15 in small rifle lapua brass.
dave

 

[BartsBullets]

Outstanding! Glad you could get with Stan and get started right! Great to see your rifle shooting.

My experience is usually one node will shoot a little better. But it is a small improvement and sometimes difficult to prove. For now I’d go with whichever is the most forgiving (largest load window).

More velocity equals less drop and less drift. So theoretically if our rifles are equally accurate and both get caught with the same wind change the person Shooting the fastest load would get hurt less.

Bart

 

[Dave M.]

Spent some range time yesterday with @Stan Taylor developing 6 Dasher loads. On his recommend, I loaded up some 31.6 / 31.8 / 32.0 Varget loads and placed the bullets in the case mouths upside down to seat at the range.

It was suggested to me to get a shooting mentor, and I gotta say ... spending time with a very accomplished shooter who's already been where I'm trying to go is invaluable. I was shooting his 28" straight taper Douglas bbl. Having a second pair of eyes on the targets / bullet seating and his knowledge was pretty awesome. I cannot thank Stan enuf. (This forum is excellent...and range time with a great shooter is excellenter. )

Anyway.... we found a pretty good (5-shot clover leaf) node at 30.6 gr Varget just touching the lands (loads I brought with me) and also got a seating depth range of +0.005 to touching to -0.005 to do further load development. Bbl didn't like -0.020 or +0.020. Or 10 or 15 into / off the lands (By "didn't like" I mean 0.50" + / - grps at 120 yds, at that particular powder charge. .)

I'm gonna try for a little more speed, as @BartsBullets and Stan suggested, prolly find a accuracy node ever 50 fps or so. Bart's been a help here, too. So a public "thank you" to both.

Did I mention this was off an Atlas bipod and a rear bag?

Question: When you've found multiple accuracy nodes, do they all shoot about same size groups, or is there some variation in group size with different nodes?

Question 2 : Velocity matters mostly to minimize drop over distance, right?

Yesterdays work:
View attachment 1289126

View attachment 1289127

Consider yourself very fortunate to have a great mentor. I’m more self taught and I’ve made more mistakes along the journey than I can even remember; but I’ve also learned a great deal from those mistakes.
dave

 

[garandman]

Don't know we did much of anything different in charge weight / seating depth than what I been doing for 10+ years.... the one major change was in hand feeding each round rather than chambering from the magazine. Better quality brass (Peterson) with better brass prep (bumped the shoulder back a little over 0.002 ) were the biggest reloading changes.

 

[JimSC]

Anytime a group looks like a twig and berries I go with it. That's just me.

what he said. Great looking group. For what it is worth the farthest I shoot is 850 and like to use middle node loads to save wear and tear on the barrels. If I were going for 1000 or more I might try and find a high node.

 

[garandman]

Make sure you don't take my term "mentor" in the wrong way. You could have 30 years experience and one extra set of eyes on your work can still make a big difference. Just like someone with their golf swing.

I gotcha. It was a funny - stupid moment...I was just doing what I always do feeding rounds into the box mag ... and Stan asked ...."Yer loading from a magazine?"

I was like "Duh. I single feed my match rimfire gun. WHAT AM I DOIN' HERE???" "I've always done it that way" can be the enemy.

 

[Bill Norris]

I gotcha. It was a funny - stupid moment...I was just doing what I always do feeding rounds into the box mag ... and Stan asked ...."Yer loading from a magazine?"

I was like "Duh. I single feed my match rimfire gun. WHAT AM I DOIN' HERE???" "I've always done it that way" can be the enemy.

Yep, sometimes we have to veer from our set ways to see improvement in our shooting.