long range (heavy bullet) loads at 100- accuracy

[AdamJ]

Shooting a 6br savage f-class that is wearing a 28" 1-8 criterion barrel from northlander supply. I have tried 107smk and 105 berger hunting vld over 29-30.5gr of varget and upto 28.5 gr of Benchmark, nothing spectacular. Currently 107smk .020 off with 28 BM give the best groups, in the .4 at 100. I have 2 243 1-8 rifles that shoot the 105 bergers at 1/4moa at 100 and out to 500 before my skill starts opening up groups at longer range. I guess I need to get some rl15 or H4895 to try. I have some 108 berger and 105 hornady BTHP in bound and will try them. Benchmark load's SD in the single digits but not had a chance to shoot longer distance then 100. I know people talk about vld/heavy type bullets not going to sleep at 100 yet, but with my 2 fast twist 243 I have not seen that. With them I found the most accurate load at 100, which had SDs in the 4-6 fps, and bingo they shot great at long distance also. Is it possible that I overlooked a load that shot .5moa at 100 that might have been spectacular at long range? Insight and more experienced views than mine are much appreciated.

 

[mikecr]

Almost nothing common so far(6br to 243) except the cal, and it's never been automatic that a barrel will shoot.
Is the 6br scope significantly different than your 243s?
Stock? Bedding?

 

[AdamJ]

not saying they are the same thing, just relaying that my experience with heavy vld type bullets performed great at 100 and at range. The stock is savage factory f-class bedded and was checked out by a reputable LR gunsmith. trigger is a rifle basix sav-2 set at 6 oz. Scope is NF NXS 5.5-22x on the 6br, the scopes on the other 2 are a 4.5-14x mk4 and a 6.5-20 vx-3 LR. Mounts are tight, BO base and TPS steel rings. Action torqued 65, 65, and 30 in/lbs. yeah no barrel is guaranteed to be a hammer but I have never had a bad barrel, one that was not able to get to 1/3moa consistently. 30-30.5 varget and either bullet into the rifling would equal slight ejector ring. Am using CCi br4. The 108 bergers are BT non-vld so will try them. Plan to turn the necks just to even up and use a redding type S bushing FL sizer with .001 or .002 tension and the expander removed. As a side note I would take out a known accurate combo and shoot a group or two to verify I was having a good day trigger pulling wise. Pisses me off I can chew out a hi .2s 5 shot group with a 243 shooting off a pod and bean bag with a 14x scope and cant find a load that shoots less then .4s with a 6br/22x/pedestal rest/ 3"forend stocked rifle.

 

[jhord]

Well, my 6.5x47 is one of those that seems to shoot "better" at long range than short range. At 100 and 200 yards it is about a .4-.5 MOA rifle At 400-800 it will consistently shoot about .3-.4MOA. That's not comparing a couple of "best" groups, that's over the life of the rifle which is around 400 rounds at this point. At first I thought I was just imagining it, or it was just a "blip" in the data, but it seems to be holding true so far. I've asked about it at some of the matches, and others have had similar experiences. At the last 100/200 and 400 varmint match we had, the fellow who was in last @ 100/200, won the 400. He said his rifle, also a 6.5x47, is like that. My 6BR OTOH is kinda steady across the board.

I'm not arguing, but just providing some first and second hand info instead of third and fourth.

I heard stories about bullets that didn't shoot well at 100 but were great at long ranges. I've never seen this. I've never had anyone tell me their rig did it. It was always third or fourth hand.

 

[lrgoodger]

Well, it's possible that the barrel just won't cut it. I have a custom .243 that shot 1/4 MOA groups with VLDs at 100 yds. When the barrel was shot out, I decided to replace it with a 6BR cut rifled barrel from a major mfg. I had just built a gun for a friend with the exact same barrel that shot great, averaging .44" for all 35 groups fired during load development. I fired 24 groups through the new barrel trying to find one that would shoot. The best group was .48" but it would not repeat. I only got three groups that were even in the 5s, and the average for the 24 groups was twice what it was on the other, identical barrel. My gunsmith, knowing I could build a good gun, recommended I return the barrel, which I did. He was right. The mfg. admitted that there was a problem with the barrel and replaced it. They even chambered it for me (with my reamer) when I complained about having to pay for that over again. Bad barrels do sneak through now and then.