• This Forum is for adults 18 years of age or over. By continuing to use this Forum you are confirming that you are 18 or older. No content shall be viewed by any person under 18 in California.

My first ladder test....What next? .243 Win

I am really a noob to accuracy reloading. I have been reading about ladder tests and decided to do one with my new .243 Win. It is built on a trued Rem 700 action with a 10 twist Kreiger barrel and Rem factory varmint stock, factory trigger. I am using Nosler brass, CCI BR-2 primers, Speer 90 gr spitzers and H414 powder. This is going to be a hunting load. I shot 15 shots at 100yds starting at 40.0 grains and increasing at .3gr increments to 44.2 grains. No pressure signs were noticed as far as ease of extraction or primer flattening. I have not measured case heads but all of the primers appear the same. I think I could have loaded a few more at this increment and not reached max. The results are shown below. The entire group is about 1.3 inches in diameter. The best cluster I can see is shots 3, 4, 5 and 6 which go into about .4in. Shot number 10 went through a previous hole,or missed the target entirely ;) ). What should I do now? Am I on the right track? I am thinking I should redo it at 200 yds. I plan on doing a couple more with R19 and Varget.

243ladder.jpg
 
200 yards would make it easier to read the results. You thought 3,4,5,& 6 looked good so I would load up 3-5 in those and see how they group. If 3&6 are bigger than 4&5 it is probably a good node. 9,10,&11 may be a higher velocity node but you don't know where 10 went. The lower speed node might get you longer barrel life. The higher velocity node should have less drop and wind drift
 

Upgrades & Donations

This Forum's expenses are primarily paid by member contributions. You can upgrade your Forum membership in seconds. Gold and Silver members get unlimited FREE classifieds for one year. Gold members can upload custom avatars.


Click Upgrade Membership Button ABOVE to get Gold or Silver Status.

You can also donate any amount, large or small, with the button below. Include your Forum Name in the PayPal Notes field.


To DONATE by CHECK, or make a recurring donation, CLICK HERE to learn how.

Forum statistics

Threads
166,257
Messages
2,214,843
Members
79,496
Latest member
Bie
Back
Top