So what would you do? FTR load advice

[Joe R]

What i personally do is a node test at 100 or 200 if its calm wind wise and use a seating depth that i know will usually be in the ball park (.010 to .020 jump). Once i see the node and know roughly where i'll end up i take it to 300 yards and fine tune my powder charge in .1 grain increments. Once i have the powder charge nailed down i fine tune the seating depth in .003 increments. I do all this at 300 yards (early morning or late evening in calm conditions on a concrete bench and front rest). I use a Oehler 35P chrono while testing loads also. Every load i've worked up like this has shot very well at 1000 yards.

+1
This is the gold standard approach I've learned from people that I know. It works for me every time, I'm just not that good a shooter so I don't get the same results as Jade.

However, before I bought a front rest, I did exactly as gstaylorg said. I would use the load development as a way to also improve my shooting.

Joe

 

[jlow]

I think my question about whether to do a seating depth study was never to say this is not a good place to go in general after shooting the OCW rounds – this is in fact what I do. The question is if you know you are in the accuracy node and your group size is already 0.4 MOA, is it worthwhile to try to reduce its size for FTR?

There is no doubt that if one spent enough time, effort and components, one can improve accuracy, but for example, I have a friend who shot up to 600 rounds looking and you can imagine he has probably already gone through a complete batch of bullets (not to mentioned a significant amount of his barrel life) looking and he has now started a different batch of bullets which means he is probably starting over. If one’s ambition is to do nothing but load development, this is perfect. However, for those that see it as an process to actually go shoot competition, this is stupid.

Even Brian Litz has told us not to bother if you are already shooting 0.5 MOA – thus the question.

Mozella – I am using OnTarget.

Gstaylorg – I don’t know what else to say about the MV except to say that is what I am getting – perhaps a tighter barrel? Using regular Lapua, not Lapua Palma.

In terms of shooting, based on the feedback I get from my fellow competitors and my standing, I generally shoot well in all discipline I shoot in – action pistol, 2-gun, and PRS type. However, I don’t shoot BR and at least to me, trying to shoot in the “2”s consistently falls under those criteria – thus the comment. I also don’t know if these barrels, or the way my gun is setup (AI AT with a Atlas bipod, so NOT a dedicated FTR rifle) as good as they are, are meant to shoot to that degree of precision. Basically if they are not, then one is pretty much chasing one tail.

Offseting my POA is an excellent idea. With the competition, one can certainly make good use of this little trick. Good shooting BTW…

I plan on doing a seating depth study based on the recommendations I got at 100 yards and then move on.

Thanks again for all the inputs – it is much appreciated.

 

[Down South]

I think my question about whether to do a seating depth study was never to say this is not a good place to go in general after shooting the OCW rounds – this is in fact what I do. The question is if you know you are in the accuracy node and your group size is already 0.4 MOA, is it worthwhile to try to reduce its size for FTR?

There is no doubt that if one spent enough time, effort and components, one can improve accuracy, but for example, I have a friend who shot up to 600 rounds looking and you can imagine he has probably already gone through a complete batch of bullets (not to mentioned a significant amount of his barrel life) looking and he has now started a different batch of bullets which means he is probably starting over. If one’s ambition is to do nothing but load development, this is perfect. However, for those that see it as an process to actually go shoot competition, this is stupid.

Even Brian Litz has told us not to bother if you are already shooting 0.5 MOA – thus the question.

Mozella – I am using OnTarget.

Gstaylorg – I don’t know what else to say about the MV except to say that is what I am getting – perhaps a tighter barrel? Using regular Lapua, not Lapua Palma.

In terms of shooting, based on the feedback I get from my fellow competitors and my standing, I generally shoot well in all discipline I shoot in – action pistol, 2-gun, and PRS type. However, I don’t shoot BR and at least to me, trying to shoot in the “2”s consistently falls under those criteria – thus the comment. I also don’t know if these barrels, or the way my gun is setup (AI AT with a Atlas bipod, so NOT a dedicated FTR rifle) as good as they are, are meant to shoot to that degree of precision. Basically if they are not, then one is pretty much chasing one tail.

Offseting my POA is an excellent idea. With the competition, one can certainly make good use of this little trick. Good shooting BTW…

I plan on doing a seating depth study based on the recommendations I got at 100 yards and then move on.

Thanks again for all the inputs – it is much appreciated.

Depends how competitive you wanna be. For me personally, yes, it's worth getting the load as accurate as possible for FTR. I give up enough points to wind in matches, i don't like giving up points from a less than stellar load. The matches nowdays are very competitive, especially the state championships and national matches. You can bet the majority of shooters in those matches are not leaving much to be desired in their equipment and loads.

 

[memilanuk]

...not to bother if you are already shooting 0.5 MOA – thus the question.

Not Bryan, but here's my perspective... <0.5" for a three or five shot group is very different from <0.5 moa for a 10+ shot group, or better yet, multiple groups over multiple days. *Consistent* results matter a lot, at least to me. A sub 0.2 moa group doesn't mean much if I can't replicate it in testing, much less in a match. If your load is shooting <0.4 moa repeatably, day in, day out, then I'd say you're off to a very good start. Better is almost always... better but at some point you need to just go shoot matches in conditions, and do further fine-tuning down the road as time allows.