The anticipation is killing me! Waiting on the new 20VT rifle...

[TheCZKid]

Yes, it is leaving ring marks, I saw that. It's the stock Redding competition seating die, suggestions?

 

[Rick in Oregon]

Yes, it is leaving ring marks, I saw that. It's the stock Redding competition seating die, suggestions?

Seen that before. I usually just chuck up the seating stem in my drill press and very lightly break the sharp inside corner radius of the stem with some 400 emery held over an oversize round-nose bullet for a mandrel. Doesn't take much to get a nice smooth transition that won't ring the bullet jacket.

 

[TheCZKid]

Sounds like a great idea! Thanks

 

[Coyotefurharvester]

Very lightly, don't want to remove much. Avoid the seating stem making contact with the tip, hard to get consistent seating depth if tip is the contact point.

 

[B23]

Seen that before. I usually just chuck up the seating stem in my drill press and very lightly break the sharp inside corner radius of the stem with some 400 emery held over an oversize round-nose bullet for a mandrel. Doesn't take much to get a nice smooth transition that won't ring the bullet jacket.

Rick is correct, it doesn't take much at all. I generally use a little piece of 0000 steel wool to polish the inside and that ring magically disappears.

 

[TheCZKid]

First targets. For the first time firing the new caliber, with my own formed brass and best guesses on loads, I'm very pleased! Did a simple ladder test with CFE BLK and AA2200.

 

[snert]

wind flags?

 

[snert]

Because, to me, it looks like the 2200 groups indicate a tail or direct wind and a twitch L-R that you are missing.
19.5 shows a tailwind moving right (or opposite depending on order of rounds), then 19.7 shows two in same condition and a switch to tail wind, 19.9 is both conditions walking you in vertical and moving windage, 20.1 shows a stable condition, 20.2 a L-R then a tailwind giving you a vertical, then 20.3 a slight L-r and a strong change to give you that vertical.

What strikes me is ALL of the 2200 seem to want to shoot somewhere just about the bottom of your center ring. That tells me that the powder wants to shoot, but you are getting beat up in wind or in the bench manners. But, Hey, that's just me making a BUNCH of guesses and assumptions.

If you know better, discard all I said. But if I seem on the mark a little, I would look hard at 20 ish grains of 2200 and study the flags.

 

[TheCZKid]

Because, to me, it looks like the 2200 groups indicate a tail or direct wind and a twitch L-R that you are missing.
19.5 shows a tailwind moving right (or opposite depending on order of rounds), then 19.7 shows two in same condition and a switch to tail wind, 19.9 is both conditions walking you in vertical and moving windage, 20.1 shows a stable condition, 20.2 a L-R then a tailwind giving you a vertical, then 20.3 a slight L-r and a strong change to give you that vertical.

What strikes me is ALL of the 2200 seem to want to shoot somewhere just about the bottom of your center ring. That tells me that the powder wants to shoot, but you are getting beat up in wind or in the bench manners. But, Hey, that's just me making a BUNCH of guesses and assumptions.

If you know better, discard all I said. But if I seem on the mark a little, I would look hard at 20 ish grains of 2200 and study the flags.

That's pretty impressive, and perceptive! It was pretty much exactly what you said. The wind shifted all over the place as I shot! At first it was mainly a head wind from the left, and then changed to behind. On my last BLK target I noted on my log page the wind shifted from dominant front to a rear wind.

And then on 2200 target of 19.5 to 19.7 it switched about a bit, and at 19.9 I noted it became a rear wind. And on 20.1 it was from front left, and 20.2 from rear right. I didn't log the last group, but the flyer was unexpected. Another detail: brass used with BLK was not annealed properly, 2200 was.

And I was struggling with my shooting rests too. My front rest was too high, and I was having a hard time with my rear soft bag, it was too low. I had inconsistency between shots and had to reset myself over and over between shots.

All this was not good for testing groups from a ladder test. It was also the first time shooting this rifle. The bolt takes a lot of force to get out of battery, and that made my rifle move a lot between shots. I'm also not used to this trigger. It doesn't have a predictable break, so I have a hard time knowing when it is going to go off.

I just loaded a number of 3-shot loads of 2200 at 20.1 grains, to do a seating depth test, when the weather and wind permit. I've got a lower front rest to try this time, and will seek to have more consistency from shot to shot. I also put a bubble level on the scope, as I hadn't installed it before this first outing.

I appreciate your insight, would be open to coaching and figure out about employing some wind flags, nice call...

 

[snert]

FWIW I started with a piece of rebar, an anteanna from a 67 firebird and an arrow, all topped with surveyor tape. That was my three flags.

Anything helps, but even a cheap set of flags will guide you and will make you realize the gun is shooting, but YOU are not reading wind. It's an encouraging/discouraging thing.

My wind flags are made from carbon arrows and put together by someone before me, sitting on music stands.

I am NOT an expert by any means, but those targets looked SO much like my tests with 34 gr dogtowns, 20 VT with 18.5 to 20.3 grains of 22000 it was like I shot those groups. And that rising tailwind/headwind thing made me CRAZY. I qit when I realized the gun was hooting better than I was reading wind, and I am off to PD land soon, using my highly scientific method of feeling the wind blow on my hairy legs to tell me how far to guestimate hold!

 

[Rick in Oregon]

When still running his shop in WA, Russ Haydon made these nifty flags from a video light stand, a piece of aluminum arrow shaft, a .41 cal bullet in the end for weight, a shaped piece of scrap aluminum sheet for the vane, and surveyors tape clipped to the vane with a fishing lure swivel. It all rotated on a piece of 1/8" tool steel rod with a small Delrin bearing. I had Red Oxx Co. in Billings MT make me a nice 1000 denier ballistic nylon bag that fits all three flags with tripods, with individual sleeves for each flag/stand to fit into the main bag. Excellent work, great addition to my field kit.

When used with a Kystrel annemometer, noting the horizontal angle of the flags and commiting the various angles to memory, fairly accurate hold-off can be had with just a glance from the bench.



Thousands of ground squirrels wish we had not discovered this nifty little item, and it has no equal for shooting teeny lil groups from the bench too.

 

[TheCZKid]

I've been making progress in making final brass from LC 5.56. It is quite a long road to get from start to finish, but I just think of it as saving about .80 to $1.00 a piece for each piece I produce. And I know the brass is really precision and should last many loadings!

 

[snert]

When still running his shop in WA, Russ Haydon made these nifty flags from a video light stand, a piece of aluminum arrow shaft, a .41 cal bullet in the end for weight, a shaped piece of scrap aluminum sheet for the vane, and surveyors tape clipped to the vane with a fishing lure swivel. It all rotated on a piece of 1/8" tool steel rod with a small Delrin bearing. I had Red Oxx Co. in Billings MT make me a nice 1000 denier ballistic nylon bag that fits all three flags with tripods, with individual sleeves for each flag/stand to fit into the main bag. Excellent work, great addition to my field kit.

When used with a Kystrel annemometer, noting the horizontal angle of the flags and commiting the various angles to memory, fairly accurate hold-off can be had with just a glance from the bench.



Thousands of ground squirrels wish we had not discovered this nifty little item, and it has no equal for shooting teeny lil groups from the bench too.

Dang it...now I have more crap to pack for my PD trip!