Tuning Berger Hybrids

[trailrider121]

I did some forum searching, and didn't much info on Hybrids. I found a great node, but would like to fine tune my COAL. Using 180 Berger Hybrids. Currently .020" off the lands, and did some research on seating depths. Any of you guys using Hybrids, and did you go about fine tuning your seating depth? I have access to 100 yard or 300 yard range.

 

[BradY]

Two calibers now (6.5 and 7mm) I have started jumping the hybrids 10 thou and working 20 out, 10 out, 5 out and then jamming 15 thou in. Jam has brought both from good to very very good.

 

[Delaware_Ken]

Good Morning,

Brian Litz gives a lot of good info on his recommendations about the Hybrids in a utube video. Do a google search on "Brian Litz Hybrid" . Good stuff.

Ken

 

[Alex Wheeler]

Your at .020 now, work in .003 increments closer and into the lands until you find a sweet spot. Don't stop at the first spot you may find another that shoots better.

 

[trailrider121]

I prefer not to jam the Bergers in this rifle, so jamming is out. I found the video of Bryan Litz regarding the Hybrids. Sounds like he recommends .015" off and maybe try in increments of .015" ie: .030", .045" and .060" off the lands.

Zfast- If .003" is the window of adjustment,should I do these at 100 or 300 yards. I really like to see the big difference in change so I may do my testing at 300 yards. I'll do more research..

 

[savageshooter86]

in my 168 hybrids in 308 win even 005 change in seating depth changed the group size. So Litz' video and instructions for this bullet did not prove true with my barrel and load.

I will try to find it again, but read on here someone had a load that seating depth showed same group size with different seating depths from 300-600 yards. But when shot at 1000 yds, one of them proved to be much better. So I would say test at furthest distance you can

 

[Alex Wheeler]

Do it at 100 over flags, otherwise you are just wasting bullets. Don't worry about jamming, you wont pull a bullet until you get really deep. Try as much as .015 in.

 

[chuckbuster243]

This is just me but I try to tune at the distance I shoot or as far as I can. I shoot 185 hybrids in my 308 and it took 5k or more to show a difference on the target in my rifle. I was shooting 10k out and my friend that was shooing 180's in his 284 shehane shot at 30k out. They shot really well for him. So I tried it, needless to say I am at 30k out now. I started at 200 when I got a consistent powder charge I moved out. Tuned final seating at 1000. I have found a load thats very consistent for me and low vertical. I shot the same few seating depths a couple of times just to confirm. It worked for me but others have there own way to do things. Matt

 

[XTR]

I've got a personal theory on why we find that our rifles shoot better either jammed or at about .030 out. I think that in both cases you are mitigating the effects of neck tension. When you are jammed the pressure required to get the bullet to start moving in the lands is far greater than the neck tension so your tension becomes less important, and the same for jumping further. Short jumps the bullets initial acceleration is going to be more greatly effected by neck tension, whereas after you get out to 20 or 30 thou the bullet has already developed a fair amount of velocity and pressure behind it so the variation caused by neck tension is less.

The other factor is that if your seating varies by ±1.5 thou then your extreme spread if you are seating at 10thou is 30% of your seating distance, whereas if you are seating at 30thou then it's only 10%, and even that variation probably has less impact due to the velocity, pressure that the round has developed at that point.

I have absolutely zero data to back that up, but at some level it makes sense to me. Kind of like the Bohr model of the atom, it's not real, but it makes more sense to the average person that cloud theory.

 

[Antifaz2006]

I prefer not to jam the Bergers in this rifle, so jamming is out. I found the video of Bryan Litz regarding the Hybrids. Sounds like he recommends .015" off and maybe try in increments of .015" ie: .030", .045" and .060" off the lands.

Zfast- If .003" is the window of adjustment,should I do these at 100 or 300 yards. I really like to see the big difference in change so I may do my testing at 300 yards. I'll do more research..

I do my tests only on the 100 Yards that is good enough. I tried different approaches, but the .003 is the best so far for all guns I have.
I work up the load with a JAM -.020, after having the Node of load (most of the time you will see two nodes) I start with the .003 increment. Last run it gave me a JAM -.014.
after that I shoot 5 on . 200... and 300 Yards and check if is a consistent load.

BUT that is really depending what you want to achieve, a load for a specific range or a load that is consistent over different distances.

If you want to read a bit more about it go to
http://forum.accurateshooter.com/index.php?topic=3814361.0
Erik Cortina started an interesting post ;-)

The picture posted is 200 Yards group of the 50.2 Load I had a nice node between 50 - 50.5

I have another node that I couldn't check because run out of powder and right now is impossible to get new one.

 

[Antifaz2006]

Your at .020 now, work in .003 increments closer and into the lands until you find a sweet spot. Don't stop at the first spot you may find another that shoots better.

+1

 

[trailrider121]

Thanks guys for the great info. I've messed with the standard VLD's, and have used Berger's recommendation with success. I'm in the process of duracoating my rifle right now, so it will be a couple weeks before I get to test again.