HELP Required: Excessive O.A.L.

[Blobby159]

Hi again Muir... That rezeroing exercise was a bit of a revelation I have to say here. Once I got the rifle on target at my preferred 200 yard zero it was dark cos I didn't actually get out till late in the evening. So I illuminated my target with a torch and went back to my shooting mat 200 yards back. I could JUST discern the target but shot three bullets anyway, concentrating wholely on my hold, stability etc. When I had packed my gear into my jeep and driven down the field to collect my target I was presented with a beautiful 3 shot group of 0.75". This was with my usual target reloads (as noted in a previous text here, above) but with the bullets seated so that the distance from base to the bullet data line was equal to that f the box of PPU ammo I had purchased on my last range visit to Bisley Ranges...
Seems you just MAY(?) have a point Muir my friend!!... Hahahahahaaaaa!
Happy man here.
This is a first circumstance and I will be testing this again Thursday when I trial a whole raft of newly built up ammo that I have put together with differing bullets and powder but all in my several tines fired Lapua brass. As before I will be back!

Kind Regards,
Blobbs....

 

[Uncle Norm]

Hi again Muir... That rezeroing exercise was a bit of a revelation I have to say here. Once I got the rifle on target at my preferred 200 yard zero it was dark cos I didn't actually get out till late in the evening. So I illuminated my target with a torch and went back to my shooting mat 200 yards back. I could JUST discern the target but shot three bullets anyway, concentrating wholely on my hold, stability etc. When I had packed my gear into my jeep and driven down the field to collect my target I was presented with a beautiful 3 shot group of 0.75". This was with my usual target reloads (as noted in a previous text here, above) but with the bullets seated so that the distance from base to the bullet data line was equal to that f the box of PPU ammo I had purchased on my last range visit to Bisley Ranges...
Seems you just MAY(?) have a point Muir my friend!!... Hahahahahaaaaa!
Happy man here.
This is a first circumstance and I will be testing this again Thursday when I trial a whole raft of newly built up ammo that I have put together with differing bullets and powder but all in my several tines fired Lapua brass. As before I will be back!

Kind Regards,
Blobbs....

Early days yet but looks promising that Doctor Muir is on course for effecting yet another miraculous cure for 'lands-chasing-itis', a widespread malady, which exclusively afflicts rifle shooting re-loaders .

 

[pete evans]

I've personally never measured the length of any of my reloads (granted I'm generally loading for hunting ranges). My seating length has always been set by raising a factory bullet into the backed off seating die and then winding the die in until it touches the bullet. I've had good luck with this so far and all my rifle loads have shot 1/2 MOA or thereabouts.

 

[Sash]

I've personally never measured the length of any of my reloads (granted I'm generally loading for hunting ranges). My seating length has always been set by raising a factory bullet into the backed off seating die and then winding the die in until it touches the bullet. I've had good luck with this so far and all my rifle loads have shot 1/2 MOA or thereabouts.

I also do this, and it works a treat (provided the bullet weight and, preferably, type is the same).

 

[Milligan]

The one thing I haven't seen is the question of case length, are they trimmed to minimum? perhaps don't trim as short if they are now. That should help with neck tension.

Trouble is if the neck length isn't consistent then neither is the tension so long necks are only viable if you have an adjustable trimmer.

 

[NP435]

Trouble is if the neck length isn't consistent then neither is the tension so long necks are only viable if you have an adjustable trimmer.

Yes that's correct

 

[Blobby159]

There's hope yet!!......
Had another revelation a couple of weekend back, when I attended a Club Shoot at 1000 yards with my shot-out(??) Tikka t3 Heavy barreled 6.5 Swede and home-loads.

I had spent that previous weekend experimenting at length with bullet seating depths and powder weights, only to eventually settle on leaving the carefully prepared rounds AS THEY WERE INITIALLY!! No changes whatsoever to the powder make, type & weight and the bullet type, weight & seating depth to how I had loaded my informal Club target loads over the last two years or so.
Then, on the firing line, of my very first 10 shots (following the initial & regulated 5 'zeroing' shots) ALL but one was in the Bullseye, not just that, but 5 of those were in the 'V' or 'X' Bull pretty much dead center in the target. The last shot JUST missed out on being the tenth Bull, skimming the wrong side of the scoring line at 6 o'clock and giving me 4 and a singleton missed point with 49 out of a possible 50 scoring Remember now, this is scoring at 1000 yards from a potentially "shot-out" bore that is missing a solid 100 thou' from of the first stretch of rifling in the chamber throat!!

What I HAD done for a couple of evenings prior to this very recent and very enjoyable Club Shoot is to thoroughly - and I do mean THOROUGHLY - clean the rifling in that barrel, using multiple passes and "stewing" sessions with that fairly intense copper removal compound/solvent called "Sweets" (or is it spelled with an 'a'?), whatever,... Then I polished off - pun intended - with a bore polishing compound that resulted in a lovely shiny mirrored finish down the full length of the tube once it has been used and completely cleared out of the bore at the end of the process.
OBVIOUSLY this thorough (intense?) bore cleaning process worked wonders on my accuracy results, giving me some of the best scores I have had with this rifle and my home-loads since I bought it and established the current "Accuracy" loading with it some two and a bit years ago...

I am not stupid (honestly I am not Fellas ) and I do realise that this amazing return to active service is NOT something I can expect to continue for many sessions (if ANY really for that matter??), but whilst saying that I shall yet milk this odd situation for all it is worth while I can get that kind of Amazing results from 'her'. Needless to say I will be giving the 'old girl' a damned good cleaning session something like that first session, after each and every Club range session of approx 55 rounds for each Contestant in the half-day Club session, and then keep my fingers crossed whilst definitely hoping that my thorough cleaning regime doesn't end up giving me a perfect smoothe-bore sans the rifling!!?.. Life is a funny old game isn't it?

ATVB,
Kind Regards to All,
Blobbs....

 

[NP435]

There's hope yet!!......
Had another revelation a couple of weekend back, when I attended a Club Shoot at 1000 yards with my shot-out(??) Tikka t3 Heavy barreled 6.5 Swede and home-loads.

I had spent that previous weekend experimenting at length with bullet seating depths and powder weights, only to eventually settle on leaving the carefully prepared rounds AS THEY WERE INITIALLY!! No changes whatsoever to the powder make, type & weight and the bullet type, weight & seating depth to how I had loaded my informal Club target loads over the last two years or so.
Then, on the firing line, of my very first 10 shots (following the initial & regulated 5 'zeroing' shots) ALL but one was in the Bullseye, not just that, but 5 of those were in the 'V' or 'X' Bull pretty much dead center in the target. The last shot JUST missed out on being the tenth Bull, skimming the wrong side of the scoring line at 6 o'clock and giving me 4 and a singleton missed point with 49 out of a possible 50 scoring Remember now, this is scoring at 1000 yards from a potentially "shot-out" bore that is missing a solid 100 thou' from of the first stretch of rifling in the chamber throat!!

What I HAD done for a couple of evenings prior to this very recent and very enjoyable Club Shoot is to thoroughly - and I do mean THOROUGHLY - clean the rifling in that barrel, using multiple passes and "stewing" sessions with that fairly intense copper removal compound/solvent called "Sweets" (or is it spelled with an 'a'?), whatever,... Then I polished off - pun intended - with a bore polishing compound that resulted in a lovely shiny mirrored finish down the full length of the tube once it has been used and completely cleared out of the bore at the end of the process.
OBVIOUSLY this thorough (intense?) bore cleaning process worked wonders on my accuracy results, giving me some of the best scores I have had with this rifle and my home-loads since I bought it and established the current "Accuracy" loading with it some two and a bit years ago...

I am not stupid (honestly I am not Fellas ) and I do realise that this amazing return to active service is NOT something I can expect to continue for many sessions (if ANY really for that matter??), but whilst saying that I shall yet milk this odd situation for all it is worth while I can get that kind of Amazing results from 'her'. Needless to say I will be giving the 'old girl' a damned good cleaning session something like that first session, after each and every Club range session of approx 55 rounds for each Contestant in the half-day Club session, and then keep my fingers crossed whilst definitely hoping that my thorough cleaning regime doesn't end up giving me a perfect smoothe-bore sans the rifling!!?.. Life is a funny old game isn't it?

ATVB,
Kind Regards to All,
Blobbs....

Well done sir! A cleaning to"bare" steel can do remarkable things. I would suggest nylon brushes and very very minimal use of stuff such as JB Compound. I have used Sweet's for year's and it was the first copper remover to really do the job the rest were at best pretender's. I think you have demonstrated that throat erosion may not be the demon as has been written ad nausiem. Best Wishes for good shooting.

 

[Blobby159]

Well done sir! A cleaning to"bare" steel can do remarkable things. I would suggest nylon brushes and very very minimal use of stuff such as JB Compound. I have used Sweet's for year's and it was the first copper remover to really do the job the rest were at best pretender's. I think you have demonstrated that throat erosion may not be the demon as has been written ad nausiem. Best Wishes for good shooting.

Thank you "Mr.Skunk" Sir, that is really kind of you... I do sincerely agree with you here that this "throat erosion" thing may NOT be the demon it has been made out to be in the passed, at least for me at present!!
Time will tell.....

Kind Regards,
Blobbs...

 

[gixer1]

Are some people on commission from the site admin for the number of words typed?

 

[Muir]

There's hope yet!!......
Had another revelation a couple of weekend back, when I attended a Club Shoot at 1000 yards with my shot-out(??) Tikka t3 Heavy barreled 6.5 Swede and home-loads.

I had spent that previous weekend experimenting at length with bullet seating depths and powder weights, only to eventually settle on leaving the carefully prepared rounds AS THEY WERE INITIALLY!! No changes whatsoever to the powder make, type & weight and the bullet type, weight & seating depth to how I had loaded my informal Club target loads over the last two years or so.
Then, on the firing line, of my very first 10 shots (following the initial & regulated 5 'zeroing' shots) ALL but one was in the Bullseye, not just that, but 5 of those were in the 'V' or 'X' Bull pretty much dead center in the target. The last shot JUST missed out on being the tenth Bull, skimming the wrong side of the scoring line at 6 o'clock and giving me 4 and a singleton missed point with 49 out of a possible 50 scoring Remember now, this is scoring at 1000 yards from a potentially "shot-out" bore that is missing a solid 100 thou' from of the first stretch of rifling in the chamber throat!!

What I HAD done for a couple of evenings prior to this very recent and very enjoyable Club Shoot is to thoroughly - and I do mean THOROUGHLY - clean the rifling in that barrel, using multiple passes and "stewing" sessions with that fairly intense copper removal compound/solvent called "Sweets" (or is it spelled with an 'a'?), whatever,... Then I polished off - pun intended - with a bore polishing compound that resulted in a lovely shiny mirrored finish down the full length of the tube once it has been used and completely cleared out of the bore at the end of the process.
OBVIOUSLY this thorough (intense?) bore cleaning process worked wonders on my accuracy results, giving me some of the best scores I have had with this rifle and my home-loads since I bought it and established the current "Accuracy" loading with it some two and a bit years ago...

I am not stupid (honestly I am not Fellas ) and I do realise that this amazing return to active service is NOT something I can expect to continue for many sessions (if ANY really for that matter??), but whilst saying that I shall yet milk this odd situation for all it is worth while I can get that kind of Amazing results from 'her'. Needless to say I will be giving the 'old girl' a damned good cleaning session something like that first session, after each and every Club range session of approx 55 rounds for each Contestant in the half-day Club session, and then keep my fingers crossed whilst definitely hoping that my thorough cleaning regime doesn't end up giving me a perfect smoothe-bore sans the rifling!!?.. Life is a funny old game isn't it?

ATVB,
Kind Regards to All,
Blobbs....

I would have left the load seated to the 'experimental' depth of the PPU and wrung it out more, clean barrel or no.

That said, it's all done with lights and mirrors. If it works for you, then it works and that's all that matters. I'm glad that you took the time and made the effort to experiment. Some people just can't take that step off of dead center.~Muir