Hello
I’ve recently been working and developing my 1st reloading attempt with my new rifle. I thought I was share my process, rightly or wrongly, with you guys if its helps others plus I’ve found it enjoyable and I’m on a day off, I’m bored, its raining and there's nothing on telly!
I’ve had my faithful Tikka T3 varmint .308 for a while now and decided to treat myself to a semi custom rifle and thought this would be a good time to start reloading. I went with a company called Rifle craft. This stemmed from an informal rifle comp some friends and I had and I found that my trusty Tikka was shooting very well out to 430m and gave me a bug to get a better set up.
I had a Sassen 26in heavy barrel 1:10 twist put on, with a PSE composite stock, and over sized bolt handle, 20MOA picitanny rail. Very pleased with the work they did. I put on it a S&B 5-25x56 PMII 1/4MOA. To top it off a Hardy Gen 5 Stealth Mod.
So I started off with my reloading kit. Went for an RCBS Rock chucker supreme press, with Redding dies and a few bits and bobs.
I brought new .308 Lapua brass. I uniformed the primer pockets, deburred the inside of pocket. FL sized and set neck tension. I didn’t trim but I did deburr/chamfered the neck.
My chamber OAL to the lands was 3.274 however the bullets wouldn’t fit into mag so I seated bullets at 3.155.
Stage 1 was to pressure test the rifle. I loaded one round with N140 using Hornady 165SST at the following.
41.0 41.3 41.6 42 42.2 42.8 43.2 43.5 43.8 44.1 44.3 44.5 44.7 44.9 45.1
These were the 1st rounds I put through the rifle and I zeroed the scope as I went. I also shot 1 and then cleaned for 10 times, Shot 2 and cleaned five times, Shot 3 and cleaned 2 times.
At the lower loads, the recoil felt very light. By the time I got to the higher loads I could feel the recoil was higher than normal with factory ammo. I felt no unusual pressure as I unloaded each spent case, nor did I notice any flattened primers. I did notice marks from the bolt on the brass around the primer at 44.9 and 45.1. So I decided on a max load of 43.9
Next was stage 2. I loaded five rounds the following weights which gave these groupings.
42.6 .782
42.8 .823
43. .497
43.2 1.467
43.4 .866
43.6 .855
43.8 .937
44 .980
Final stage was to really double check stage 2. Again I loaded 5 round
43 .7
43.4 .386
43.8 .881
So I went with 43.4. Up to this stage all went very well.
So I loaded up some 43.4. and went to double check before going hunting. I hadn’t actually zeroed the scope spot on. I measured the last group with the 43.3 and adjusted at home, plus moved the scope forward one notch on the rail. At the range bullets were off, and weren’t grouping. With hind sight I put this down to leaving some oil in the barrel, moving the scope one notch forward on the rail and bad shooting. I cleaned and rezeroed, and the world was right again.
Last thing was to shoot at some distance. At 200m bullet dropped 2.9inches and 300m 14inches. These seemed acceptable to me. Having put that data into a ballistic app it told me my MV was 2748, but that remains to be checked properly.
So over all very pleased with my project. I appreciate theres many many different point of views on reloading but this seems to of worked for me. My objective was to reload as accurately as possible (not sure I achieved that) To produce a round which allows me to hunt but also to sit on the down on a sunny afternoon and do some plinking at long distances and know that the rifle/ammo are capable of doing that. I’m yet to see what the groups are like at longer distances, so still more research to be done.
Cheers.
I’ve recently been working and developing my 1st reloading attempt with my new rifle. I thought I was share my process, rightly or wrongly, with you guys if its helps others plus I’ve found it enjoyable and I’m on a day off, I’m bored, its raining and there's nothing on telly!
I’ve had my faithful Tikka T3 varmint .308 for a while now and decided to treat myself to a semi custom rifle and thought this would be a good time to start reloading. I went with a company called Rifle craft. This stemmed from an informal rifle comp some friends and I had and I found that my trusty Tikka was shooting very well out to 430m and gave me a bug to get a better set up.
I had a Sassen 26in heavy barrel 1:10 twist put on, with a PSE composite stock, and over sized bolt handle, 20MOA picitanny rail. Very pleased with the work they did. I put on it a S&B 5-25x56 PMII 1/4MOA. To top it off a Hardy Gen 5 Stealth Mod.
So I started off with my reloading kit. Went for an RCBS Rock chucker supreme press, with Redding dies and a few bits and bobs.
I brought new .308 Lapua brass. I uniformed the primer pockets, deburred the inside of pocket. FL sized and set neck tension. I didn’t trim but I did deburr/chamfered the neck.
My chamber OAL to the lands was 3.274 however the bullets wouldn’t fit into mag so I seated bullets at 3.155.
Stage 1 was to pressure test the rifle. I loaded one round with N140 using Hornady 165SST at the following.
41.0 41.3 41.6 42 42.2 42.8 43.2 43.5 43.8 44.1 44.3 44.5 44.7 44.9 45.1
These were the 1st rounds I put through the rifle and I zeroed the scope as I went. I also shot 1 and then cleaned for 10 times, Shot 2 and cleaned five times, Shot 3 and cleaned 2 times.
At the lower loads, the recoil felt very light. By the time I got to the higher loads I could feel the recoil was higher than normal with factory ammo. I felt no unusual pressure as I unloaded each spent case, nor did I notice any flattened primers. I did notice marks from the bolt on the brass around the primer at 44.9 and 45.1. So I decided on a max load of 43.9
Next was stage 2. I loaded five rounds the following weights which gave these groupings.
42.6 .782
42.8 .823
43. .497
43.2 1.467
43.4 .866
43.6 .855
43.8 .937
44 .980
Final stage was to really double check stage 2. Again I loaded 5 round
43 .7
43.4 .386
43.8 .881
So I went with 43.4. Up to this stage all went very well.
So I loaded up some 43.4. and went to double check before going hunting. I hadn’t actually zeroed the scope spot on. I measured the last group with the 43.3 and adjusted at home, plus moved the scope forward one notch on the rail. At the range bullets were off, and weren’t grouping. With hind sight I put this down to leaving some oil in the barrel, moving the scope one notch forward on the rail and bad shooting. I cleaned and rezeroed, and the world was right again.
Last thing was to shoot at some distance. At 200m bullet dropped 2.9inches and 300m 14inches. These seemed acceptable to me. Having put that data into a ballistic app it told me my MV was 2748, but that remains to be checked properly.
So over all very pleased with my project. I appreciate theres many many different point of views on reloading but this seems to of worked for me. My objective was to reload as accurately as possible (not sure I achieved that) To produce a round which allows me to hunt but also to sit on the down on a sunny afternoon and do some plinking at long distances and know that the rifle/ammo are capable of doing that. I’m yet to see what the groups are like at longer distances, so still more research to be done.
Cheers.
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