30-06 testing continues.

[STIHL]

It’s been a couple weeks since I shot my full power work ups with varget and the 315. Seems like it’s going in the right direction. Going to give the 36.0 grain load another chance, thinking the one flyer may have been me, or one a little heavy on the PC, or who knows what else. Going to pay real close attention to the fine details on the next round. Overall it’s coming around. Had a couple loads with 311-332 and they shot better than anticipated. I’ve got quite a bit left to try and some adjustments to make after I settle on a powder charge. Hoping I can shorten my COAL up about .010-.020 to make chambering a little smoother. I have them all shoved pretty much into the lands and very tight when closing the bolt.

Going to load 36.0, 36.5, 37.0, 37.5, and 38.0 and see if they tighten up anymore or start opening back up. Guess that will tell me where to settle and start tweaking COAL, and Go from there.

50 yards, all sized to .311

 

[fiver]

always gotta be one... LOL

 

[Spindrift]

Looks good to me!
With PC, I always set COL to a little jump. Unless you do some post-coating bumping process to uniform the nose, you will have some dimensional variance due to the stacked tolerances of your bullet making process.

If you go for a jam-fit, the occational cartridge will not chamber at all. If you go for super -short jump, some cartridges will have jump- and some will be jam-fit.
I think it is better (and more practical) if all cartridges have some degree of jump, even if the actual jump length will vary a little.

 

[MW65]

Looks great!!

 

[Ian]

Try sizing .309 to .3095" (push them through a .309" Lee die and they'll spring back just right) along with letting them jump about .020".

 

[STIHL]

I had thought about trying.310 next, but hadn’t got that far. I can give .309 a try first, groove is .308-.3085 so I shouldn’t have any issues there. Definitely worth a try. Pretty sure I have a 309 sizer it just needs to be polished a little. It’s rough.

@Spindrift your last paragraph is dead on what I’ve been experiencing. I had figured it was coating thickness or maybe just a few thou of variation in oall due to nose diameter or coating thickness.That very well be what caused the flyer in the 36.0 group assuming it wasn’t me.

I’m going to push them on down to .020 and go from there.

@Ian would you say start the work up over at .309 or simply just change bullet diameter and try 36.0gr at .020 off lands and see what it does? I realize this could be a deep subject, but what would you do if this was your project. Just curious as to how my thought process lines up with others opinions.

 

[Ian]

In practice it's never a good idea to change two things at once when tuning a load for consistency......but I'd do both at once anyway if it was me because I'm impatient and have enough d.o.p.e to know what the results will most likely be.

One caveat with seating deep and sizing small: Make certain your bullet runout is down under .002".

 

[STIHL]

I agree with that, part of me wants to do the full work up, but I’m getting lower on varget than I’m really happy with, so playing around with a couple hundred rounds isn’t really feasible right now. Plus time is almost nonexistent for me with all I have going on at work.

With that being said, it’s not going to kill me to load 5 .020 off the lands and see, then I can load 5 at .310 and .309 and see how this affects the groups. I’m pretty sure I’m on a node at 36,or dangerously close to it, so it may be time to pull the chrono out and get some velocity numbers.
Also going to prove that theory of the node by loading 36.5 and 37.0 grain and see what they do, if they open up I have at least found a working range with this bullet and powder then just to make small tweaks to bring the group size down as small as possible.

 

[Ian]

Trying 310 and 3095 is a good idea.

You gotta realize the seating depth and size adjustments will affect more than powder burn characteristics, those things affect how mechanically good the dynamic launch is, meaning how true the bullet will fly outside of the barrel. Don't confuse chasing a vibration node with results you may see from improved (or degraded) bullet launch by manipulating bullet size and run at the throat.

 

[fiver]

and with a new sumthin your gonna be setting a new baseline.
you know the 36 works [it works in the 308 too so there's something to the load] so starting there again with a new size etc. would show you what the change does then you can move along.

 

[STIHL]

Agreed, I understand what Yal are saying. I have at least found a baseline to work off of and I can increase or decrease charge. Now I can make a change and then go plus or minus a half grain and see what the results say and that will give me another direction to go. Ultimately I’m looking for the most accurate load I can manage. I would really love to see an MOA group at 100 yards, but I also realize that May not be achievable. If I can get one to hold a 2MOA group consistently at 100 yards, I’d feel confident in using that in a hunting load, as my ranges are at most 200 yards, but for most shots are 100 yard average.

Biggest question I have now is, and I know I have to shoot and see, but this is not my hunting alloy, I still have to make it. Planning on doing 1 part COWW plus 1 part pure, plus 2% tin. I don’t have an abundant supply of COWW left, but have enough to last a while after I figure out what works. My question is at what point do I make my hunting alloy and then take my information from my unknown COWW ish alloy and extrapolate that into my hunting alloy?

My thoughts are find the most accurate load I can, take that information and that will give me a starting point to work my hunting load from.
Is that a good plan, or do I need to stop, make my hunting alloy and work it up with that?

I know changing my alloy is basically starting over, but I’m not well versed in shoooting cast rifle at this level and I’m using my junk alloy to learn. I have seen several key things that have affected groups and bullet POI this far so I am learning things. I just wonder at what point I need to make the change and get serious about my hunting alloy.

If I can get it all situated I’m going to size and load 50 more up this week and continue on, as soon as I can. Unfortunately the next 4 weeks are going to be slammed with work and I will be out of town and out of country over half that time so this will be on the back burner a few weeks unless I can squeeze it in. So I have time to think on this subject a little while.

 

[Ian]

change alloy and then you get to start over again. Once a .30-caliber gets over 2200 fps, WW alloy plus a pinch of tin will perform quite nicely on game, regardless of nose shape. The softer alloy rebalanced with tin will also do extremely well.....maybe better than you want it to on stuff you plan to eat. I use a ~13 BHN alloy based on clippy weights, sticky weights, and a tiny bit of tin (less than 1%) added in the form of solder for my .308 hunting loads. With an HP bullet it blows big holes in stuff. With a solid nose bullet it also blows big holes in stuff, it just loses a little less mass doing so.

1.5" at 100 yards for ten consecutive shots from an auto-loader is quite achievable, I've tested that many, many times. If your groups are 2" or more you still have some work to do, likely in the bullet quality/consistency department.

 

[STIHL]

What I figured, oh well. Not a futile effort as I learned some things. Due to some fine upstanding gentleman I have enough ingredients to make this recipe come to life. Although not an endless supply enough to last a long long time for hunting after load development. Time to blend some alloy and get on that. I’m going to finish this development as I have several hundred pounds of this “junk” alloy.

I feel like my bullet consistency is pretty good as cast, So I’m going for the 1 inch mark. I do have a few things in my brass prep I can tighten up on and in my powder coating techniques.

What is the norm for acceptable weight variance as cast? I average plus or minus 1 grain, On my keepers. I keep about 90% of mine after the mold gets right. I may cull 10-30 pours before I start keeping them just depends on the day.

 

[Spindrift]

Before you complicate things by changing alloy, I suggest shooting your "junk" alloy in some expansion medium and see how it performs. It might surprise you- it might be just right!

 

[fiver]

bout 98% of us are shooting junk alloy.
mine all just happens to be mixed together and sitting in a 3 ton pile on the floor.
i make it work, i live with it, and i'm happy with the outcome.