Over the past few weeks of trying to hone my handloading skills in an effort to get 5-shot groups below 0.500", I've taken to double checking a few things...more often with a magnifying glass. In prepping new cases, I found a couple I missed trimming (easily noticed due to lack of uniform reflection), or that had a rough chamfer (not as easy), or that needed a bit more primer pocket attention. I'm guessing that it can't hurt. Also been peekin' in each and every case before I squish a bullet in just to be sure I got 'em all and that no partial charges snuck by.

Also, what about the polishing media bits that get stuck in HP bullets (from the manufacturer)? Do you poke 'em out with a needle like I do? Is it insignificant?

Lastly...once set-up, I've started to weigh only random loads coming out of my old RCBS measure (vs. undercharging and then doing the "trickle thing")...what's been your experience on accuracy if not weighing each charge?

Thanks!

If you're looking for 1/2 MOA, you are probably going to need to weigh every charge. If you're using a ball powder, or an OCW load, you'll have a little more leisure to throw charges without weighing them... That said, I weigh all of the charges in my accuracy loads. This helps instill confidence in the loads, if nothing else.

If you can remove the tumble media from the bullet tips, that couldn't be a bad thing. I don't know what the effect on accuracy would be. If any, it would show up at long range, but by then such an effect would be all but impossible to test.

What load recipes are you using?

Dan Newberry
green 788

Thanks for the input. My spot checking of charges on the scale seems to indicate uniformity...so I may stick with that for now.

Oh, what loads? The Varget loads you recommended for .308 except I haven't found the CCI BR primers around locally so I'm using what I had on hand: CCI 200's. Shooting SMK 175's in front of 45g (my favorite), and old Nosler Match 168's on top of 46g (I worked up to these due to different primer than specified and the rifle being new).

Anyway, I've only gone through about 100 rounds with the rifle so far, and the 175's gave me a 0.567".

Once I have a hunting rifle with that kind of performance I let it rest and plan to shoot at something with it. However I think that if all my rifles shot into one hole I would loose interest in them in some way so I understand the want to improve even more.

To improve accuracy one should know the major pitfalls in handloading. There are books on this available from Sinclair and Precision Shooting Mag.

The other day I loaded just three rounds for a good shooting .308 Win. M70. The rifle was all set for hunting with it's load using 3031 but I wanted to try the same bullet with 4064. The cases are WW that have been loaded a number of times before and there are 50 of them in the same box. I clean the primer pockets by spinning the Whitetail primer pocket bottoming tool by hand in each pocket. It removes the primer residue on cases that have been already cut by this tool. On one case I could not get the tool to the bottom of the primer pocket nor could I really even turn this tool with my fingers. I fooled with it for a moment and then said to my self "the heck with it" <--- bad attitude, and when I seated the primers one was very tight. At the range sure enough two shots went close to each other at 100 yards and one went really high spoiling the group, test and my fun.

So if it looks wrong then it may be. I try to keep it fun and not set my goals too high however. That old M70 shoots into one MOA. Thats good in my book.

5R,

Thanks for sharing your information, and trusting my suggestion on the .308 load. That 175 SMK/45 Varget load seems to have the record for good performance in .308's.

If you're shooting near 1/2 MOA with the CCI 200's, hell, you're there! I do think that the CCI BR-2's will take you a step closer to sub 1/2 MOA groups, but for practical purposes, you won't notice much of an advantage except for bragging rights.

Since you're metering your Varget charges, you might be interested to know that I shot two different groups, each consisting of three shots, at 300 yards, and at 600 yards, using the following charges:

Group number 1, 300 yards: One shot with 44.7 grains of Varget (low charge), one shot with 45.0 grains of Varget (mean, OCW charge), and one shot with 45.3 grains of Varget (high charge). All three of these shot 3/4 MOA at 300 yards.

Group number 2, 600 yards: Same charges as above, and the group was right at 5 inches.

So your thrown charges won't cost you MOA accuracy even if they vary +/- .3 grains.

When I keep the charges to exactly 45.0 grains (by weighing them), I can normally shoot 1/4 to 1/2 MOA at ranges out to 600 yards.

Thanks again for posting your results...

Dan Newberry
green 788