I am having a crazy time with mine also. Nine rounds of fireforming stuff with Remington 140's into one ragged hole. I still can't get a hunting load to group better than an inch and a half. I know the gun will shoot but I am at the end of my rope with this thing.

What are you considering a hunting load? What are you hunting? I don't know if I can help but I will try. I really love mine. One thing I found is the trim length if very important.

TRIM LENGTH IS VERY IMPORTANT. I AGREE WITH THIS. I GOT SOME TOO SHORT AND THEY WILL NOT SHOOT. WITH 139GR INTERBONDS I USE 3.252 AND THE 154 INTERBONDS WILL BE 3.257. EACH MEASURED 3.255 AND 3.260 RESPECTIVELY.

My opinion about improved cartridges shooting better upon fireforming than after is that its very common and the reason is the setback of the barrel for headspacing, this done with a properly chambered improved cartridge. .004-.005" is about the norm I believe. When you load a cartridge for forming you have a crush fit because the brass is longer than your new chamber. This causes the cartridge to center in the chamber consistantly, round to round, and results in great accuracy. JMO The next step to continuing that accuracy is to not set the shoulder back when sizing. It is also a good to use a body die rather than FL size when nedded.

Farmboy, I am using 63gr. RL-22 with 140 gr Nosler Partitions, Balistic tips, and Rem 140's. These have all given me good potential groups but nothing consistent yet. I have not had to trim anything yet. I am working my way through the first hundred pieces of brass, fireforming, then loading it two more times before puting it up for trim day. Quite possibly the length of the brass will have an effect on my accuracy. I am planning on getting the Lee factory crimp die soon and see if things tighten up. John Ricks did the barrel (L-W match) and action work for me so I am pretty confident that it is not in the machine work. I figure I am dropping the ball somewhere because the fire form loadings group so well. The crappy part is that I had three different powders that I used for fireforming. I had partial cans of each to use up and remember taking a middle of the road loading for each powder from the Nosler manual. Lost all of my notes after getting married and moving to a new place.

dan your right about setting that shoulder back. i smoke the necks and neck size only. just about to the datem line. i use to do that all the time when i first started loading.

I gather that you are using 63gr of r-22 and 140gr bullets of different manufacures. When I am working with a rifle that won't group like I want, I go back to the basics. I recheck my trim lengths, and then I check the overall length. Then if I feel that 140gr bullet is what I want, I try changing the amounts of powder I have been putting into the cases. Start by lowering and then raising in ONE grain incruments. When raising the amounts of power watch the pressure signs, be careful, you don't need an acident. Test each different load one at a time, you may hit the sweet spot. :You may also want to change the weight of bullet. Then you may want to use a faster burning powder. I use imr4350. One secret to making the changes is only one change at a time. Also keep records of each change. One way I do this is to keep the targets and mark the bullet holes(1,2,3,)and what the load was that made the holes.These are some things I would try, but keep in mind watch your pressure signs and only change one thing at a time. Too many things at one time will only get comfusing. Good shooting.

Something else I found if you group the short cases together they sometimes will group. But if you have some shorter than some of the rest it will effect the size of paper grouping.

Have not seen any rifleing twist rates discussed.

Different twists need different bullet weights.

Mine is 1:11 so, I am using 130 Match Kings, or

lighter, IMR 4320, and Rel 22 with very good results.

These are all shooting under .600"

BBL contour, #4, Bullets jaming the rifling.

triigo