Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles DIY bedding M77 (pic heavy)

Dave -

Ammo can make a huge difference. Might be time to start reloading. I've found its pretty easy to find good loads for my rifles by working up powder charges in 0.5g increments, regardless of bullet weight, even if the bullet is a mile from the lands (as is common with my Rugers due to mag length restrictions).

It doesn't take many test cartridges to find a good load, either. It used to be I would load up 4 or 5 at each powder charge, then spend hours at the range shooting them slowly enough to keep the barrel cool. These days I load one at each powder charge and shoot them slowly, keeping track of the impact points and velocities. Then I look for the best grouping for consecutive shots. If I find a good group of 3-4 consecutive shots, for example, I pick the middle charge and load up some more for test. Normally what I find is that load development is done at that point.


Good luck with that rifle.