Home Forums Reloading Varmint Rifles OCW Results, please post

Yep he's smart alright and seems to have more than enough time to share it. Wonder why? Hope this helps and maybe actually give you some useful information. Unlike the OCW these are tailored loads for my rifle but Shoot very well out of anyone else's that have tried them.


Here's how I do it and a picture of a target I shot. Top row is three weeks ago and bottom row was last week end. Conditions were almost the same other than the humidity was a lot lower last week end and I used my sand bag instead of bi-pods. This is only 3 powder charges because I know about where the 2 nodes my rifle wants to do it's best at from previous test. Next week end I'm going to run the upper end node.
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Let me start off by saying anyway you can find a load to work is fine if it works for you. I hear ladder testing all the time. I don�t think unless you have 300yds to shoot a ladder test you won�t learn a lot. I find my rifles seem to like a certain speed and once I find it I can work around that area with minimal loads and not over a grain and a half spread.

I will start about midrange of a powder charge and load to the max either .3 or .5 grain jump at a time, I load 10 of each load, I always shoot 5 shot groups, I do a round robin with the loads on two different days and compare groups. If I have two groups with excellent results and the same charge I�m done, if not I work around the best groups .1 grain spreads with the best group charge in the middle .2 above and below. Doing this has giving me loads that shoot under half MOA in my rifles and many quarter MOA.

I fire groups one at a time instead of moving all around in my rest shooting at different angles because I want to be as sure as I can nothing is changing in my shooting stance, doesn�t take much of a change to send a flier out into open spaces and you learn nothing unless you know what you did. Just last Saturday I was shooing some really bad groups of around an inch and was badly disappointed until I looked around and saw my barrel was hitting the bag. Next two groups were 4 shots in one hole with 5th one being a choke but still within 3/8� of the groups(not pictured targets). All I had done was move from the top left targets to the one in the next row center.

Call it barrel whip, barrel harmonics, speed, or what ever you want. I just know once I�ve found the speed it likes I can look at a powder knowing the speed I want and most of the time I can run a small set of loads with the next powder and find an excellent load. Like I say may not be the best way but it works like a top for me. The speed does not have to be the same but will nearly always work out within 50 fps of my know load.
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This is with a hunting rifle and 95 berger VLD hunting Bullets



Here's 4 targets from my 308 shot at 175 yds working around my accuracy node at 175 yds. Bottom targets were shot first then I adjusted scope and shot top two. Once I shot center out was hard to stay on target. This was with the .1 around my accuracy node testing with 190. It works for me as I said, may or may not for you!
These were shot with a Savage 10FCP with HS precision stock.