Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles Best accuracy tweaks

No report?

What's the typical runout for your cartridges?

Most Wby cartridges do.

I have hit upon the right load with as little as the first 10 rounds and as many as 450 rounds downrange before finding the right combination.

The best accuracy tweaks for me was to refine my bench technique during load testing. That included breaking some old habits, purchasing some quality bench components & listening to others vs. closing my ears because I thought I knew what I was doing.

You mention most reloading trys...what have you done to the rifle before firing the first shot?
IMHO, the best accuracy tweaks are ensured by a properly set up gun.

I sort by neck variance , and toss out the culls. Then find the bullet seating depth when working up. Sinclair makes a good tool:



MtnHtr

Getting that last little gain or consistency can be a number of things, brass make, powder, bullet, primers, RO, SD, fine powder adjustments etc to name a few(all considering a good bbl abd solid platform) I find usually seating depth and RO to have the largest impact, but optimum powder, optimum charge weight, and even the primers can eek out that last little gain. It can be a pain for sure. I usually try wide varieties of off the wall load combos with 4 shot groups to start, then gear twds combos that work, focus on the best combos for the most consistency. Sometimes you find a consistent combo right out of the gate, sometimes it takes a while. I've had some hardheaded rigs that were very finicky, but at the same time seen some of those finicky rigs turn out to be surprisingly consistent after the effort. It's nice to have one once in a while that does outstanding with nearly everything you throw at it.

loder

In my experience I found that on one rifle I owned seating depth made a 3" difference at 100 yrds.

I start at .010 off the lands and deal with powder charge first going 1 grain at a time 'til I find the best accuracy (keeping an eye on pressure signs). If I want to better it still I move the bullet back .010" at a time and after that .005" each way if needed.

This has worked good for me !

I have been taking this advice to extremely good effect in the last few months.

I'd always just seated bullets .020" off the lands and called it good. If the groups were large or that "1 and 2" or "2 and 3" effect I went off looking at bedding, primers, adjusted the powder charge, etc. etc.

Now I start at .020", work up powder charges to my desired velocity and then move the bullet nearer or farther according to the above.


I move in .010" increments and when I read your "1/4 turn of the die" method my first thought was that's a bit much, but then realized that's .0125" or 12 1/2 thousandths, which is too near the same to fret over.

Here's a good example of how seating depth will affect an otherwise identical load. I posted this originally here: https://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbth...other_lesson_in_seating_dept#Post5240064

The top two groups are .010" from the lands and the bottom two are .030". BTW, this does show that powder charge still plays a role, the left and right pairs are only one grain apart in charge weight.