Ok as promised I am getting back to you guys with some details on the accuracy issues and the fusion testing...........yeah I know two different posts and topics but who's grading this forum?
First I'll get to the seating dept in regards to my bizzare accuracy issue from last week. If you remember:
My IB's were set to OAL of 3.270 and shot all over the place with no consistancy at all. I had switched to SB dies and used a different press( the ultimate turret, the T-7)
With this problem I shot some old loads that were dead nuts accurate but about a year old. When I returned back to the loading bench I found that aside from the SB dies that the OAL was only 3.235 on the old ammo.
I loaded up 40 rounds with the regular or standard Hornady New Dimension dies and only 6 of each seating depth with the TSX and IB's then off to the range to see how things were gonna turn out. After all, the guidance on this forum suggested that Seating depth might be the most critical area for accuracy with reloads.
I first shot the fusion bullets just to see where they were going to be for POI. They shot about a 1.3" group right where I wanted them. The most noticable part was the very low recoil. They shoot at 2725fps, kinda slow for a 165 grain bullet. It's fine for my needs in Africa because the ranges are short. This would not be my choice for 300 yards though! My handloads are as fast at 300 yards then these are at the muzzle! They have an OAL of 3.230
Now here is where you really have to have a desire to reload to make it worth while. Anybody can sling a few componenets together to make a loaded shell but the attention to detail is where it will pay off big time. I won't bother to list every group for each depth but only the good ones and a comparison of the poorest ones. These were all at 100 yards using my upper, or 100 yard crosshair. These were all 3 shot groups.
The 3.265 IB's were in a 3" plus group
The 3.235 IB's shot into a near perfect clover leaf. Maybe the size of a dime.
Look at the numbers for the TSX. These if loaded to match the best IB loads would be a loss, but by expermentation look at the coincidental data here:
TSX at 3.235 shoot into 3" Plus group
TSX at 3.265 shot into one 3/8" enlarged ragged hole. The best group of the day by quite a bit!
The seating depth of the TSX and the IB are exactly the opposite for the best accuracy.
With the remaining loads I had of these last two I shot them all into one 6 shot group. There was only one hole about the size of a nickle dead nuts in the center of that target. So the TSX and the IB's shoot exactly 100% the same POI when loaded to their respective "happy" seating depth.
For the record the TSX shot at 2895fps and the IB's at 2935fps both 165 grain bullets.
It looks like I will use all three of these in Africa without any problems at all this year. I'll recover every bullet that does not exit, and we'll have a hella big photo post here with some of the bullets and game taken.
First I'll get to the seating dept in regards to my bizzare accuracy issue from last week. If you remember:
My IB's were set to OAL of 3.270 and shot all over the place with no consistancy at all. I had switched to SB dies and used a different press( the ultimate turret, the T-7)
With this problem I shot some old loads that were dead nuts accurate but about a year old. When I returned back to the loading bench I found that aside from the SB dies that the OAL was only 3.235 on the old ammo.
I loaded up 40 rounds with the regular or standard Hornady New Dimension dies and only 6 of each seating depth with the TSX and IB's then off to the range to see how things were gonna turn out. After all, the guidance on this forum suggested that Seating depth might be the most critical area for accuracy with reloads.
I first shot the fusion bullets just to see where they were going to be for POI. They shot about a 1.3" group right where I wanted them. The most noticable part was the very low recoil. They shoot at 2725fps, kinda slow for a 165 grain bullet. It's fine for my needs in Africa because the ranges are short. This would not be my choice for 300 yards though! My handloads are as fast at 300 yards then these are at the muzzle! They have an OAL of 3.230
Now here is where you really have to have a desire to reload to make it worth while. Anybody can sling a few componenets together to make a loaded shell but the attention to detail is where it will pay off big time. I won't bother to list every group for each depth but only the good ones and a comparison of the poorest ones. These were all at 100 yards using my upper, or 100 yard crosshair. These were all 3 shot groups.
The 3.265 IB's were in a 3" plus group
The 3.235 IB's shot into a near perfect clover leaf. Maybe the size of a dime.
Look at the numbers for the TSX. These if loaded to match the best IB loads would be a loss, but by expermentation look at the coincidental data here:
TSX at 3.235 shoot into 3" Plus group
TSX at 3.265 shot into one 3/8" enlarged ragged hole. The best group of the day by quite a bit!
The seating depth of the TSX and the IB are exactly the opposite for the best accuracy.
With the remaining loads I had of these last two I shot them all into one 6 shot group. There was only one hole about the size of a nickle dead nuts in the center of that target. So the TSX and the IB's shoot exactly 100% the same POI when loaded to their respective "happy" seating depth.
For the record the TSX shot at 2895fps and the IB's at 2935fps both 165 grain bullets.
It looks like I will use all three of these in Africa without any problems at all this year. I'll recover every bullet that does not exit, and we'll have a hella big photo post here with some of the bullets and game taken.