I spent some time with the gun this weekend. I started by loading some more up with the 47 grains and .025" off. I liked how that group was centered more, and it was the same size as the other.
I was still shooting the same at 100 yards, so I stretched it on out to 200. It seemed alright I suppose. I still get these darn random fliers. But the bulk of the group seems tight. 3" group is "ok" for hunting at 200 yards.
First 5 shot group the 250 yard plate was around 5", strung horizontally, with one low. Again, not what I had hoped for, and I was scratching my head if it was me or the load. So I took a bit to think and decided to try a different load, to see if it would change things.
I upped the charge to 47.3 grains and shot a nice 7/8" group at 100 yards. No way of actually knowing if that was because of the load change, or just a better day shooting for me. But I tried it at 250 yards again. First three shots were 2 1/2", strung horizontally just about.
Then the next two opened it up, so I decided to load 4 more and see what a total of 9 shots produced. Yes, I am weird like that. I like to work in even numbers sometimes and that left me with 10 prepped cases to shoot. Anyways, the 9 shot group did open my eyes some.
6 of the 9 are clustered in a 3" group. One way left, and 2 way low. So honestly, I think that the outliers are my shooting skill not the load. Is that a pretty fair assessment? I can see where large group sizes are beneficial for seeing things like this.
I'm gonna call it good and work on my shooting skill now. One thing also is that these are factory second bullets. I went through them, weighed and measured them, they seem fine except some blemishes. But who knows how they are on the inside. Regardless, I am not going to say they were the cause. But next time, after some more practice, I'll repeat my test with some factory firsts.
I am not sure the velocity of the new 47.3 grain load. I'll run them over the chronograph soon. One thing that might be an issue was the cross winds I was dealing with. I try not to put blame on any one thing, but running some numbers it does seem that at 250 yards wind can play with POI. Next time I do a serious test I'll make sure its a calm day.
