Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Load Development and Scope

I don't feel the need to prove anything mate, least of all to you.

I have a couple of Weaver KT-15s that I use exclusively for load development. I seem to aim smaller at 100 yards at 15x than I do with a typical 1.5-5x20, 2-7x33, or 3-9x40 scope. Aim small, hit small.

Use 4x and a big enough dot you can see well. Chop that dot in four quarters with the retical. Better yet, take a torpedo level with you and put some thick black lines through that target both horizontally and vertically, make sure they are level.

I typically put on my 8-32x56 sightron for load development for the reasons many have listed here. The higher power greatly enhances my ability to shoot small groups and spot technique errors. There might be some here who can shoot groups as small with a 4X as a 32X but I can assure you that I can't. Parallax adjustment is another huge factor as most scopes that claim to be parallax free at 100 yds aren't. I also do load development at 200 yds instead of 100 because tweaks in the load show themselves much better there than at 100. I would do it at longer range but I've found 200 yds to be a sweet spot where the wind doesn't come into play that much yet. At 300+ yards the wind can induce errors that are mistaken for load problems, on a normal day at 200 yds the wind effect is negligible.

I can swap a scope in about five minutes. Another five minutes with a known load will have it sighted in and ready to hunt. The advantages of having the 32X on there for load development outweigh the small amount of effort to put it on. A low power scope is much harder to shoot precisely from the bench for me, I want to test the load, not my ability to squint and see the target.

If it were true that it's as easy to shoot precisely with 4X as higher magnifications then the 100 yd benchrest shooters wouldn't be using 36X-45X scopes.

I have an old Leupold 12X target scope just for that purpose. There was one just like it for sale in the classifieds not too long ago.

That's a good question and it begs the question as to why I brought up the topic to begin with. Some of you have heard me mention that I have a 7x57 that I'm having a devil of a time getting to shoot consistently, much less consistently better than about 2 inches or so at 100 yards. It's a SC Featherweight, and I dearly love the rifle, but it won't shoot the way I'd like it to. No, I'm not after sub .5-moa groups. I have two 7x57s that will do that (and I've posted the pictures, so it did happen: just two of those days when everything came together); but I want to give the rifle every chance, so I'm going to try to find the load combination that will give me the best accuracy possible out of the rifle itself. In order to do that, however, I also need to be able to aim as precisely as possible -- meaning that assuming I have my bench technique solid and consistent, the winds are ok, etc., I need to also be able to "aim small, miss small" as they say (not a line that was original with Mel Gibson, by the way). So that is why I asked the question about magnification and load "development": I'll mount a 4x hunting scope on the rifle and be satisfied with a 1.5 inch group if I also know for certain that the load itself will shoot at least that or less using 10-15x.

I don't know of any of that makes logical sense, but that's where I am. Hopefully I'll find a load that will shoot 160-grain Sierra Tipped Match Kings into a sub 1 inch group. If I can, that may provide at lease some degree of an edge on then finding a hunting bullet of the same weight that will give decent hunting accuracy. If not I'll need to consider some other options.

Again, thanks for all the comments and your patience with my OCD nature.

RM

Sounds like you have a rifle problem maybe, not an ammo issue. If it were mine, I’d tear it down and check the usual suspects, and maybe some unusual ones.

People that spend a lot of time at the rifle range figure things out quickly.

RevMike - no need to explain/apologize for wanting to wring the most accuracy possible out of your rifle.

My purpose behind shooting load development or sight in with a high magnification scope is simple: I’m trying to remove variables.

Shooting off a bench with bags on a nice day with a high Mag d ops at a high contrast target shows me what the rifle and load is mechanically capable of achieving. But those results don’t have much n common with a live animal in dim light from a field position.

That’s why I set up my rifle with a hunting scope a d practice (to the extent possible) from “field” conditions. That gives me an idea of what I can achieve.

If I’ve done my job right on load development, then I’m always the weak link in the accuracy chain.

That’s about as much of an edge as I figure a hunter can give himself.