Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles What was the hardest load development you ever did?

My Ruger 77 MKII would not shoot worth a flip with anything. 2 stocks, 3 scopes, 2 sets of rings, recrown, lugs lapped and abut 500rounds later with 150's, 165's, 180's, 190's, 4350, 414, 4831, Rem Brass, Fed Brass, Win Brass. Then I bedded the action via BSA's advice. Hmmm, sub-moa....I wasted a bunch of money......

Weatherby Mark V 300Wby Mag, no combos yet that are a consistent 3" at 100yds. New stock is on the way.

Bearcat it doesn't have to be custom, or expensive, to shoot good....that "stock-to barreled action" connection, may be the biggest bugaboo of all....along with straight ammo.

Yep, I am seeing that now after being here and reading a lot.

I bought a used Accumark stock with the aluminum bedding block from a member here. When it shows I am going to skim bed it and get back to work with the 300. I did not want to fool with the weak tupperwear stock on my Mark V. I sold some stuff and had some extra $$$ burning my pockets, so I spent it.

Ruger 77 257 Roberts Ultralight very long throat, had 5 pages of loads over 10 plus years finally got it to shoot, 10 plus years later found it had a bent factory barrel? no wonder load development was not for the faint of heart! Ruger rebarreled it, no charge, wish I would have found the bent barrel earlier would have made my life easier.

Remington 700 in 17 Remington using 25 grain moly coated Hornady bullets. I got it to shoot, but it took about a dozen tries at the range and never in 100 degree heat!
Good shooting,
Marcus.

Agreed, Bob. That fincky .25-20 got a little tweaking over the years and that did help.
All of my custom built rifles on either McMillian or MPI Kevlar stocks are just as you describe. They shoot alot of stuff well and some loads really well.
Bullets can play a part. I've never had a Speer Hot Core shoot really well. OK, yes, but never really well. Their TNT's however, have done really well.
I've noticed that with Swift-A-Frames too. In a rifle that has never been finicky, only on load had any real consistancy. I'm going back to Nosler Partitions in that one. E

Ruger no.1 in 243 just about drove me crazy I tried everything i could think of until one night I was looking at the crown of the barrel and put a 100 grain speer boat on the crown it dropped down into the barrel stopping about a inch before the chamber . Turn it over and the bullet rattle down the barrel onto the floor. Two trips back to Ruger and a new barrel it shots like a house afire now.

I have a older Remington 700 in 7MM STW. Has factory stock, pillar bedded, action bedded, accurized, 4 differnt brands of cases, multiple weights and brands of bullet, several different primers, different powders. Sub min of angle last month with both 160 AB (which had been through it with multiple combinations of loads), and 175 gr PT. The key was RL-19, I had already tried 22 but 19 was/is golden in this rifle.

Hardest load development for me was a bum custom barrel. Cost me alot of time, $$, headaches and frustration. I kept records and took pics and came to the conclusion it had to be the barrel. I sent pictures of the targets along with records of the loads to the barrel maker and they not only offered to replace the barrel, they reimbursed my 'smith to install the replacement barrel! They sent the replacement barrel to my 'smith within a week and after one short range session the new tube is shooting about .5"!

MtnHtr

MtnHtr:Factory barrels can sorta vary all over but IME when a good custom tube doesn't shoot there's a problem somewhere...

It is just so important the rifle be "right" in the first place;otherwise a guy is just chasing his tail.Seen it so many times as I am sure others have as well.

Problem is so many believe in magic loads that make a sour shooting rifle into a tack driver....I have learned that if a rifle sucks,it sucks and no load development will ever make it really good.Best get it fixed. Range time and components are expensive.

Bob,

That brings up the question. If you have a rifle that doesn't shoot to your expectations, what specifically is your checklist to make sure the rifle is "right"?

I admit my ignorance in this area, but am always looking to learn more.

I'm not Bob, but I happen to agree with him on this point, so I'll chime in. Here are my first steps in load development:

- Float the barrel (unless it's an U/L barrel)
- Bed the stock (stress-free bedding with DEVCON)
- Adjust trigger (or replace); zero creep, 3 lbs.
- Quality bases and rings (torqued to specification torque)
- New, quality scope (Zeiss, Leupold, Swaro) or used scope with a known history (one of mine)
- Verify the front base screw isn't bottoming on barrel threads (common)
- Verify the magazine box isn't binding between the floor plate and receiver (very common on 700s)
- Torque action screws, in the proper order, to specification torque
- Clean the barrel thoroughly with a good copper solvent
- Start with a powder and bullet weight-class that are known to shoot well in other rifles of the same caliber

Only after this stuff do I begin load development. Going through this ritual has just about convinced me that ANY rifle that doesn't have a problem somewhere can be made to shoot MOA or better. I'm sure there are exceptions, but I've yet to see one.

I often lap my scope rings, and I've lapped a few recoil lugs -- though I can't honestly say that the latter yielded an obvious improvement.

Azar, Richard's list is a good one.

I'm not a machinist, nor a gunsmith, so can't describe all the little magic things a good smith does.And some rifles take very little.A year or so ago, M70 Classic 7 mag shot so-so in a factory wood stock.Redneck on here bedded it in a Rimrock for me, tuned the trigger, floated the barrel, and that's all it took.The rifle is a tack driver with several loads that were so-so in the original stock, factory barrel and all.The "magic" was in good bedding and a barrel that was not banging around in the stock, not in the loads.

But I think lugs should be lapped;barrels should butt up squarely to actions because barrels screwed on crooked won't shoot,bolt faces should be concentric and squared up properly..crowns should be square and clean so bullets exit properly.

Bedding must allow actions to sit stress free.

Over a year ago,a great shooting 270 started to misbehave and go sour....it had been great before,so I was perplexed.It had been shot a bit, about 1500-2000 rounds. I tried everything, including looking for new "magic loads"...nothing worked,so I took it to my smith here.

Larry bore scoped it,said the throat was rough (he says I shoot too much He diamond lapped the throat,and accuracy with the old loads was restored, the first 300 yard group going a bit under 3", but I also noticed accuracy soured after 18 rounds. I cleaned it,and accuracy came right back.

I think I may have mentioned a friends 280, made of good stuff, that would not shoot...Larry fixed it by squaring off the bolt face,and face of the receiver so the barrel /action connection was square; lapped the lugs for better contact,recut the chamber,recut the threads of the receiver,recrowned the barrel,and re-did the bedding.

A sour shooting rifle put 140 TSX's into one ragged hole...it went from sour grapes to tack driver with no load development....

Another reason why I say chasing groups with magic loads is a waste of precious time and money if the rifle is not right.If you are running back and forth to the range with 10 different powders,and a dozen combo's of bullets and charges to get a rifle to shoot, you are wagging the dog.There are many good accuracy smiths today.Some post here....they are your friends! Pay them and be happy!

For a new rifle, my load development starts with one powder and maybe two bullets....I may try at most one more powder and bullet combo...if it doesn't shoot, it's off to the smith for the cure.

Edited to add: Make sure your ammo is straight.....something I learned from Johnny B on here(bless his heart!)...it is astonishing what straight ammo will do and is the only little case prep accuracy trick I pay attention to.I am still sick I was so ignorant about this for so many years....

I'm convinced that even rifles with problems can shoot that well.
My Eddystone I mentioned earlier has a barrel so screwy, it looks to be dangerous.

Last group was .8moa at 200 yards.

Thanks for the feedback guys.

I've had 2 that were a challenge.

First was a 6.5x284 that would shoot great today, but next week with same loads wasnt so good. I thought it was me, having a bad day, but then the next rifle shot as it should. This went on for several months. Long story short, changed barrels and problem went away.

Second was a Win. 270, stock rifle. Tried several bullets, powders, primers, seating depths, cases, etc... Finally, after a year of experimenting, I bedded the barrel and presto, it went to shooting great!

I think the hardest one I ever eventually succeeded with was a Ruger (tang safety) 77 RL in .257 Roberts.

I shot it for 2 years, well over 1000 rounds, bunch of different bullets, powders, primers, changing OAL, etc, never could get it under about 2-1/2 inches. Finally one day I lost my temper and shot up all the shells I had with me. It got hot, I could smell wood smoke, and I just kept shootin'. Never gave it much thought, tossed it back in the gun rack and it promptly melted the rubber padding on the rack.

I'm not quite sure why it worked, but the next trip out, I managed to stick 5 75 grain Sierras into 9/16ths of an inch at 100 yards with a max load of 4064. That trip or the next, I got 5 120 grain hornady FBHP bullets into 5/8ths of an inch. The gun shot great for the rest of the time I owned it.

I'm not sure what problem that excess heat fixed, but probably some sort of bedding issue.

Another tough one was a 700 LVSF in .22-250. I only ever found 3 loads it would shoot. It seemed to need a bit of excessive pressure. I'm not sure where I stumbled over the load, but I wound up running 37.5 grains of Varget under 50 grain SXes or 50 TNTs. Same POI, same groups in the low 0.2s, otherwise it was a 2-1/2 MOA gun. It was real touchy, drop back to 37 grains and it didn't shoot for [bleep]. The other load I found after the throat was shot out enough those first two started hittin' the paper sideways ... 55 grain Trophy Bonded Bear Claw over a max load of H4895. It was only about MOA accurate but I got a nice little buck with it. Then rebarreled the gun. Today it's a 6mm Rem AI.

Tom

Bought an M700 in 204. I tried factory loads, and three different bullets and multiple powders. Nothing better than 2.5" at 100. Was thinking of a rebarrel or was going to sell it, and then tried someone's load from here on the fire. Finally 1/2" groups at 100. Haven't even bothered to try another bullet/powder combo since. Had enough experimenting with that thing!

Not the hardest, but the flukiest. My brother gave me a couple handfuls of Remington CoreLokts in .308 -- 180 grainers. I had never tried H414 in a 30-06 before, and I had just bought a pound for my wife's 243. An old Speer manual I had showed the use of CCI 250 primers which I had in stock. They had a load for 165 grainers and for 200 grainers, but not 180's. I split the difference and sent them 180's with a fair ta middlin' charge of the H414 and a 250 magnum primer. First 5 shots at 100 yards went 1 and 1/16" so I took 'em hunting a kilt me a moose with 'em. Used them for a couple years and then Barnes started singing to me, so I moved on.

I forgot about that one!

I had a blued tupperware ADL in .204 about the time they quit making the ADL in favor of the SPS. That SOB beat me. I flat out couldn't get it to shoot well enough. I gave up on the .204 for a couple years because of that. I like .204 a lot, but my .204 successes have both been with PacNor barreled 700s, not factory.

Tom