Strange Day Good Day

[laowho]

First time @ 200 yds and my 20x60 binos didn't quite manage. Gonna get the Konus 7120 20-60x80 spotter. First time prone too. Took Lyman 132 Postells (535 gr) to try to ladder 1.5F and 2F OE and Swiss loads. Previously with the Saeco 645 (485 gr) the Swiss 1.5F @ 68 gr was a clear winner.

Took some CheyCast RN (512 gr) @ 68 gr OE 2F for my fouling shots. Soule was 15 points from previous 100 yd day for the Swiss 68/1.5F. Aimed over my target for fouling first 3 shots, moved Soule up 5 points to 20, aimed center and hit dead center. Great I thought. Started laddering w/ the 535 grs, 66/68/69 measures of the 4 powders. And was havin trouble seein my all black target (lesson learned). The 66 gr loads were low--bottom target--figured the 68s would do the trick, but no. Long story short, I was still shootin under the target but didn't know it.

Before leaving I let a range worker fire the Sharps. We'd talked before--he's tryin to PP GG bullets for a Mauser. Anyhoo, he's never used a peep sight nor done the other things you guys do. I only had some of the 512 gr RN foulers left that I'd loaded w/ 68 gr OE 2F. He shot 4 prone and one off hand. I was glad for it cuz my session seemed a complete wash, not knowin if it was the barrel, the loads, the sights or just my sucking. He loved it (of course). Went and retrieved my target to leave and just stared @ the 5 holes he put through the 1x2 stake under the target. He went 5 for 5 from 200 yds through a sight he's never used w/i 1.5" on a target I was havin trouble seeing.

It was a bad day til it was a great day. My windage really is zeroed, my loading is better, and the rifle can flat out perform. Gotta go over my notebook to see what else I can salvage from today, but man was I grateful. Go figure that sumthin so arbitrary could turn a day around. Cheers, Doug

[Don McDowell]

Somedays are like that.

[laowho]

Well Don,

With all the variables to this kind of shooting, it's definitely as much art as science. Needed a form that would engage/challenge me a good bit and seems that I've properly found it. I try to read across the spectrum of shooting but don't think I've encountered anything yet that exceeds the breadth of this. I'm sure there is, but I don't wanna know about it. And even tho we couldn't see the target, the guy REALLY enjoyed shooting it, so there's that too. Cheers

[Don McDowell]

BPCR takes a lot more follow thru and attention to detail than todays high-power stuff. One fella I've shot with has a high master in high-power but can't break out of Sharpshooter in bptr. I have reminded him on more than one occasion the wind and mirage shifts that will throw a 45 cal bullet off the paper won't hardly even make a 165 gr SMK flinch...

[laowho]

"Follow through"...think that's what was givin me fits prone yesterday. Need to study up on this for next outing. Told my wife that I was flinching, and no wonder that my first shot was my only good one. Thx

[bruce moulds]

out to 500 meters, a good bpcr bullet will have about 3x wind deflection of a 308 155 gn palma load.
from there out to 1000 yds the bpcr will be double the 308.
you can pretty near put money on it.
the reason is that out to 500 the bpcr bullet is transonic and therefore has increased drag
when it goes fully subsonic the drag reduces significantly, hence the change in relative deflection.
this happens at getting near 900 fps.
of course the 308 is at the top end of the transonic zone at 1000 yards, so his problems are about to start.
shooting a 308 at 1200 yds can be very problematic, especially with the wrong bullet.
head of the list here is the 168 sierra matchking which could even start to tumble.
we do well to get our bullets through the transonic due to a higher stability factor, usually about 1.8, compared to 1.5 with the 308.
also our bullets have undergone virtually no spin decay while transonic, while the 308 has lost at least 25% of its spin by the time it has reached its transonic flight.
keep safe,
bruce.

[laowho]

Read your posts about these BCs over @ the Shiloh site Bruce. Fascinating stuff, and remember reading elsewhere that you cam your bullets into the lands. Been reading up on Audette's Incremental Load Development and Newberry's Optimum Charge Weight and then Young's barrel harmonic's follow up of Optimum Barrel Time. If I understand correctly, once I find Audette's plateau for optimum charge, I can then start looking for seating depth. Am makin up my dummy cartridges for the lands for 3 bullets, and even tho I read a lot about preference off the lands (maybe .005" to .010"), why wouldn't I just wanna do my ladders starting on the lands if that's where we wanna be? Dunno whether BP is different than smokeless in this or in other regards.

If I understand correctly, Audette's ladder gives me the charge that can best withstand variance during throwing. This shows up on a vertical stability zone. Then Young's barrel time has us finding that seating depth @ wh/ the bullet will exit when the muzzle has its longest non-deformed phase under the traversing shock wave, for best horizontal stability. If I have this right, wouldn't it be prudent to load for the lands first if there are advantages there, and then do my ladder tests? Seems the charge weights are still gonna work according to Audette's method. Otherwise, I'm havin a hard time understanding how you guys find optimum seating depth. Cheers, Doug

[Kurt]

"Follow through"...think that's what was givin me fits prone yesterday. Need to study up on this for next outing. Told my wife that I was flinching, and no wonder that my first shot was my only good one. Thx

Flinching is the biggest fault for large groups. You can have a MOA load but if you flinch it will be many times larger then what it really is.

When I watch shooters on line that forget to pull the hammer back set the trigger and "CLICK" and I see the barrel all over the place or see his head pop up off the stock. As long as you do this you will never get the full potentials out of the load your testing.
Anticipating recoil is a killer of a good load.

When I started working with my Daughter I disabled 5-6 primers and loaded them so they misfire. This is a great training aid when they get behind the butplate and a random misfire happens, it will let them see exactly what they are doing when they break the shot and they will do their best to correct the thrown shot from pushing into the butplate when they break the shot.
I do this now and then for myself when I work up loads to see if I have fallen into the flinch routine.

Kurt

[laowho]

Great tip Kurt, and now that I have a bullet puller I'll def do it, esp'ly prone. Thx.

[Old Jim]

Follow-thru, stay in the shot; whatever you want to call it, if good groups are your goal, hang in there!

Flinching has got to be a thing of your past, hang in there,

Oh yeah, hang in there.