Pulling the Lever

And the trigger.

Since it is Sunday, I made my way off to the Church of the Holy High Speed Projectile to test my first batch of reloads out of the reloading setup.

I got results! Since I hadn’t been out attempting to be repeatedly super accurate in a long time, I sucked and threw plenty of fliers. But I got results.

The .308 results: I loaded a 50 round batch of 155gr Sierra HPBT using once fired PPU/PRVI brass, Winchester Large Rifle primers and five different loads of IMR 4064 powder in .5 grain increments starting at 43 grains and shot them at 200 yards.

(click to enlarge)

As you can see, this is only 25 rounds. There is a second target that is not as nice as this one and, for the sake of brevity, I’m not posting it. Anyway, the best result was at 44 grains. However, on the second target the 43.5 grain group was nicer than the 44.5 grain group, so I plan on making up another batch of 50, this time going from 43.6-43.8-44.0-44.2 and 44.4 and taking them out for testing later this week.

The .22-250 results: Again, I loaded a  50 round batch, this one of 55gr Sierra HPBT using once fired Remington brass, Winchester Large Rifle primers and five different loads of IMR 4064 powder in .5 grain increments starting at 34.5 grains and shot them at 200 yards.

(click to enlarge)

Again, this is only 25 rounds, second target not shown for same reasons as above. And as you can see, 36.0 grains worked the best, so I will be making a second batch starting at 35.5-35.7-35.9-36.1 and 36.3. I’m not going all the way to 36.5 because we can see what happened there (worse on the second target).

You’ve probably noticed the offset impacts. This was a happy accident. I forgot my booklet of zeros and to bring any ammunition other than my reloads, so I had to shoot my last setting. For the .308, this wasn’t too much of a problem. The .22-250 was a little frightening as I couldn’t remember the drop from 100 to 400 yards. Apparently, it is four inches. Yes, I know I should reset at the end of my session. Call me lazy, I won’t be offended.

And for those that don’t know why you want an offset point of impact, the holes distract your aim and you will start to aim for them instead of the center of your target. Most Benchrest shooters aim two inches low, I prefer my POI’s to the side.

Anyway, wish me luck later this week. I’ll have more results next weekend. And maybe a surprise photo.