Post by elkman1310 on Aug 26, 2021 21:52:51 GMT -5
I usually only check my velocity when I install a new barrel. I have a target velocity I want to achieve that has produced the best groups at 1,000 yards in my Dashers. Every barrel is different it might take a little more or a little less powder to get there but usually its always ends up about the same in the end. I have shot the same load in both my light Dashers all season with no problems with my cases or extraction problems my to buddies have had the exact opposite everything was fine when we had cooler temps in the beginning of the year with many morning struggling to get into the upper 60's now they have heavy bolt lift and have lost their accuracy. The one gun we backed offed .2grs and it improved the group but didn't help much on the heavy bolt lift the other gun has not come around by backing down .2grs probably he will need to drop back at least .4grs maybe more.
Today at the range I left him try some Alpha brass that I loaded for him with a proven accuracy load I used use. Since he is running a short 26 inch barrel his velocity was down compared to a 28 or 29 inch barrel also Krieger barrels have wide lands and are usually slower than a 5R barrel or a button barrel. Using a lab radar we recorded all 10 shots he had a low of 2934 and a high of 2940fps. with a extreme spread of 6fps you would think that the group would be really good at 1,000 yards well it was not it was ugly about 12 inches. Just because you can get very low numbers from shot to shot doesn't mean that the group will be small you still need to match the correct harmonics of the barrel to the load. The only good thing was the Alpha brass worked great with a easy bolt lift and no expansion on the brass.
Its really nice to know that your reloads are right on the money but you have to read what the target is showing you and adjust from there when we get a all vertical group we usually go up in powder charge to get rid of the vertical if you can't go up in powder than you need to change your seating depth till the vertical goes away its a lot of trial and error but that's all part of the game.
