SmallCaliberCentral

This is my first time trying the OCW method of determining a load, and I'm curious about what distance is necessary to see the pertinent POI shift. My choices are shoot at 100 yards tomorrow, or wait a week to go to a longer range.

Is 100 enough, or will the POI shift be too small to be useful? If it helps, I do have OnTarget to help find the center and measure distance of the groups.

I do 200 yards min. and out to 300 yards for the 204. It's a 300 yard varmint gun for me. Go up in .2 grains to your max. if you go .3 you might miss a node for such a small case. @ 100 yards you might get 1 large hole and think it's great. I test all my loads at 200. Then out to 300 after . Three shot groups prove nothing to me. I like 5 shot groups with repeatablilty. good luck let us know how it goes..

My OCW load for the 204 Ruger is 26.0 grains of Exterminator, Norma Brass, Fed 205m or rem 7 1/2, any 32 grain bullet. Just under 2.260 col. Bolt gun or Ar-15

Well, my choices were to shoot at 100 today, or wait a week to shoot farther. I was impatient, and shot at 100. And the results... I'm a bit let down. Quite a bit, in fact. Load was Hornady brass, Rem 7 1/2 primer, Benchmark, and 32gr Nosler BT Varmint, 2.25" OAL. Here is the target:



First, I'm disappointed with the grouping, although I understand that can be changed. But more than that, unless I just don't know how to read these, I don't see any pattern that jumps out at me as being consistent across more than two load values. If you can see one, please point it out, otherwise... any advice for me? The wind was slightly erratic, but I waited for calms to shoot.

While 26.7 was the listed max (IIRC), I'm not averse to going a touch above it, if that looks promising. Pressure signs on the primers were notably less than those with either factory Hornady ammo, or loads using max listed in Sierra's data for 32gr BK.

The last 2 groups are worth a re look in my books. I'd see if I could duplicate a few of those groups then start buy playing with the bullet seating depth. Another thing is I like a cross on my target just to help me aim a little easier. JMO


Boomer.

I'll give that a shot, maybe go from 26.6 to 27-ish in 1/10ths, provided no pressure signs appear. The first three spotters (min load, min + 2%, min + 4%) all went into about 1/2", so I guess I could take a look at the bottom end as well. Being near the min load is a bit disappointing to me, but hey, accuracy trumps velocity, I guess. I can be humble.

The sad part is that factory Hornady 40-grain V-Max in the gun will outshoot these groups. When handloads with quality components won't outshoot factory rounds, I really feel like I'm failing.

boomer84 wrote: Another thing is I like a cross on my target just to help me aim a little easier. JMO

The white dots here are just larger than the intersection of my reticle at 100 yards, so if I see just a sliver of white on all four corners, I'm on. But, maybe I should give a few other target styles a try.

And, my scope is a $40 beater that I threw on the rifle to get it broken in, and haven't gotten around to replacing. I figure that I should get rid of that potential weak link, so I ordered a 12x SWFS SS tonight. We'll see if that makes a difference, or if it comes down to the nut behind the trigger.

The 32 gr. Nosler Varmageddon and BLC(2) powder were the most accurate in my Rem. 700 VLS. I used Win. brass, Rem 7 1/2 primers. Started with 27 gr. and worked up to 30 gr. 28.5 gr. turned out to be most accurate with a .169 group. I seated bullets so they just fit in the magazine and didn't change that. I don't like Hornady brass.
Bob

broper wrote: I don't like Hornady brass.

Could you elaborate on the reasons?

I'm using it because I have a good supply of it. The factory 40grain V-max loads shoot so well in my rifle that I bought two hundred and some-odd rounds of it to get me started, and to use for brass.

TwentyBore wrote:The white dots here are just larger than the intersection of my reticle at 100 yards, so if I see just a sliver of white on all four corners, I'm on. But, maybe I should give a few other target styles a try.

For me, this type target is OK when sighting in my deer rifle. But, when shooting for best accuracy and working up loads, I prefer the Briarbank Targets. You can find them in a Sinclair catalog. Page 258 in their 2012-B catalog. This type of target was recommended to me by a competitive shooter. Hold the center of the scopes cross hair on the corner of one of the squares. No matter left or right side. I use the outlined square rather than the shaded square. I noticed for myself when using the shaded square, I loose the edges of the cross hair. Using this type target allows you to hold in the same exact point every time you look thru the scope. No chance of holding just a hair off from your last shot.

I do all of my testing @ 200 yards. For OCW that should work fine for you. For the ladder test, I've tried that @ 200 yards with my 6mm and I didn't think it was far enough. Probably the same for the 204 too, but, you have to be able to see the holes to plot them (ladder test).

WRT Hornady brass, I've never heard anything good about it, to many QA problems.

HTH

Hey FT
That tip about the target was the best I have seen in a long time. I just drew up a target with squares and went out and shot it.it really helps with my hold. I have been using ¼ “circles but this is so much better .thanks ,Dan

TrapperDan wrote:Hey FT
That tip about the target was the best I have seen in a long time. I just drew up a target with squares and went out and shot it.it really helps with my hold. I have been using ¼ “circles but this is so much better .thanks ,Dan

You are very welcome Dan. Great thing about this site is, we can learn from each others experiences, and make our passion a lot more enjoyable. I think you will see your groups shrink, just a little. Great thing about the targets I mentioned and use, you can see the bullet holes, and the lines and squares are all in 1 inch increments. Makes judging group size a bit easier from your bench, and any scope adjustments a lot easier too!

Just for grins, here's a target I designed around 1970 for sighting in and load development utilizing the 1" square basis. It's worked well over all these years, and made scope adjustments quick and easy, and saving no telling how much ammo over the years.



No big deal, just another variation of a 100-200-300 yard target for easy scope adjustment using the self-centering ability of the eye with the crosshair reticle on a grid target. I use it for my 100 yard zero on all my varmint rifles for setting up my "come-up" charts for each primary varmint caliber out to 600 yards (or 500 yards for the Fireball case). Been workin' right well for a long time, but there's probably better versions out there now though.

I'd like to say that I truly appreciate all of the advice given here so far. It will be at least this weekend before I can get the new scope, get it mounted, and go put some rounds down range, but I'll report.

For the Ladder, be sure all things are equal shot-to-shot (barrel heat, wind, shooting form) and get as far back as possible. I found that my 200y ladder was totally insufficient, but the 500y "told it all" for me.

Treat every single shot as if the fate of everyone that you love depended on that one and only trigger squeeze.

This will save you a trip to the rubber room... ask me how Iknow that, lol!!

Well, I went out today, new scope, better targets, new batch of rounds. Same Nosler 32 grain/Benchmark combo. Since loading to listed COAL didn't work well, I seated these .020" off of the lands.

Overall, the groups were a little smaller, but not much, still about 1.2" average. I would suspect my ability or that of the rifle, except that I can shoot the factory Hornady ammo significantly better this time. An earlier test with Sierra BlitzKings turned in better groups, too, so I'm suspecting that my rifle may just not like the Noslers. I'll load up some BKs over Benchmark (and maybe RE 10x as well, and maybe over TAC as well if I get really bored), and see how those do next week.

Jim White wrote: WRT Hornady brass, I've never heard anything good about it, to many QA problems.

Speaking of Hornady QA problems..... incredibly coincidentally, today I had the first failure I have ever had with factory-loaded centerfire ammo:



I pulled the bullet at home, there was no powder in the case.