SmallCaliberCentral

I went to the range today with my howa 204 and tried some reloader 10x 39 grain blitzking loads, I shot 4, 5 shot groups with new remington brass, cci br4 primers with a col of 2.60. Powder charges were 24.0, 24.5, 24.9, and 25.1 Things started good with the first 5 shots with the 24.0 grain powder charge shooting around a 1/2 inch group, the next 5 shot group with 24.5 grains of powder opened up big time, the next 5 with 24.9 tighted up ever so slightly. The 5 25.1 grain loads closed back up with a group of around .8 I was really hoping for 1/2 inch groups with near max loads, the 24.0 group is great, but I didnt buy a 204 to shoot lighter loads. I am going to load up 5 rounds with 25.0 grains and see if they shoot any different that 25.1, Also i am going to play with the seating depth of the 25.1 grain load and see if it will tighten up some. Do you think 2.60 is to long or to short for the oal, My gun shoots the 32 grain v-max the best at 2.45-2.50 Do the 39 grain blitz kings like to be close to the rifling or have a jump? thanks for looking, advice will be well appriciated.

24.0


24.5


24.9

25.1

correction oal was 2.260

On the first group were the first 3 shots touching and the other 2 shooting higher? If so maybe your barrel is heating up. How long do you wait in between shots? I allow at least a minute between shots and 5 minutes or more between groups. I shot 6 groups this morning and it took the better part of 2 hrs. Just a thought. Maybe someone else will chime in here that knows a lot more than I do. Dave

I wait between shots, it took me 1 1/2 hours to shoot these groups. I dont recall if the first 3 shots were touching.

Don't be shy about trying one of the 4895s or Varget, also. One of them might be what the rifle wants.

my howa likes 24.7 gr.s of re10x with the the 39gr blitz kings. my seating depth is at 2.983 with a comparator, and without is 2.346 oal. i am using all r/p brass and wsr primers. all brass is trimmed to 1.840 in. i dont remember how far from the lands i am but i know i do have some considerable jump. these loads will give me 3/8 in groups if i do my part, and i cannot load them in the magazine box, because of the length. sounds like you dont have much of the bullet in the case. my loads at these depths have barely over .200 in., in the case. i would try seating the bullets deeper in the case and see what that does for you.
the normal accepted method of judging seating depth is 1 bullet diameter in the case, thus for the 204 that is .200 in. this can be varied according to what your rifle likes the best. but you do need a certain amount of the bullet in case to keep the bullet squared with the bore. JMHO

Try seating further out.
10X is a very sooty powder. Some guns like that. Some don't.

greystones correct. Pay close attention to your shots. First three touching then scatters means your fouling out. Either copper or carbon can do this. With 10X my money would be on carbon.
Last three touching means the group could be settling down. Only way to find out is shoot more of that load before changing the charge weight. Different charge weights can create different levels of powder fouling in the bore altering point of impact. It can take a few shots to settle down. The dirtier the powder the more pronounced this phenomonon can be.

Frankly I would have rattled off those groups in 10 minutes or less with my guns.
If they can't run warm they can't run period.
I think barrel heat is highly overated in all but pencil barrels. It will erode the throat faster but I've never once seen it alter POI or cause scattered groups in varmint weight barrels. Changing bore fouling is to blame for that.JMO
Of course in the heat of summer I run them slower.

Inrut24/7--One thing I'd like to add is to advise you to quit using virgin brass for you load testing. I would highly recommend using brass that is already fire formed to your chamber. You will get a better picture of the accuracy of your loads and the true velocity if you are shooting over a chronograph.

There appears to be a some degree of vertical dispersion in your groups. I believe increasing your powder charge slightly might help tighten up that vertical stringing.

glenn asher also gave some great advise about trying H4895 or Varget. Both of those powders are not very sensitive to temperature changes. H4895 is what I am currently using in my Savage 12VLP for every bullet I shoot in that rifle--32 gr. V-Max, 35 gr. FBHP Berger, 39 gr. Sierra BlitzKing, and the 40 gr. Nosler BT.

Thanks guys, Im loading up some with the once fired brass and try some different seating depths, 25.1 is the listed max from the data I used, but I see no pressure signs, should i try going up? If nothing improves I am going to use the 24.0 grain charge, I am satisfied with that group. accuracy over speed right? I will probally try some 4895 or varget later, but supplies are running low around here so i bought 2 pounds of the 10x before i even tried the loads, so i want to use them up. I also have some H322 H335 and Reloader 15. My gun shoots ity bitty groups with Reloader 15 and the 32 grain v-max, so maybe i should try some rl 15 loads with the blitzkings.
About powder fouling? I have shot my 222 and 223 for years, accuracy stays the same up to 50 rounds or so, but then again I never used 10x before. When you shoot your 204s for groups how clean do you have your barrel? Before i shot these groups my barrel was cleaned very good with powder and copper solvent. It had 5 rounds through it groundhog hunting before i shot the groups. Will 10x really foul that quickly? Hopefully I will get to the range this weekend, I will post the results.

Inrut24/7--One thing I forgot to ask was--were those the first 20 shots you fired down the barrel or had you done some barrel break in or other shooting before? If you only have 20 to 40 shots down the tube, you might find your accuracy improving as you get a few more rounds down the barrel.

Keep us posted on how your load work is going.

You might check to see if your barrel is fully floated. I have a Howa Varminter Supreme, thumbhole laminated stock in 22-250 and I had some contact on one side near the fore end. I ended up pillar glass bedding the receiver plus removing the contact area at the tip and it shoots cloverleafs if I do my part (like my Savage ).

Well I guess all that it took was finding that magic seating depth. I tried 3 different seating depths this time. Above on my first post the group that i shot with the 25.1 grain charge was 2.260 cartridge overall length. Since it was not a bad group i decided to work with that charge with different seating depths. this time once fired brass was used. I tried cartridge overall lengths of 2.315, 2.265, and one shorter length of 2.255. It was in the mid 60s today with a steady 5-10 mph breeze. first up was the 2.255 loads, second i tried the 2.315 loads and last I tried the 2.265 loads. The first two groups were not great at all and I was thinking that I was wasting my time, That all changed when I shot the 2.265 loads. If it wasnt for the one slight flyer this would have been the smallest 100 yard 5 shot group i have ever shot. This is definatly going to be my load for ground hogs this summer. Also I tried two five shot groups with reloader 15, 5 at 27.8 grains and 5 at 28 grains. both of these 5 shot groups went under an inch. Thanks for all the advice I recieved on here.

2.255 The shot to the right was first shot from a clean barrel, I forgot to bring more rounds for fouling shots.



2.315 once again, nothing to right home about.


2.265 Completly satisfied.

NICE!

Congrats on finding the "smile" maker!

Well, it looks like you might have found your powder and seating depth combination. Congratulations. Now, load up 10 or 15 of those and see if you can shoot close to the same size groups again. I would highly recommend doing that before you load up a bunch of rounds based on one five-shot group.