I'm sure nobody remembers me but about a year ago I just started to reload for my .204 when my gun was knocked over on to the wooden shooting bench while on the bi-pod. Previous to that I could cover 5 factory 39 SBK's with a dime, after I couldn't cover a 5 shot group with an orange no matter what I put through it. Long story short after sending the scope back and waiting 4 months to get a new one I found out It was the action not fitting in the Bell and Carlson stock. I guess I got lucky the first time I put the stock on. So I inlet the stock and glass bed it and now I'm back to trying to reload for it. I shot some factory 40 Hornady the first time out after the bedding and they shot better than they ever did before but they still aren't as good as the old factory 39 SBK from Fed. But while I've been working on getting the gun fixed I did manage to find some 39 SBK bullets locally and Berger 40gr bullets. Around here all components are getting hard to come by so right now I have some 40gr Hornady's, 39 SBK's, and 40 Berger's loaded all using Hornady brass, Benchrest and CCI BR4's. I know the Hornady brass is not the best but there all fire formed, neck sized, primer pockets uniformed and flash hole reamed.
So I'm basically looking for advice on how I can get my hand loads to shoot as good as they can. If I can get them to shoot as good as the old factory Fed, 39 SBK's I would be
. I shot a few work up loads today and had a few questions about S.D and E.S. What's the deal with them I pretty much know the extreme spread part but what about the standard deviation? What's that all about. Here are my #'s from the first three batches. There only 5 shots because money and components are hard to come by these days. 24.5gr 24.8gr 25.0gr
avg. 3381 3419 3389
sd. 79 61 51
es. 182 164 123
So far the 24.8 has the best group but I still have a long ways to go. Any tips will help a lot, thanks everyone in advance.