Good luck with your new adventure guys ... you won't be sorry. I spend about 50% of my "free" time reloading and I love it. Take your time, follow the manuals, ask plenty of questions, and enjoy yourselves. I spent about three hours at the range yesterday with my brother testing new loads for an 85gr Sierra HPBT for my .243, 168gr Sierra HPBT for my brother's .308, and 55gr Vmax for my brother's AR M4.
We hit paydirt on the AR with the 4th test load ... unbelieveably good (2) 5 shot groups less than .500". I am going to load 20 more rounds of this to see how consistent it will be ... but I am pretty sure this is the load. He has several AR's but this one he always used just bulk factory ammo in. It just might become his "go to" coyote gun.
The .308 Savage needs more work but we have it narrowed down somewhat to within 1 or 2 grains. The groups are very consistent in the .500" to .600" range but we can get that down to .500" and below consistently. I will load 3 more loads of 5 test rounds each.
For the .243 (my coyote rifle), I have excellent loads for a 60 gr Sierra HP, a 70gr Nosler BT, and a 80 gr BT that consistently shoot under .750". I just had a crazy urge to try a new bullet ( the 85gr Sierra HPBT.) My groups yesterday were in the 1.00 range except for one that was around .750". I will try a different powder now.
Anyway, I tried to give examples of the challenges reloading offers. Sometimes, you can get lucky and find a load pretty quickly but that is not the norm for me. I set my expectations pretty high. Good luck again .... and good shooting.
