As I have been working up loads trying to get consistant accuracy and so far only the hotter loads have produced this. So far I have done about 500 handloads trying different powders/bullets and powder charges and I didn't count how many times each case has be re-loaded. As consistancy seemed elusive I am conducting a test over an extended period of time by usign the "Master" target system. this is where two targets are put up one exactly on top of the other so only one is visable and a five round group shot on it, then the top target is changed and a new on placed exactly on top of the bottom one which now has five holes in it and a second five round group shot.
The bottom target is the master and marked as such and this is repeated again at different times over a period of time to get get a record of the true grouping ability of the rifle, scope, ammo and shooter. I shot the first three targets last Sunday and got this result:-
Oh range is 82 yards (75 meters)First target (Yes sorry it's upside down but for some reason the host site will not allow it to be rotated
)
Second target
and the Master showing the composit group so far:-
Now if I was just considering individual groups I would be dissappointed with
target 1 and wondering about the bedding with
target 2 however when you look at the
Master the two groups make one rounded group. We will see what this coming Sundays group adds to it. The test will continue until at least Forty rounds are on the Master target so that's another 6 weeks of shooting one group per week which should allow for different weather and light conditions as well. 75 meters is the only range available within reasonable distance to home.
As for the case well I resized some Federal 243 cases last night which have been reloaded once since being fired as factory ammo and out of a box of twenty, Two had split necks
, not exactly what one would expect from Federal brass, Dies are RCBS, I will see what makes the gunshop has in stock next time I am in there and check the prices. I am not exactly new to reloading having done so for some twenty years. This 6mm Remington chambered rifle has been the most frustrating to work with
and now with the split necks on some 243 brass it seems these small bore are not as robust as the larger hulls? Have not had this trouble with 270 Win, 6.5x55, .308, and even 303 British in fact I have yet to lose a 303 British case through stress and they are supposedly famous for case failures !
The worse case failure I can remember and one that failed on actual firing was an old Rem-UMC marked 270 Win case that cracked across the head into the primer pocket. I had a lot of these cases whcih I acquired when first starting to load rifle, the 270 was my first centerfire rifle and after a second of these cases failed I junked the rest to be on the safe side. I have no idea how old these cases were but they looked good and showed no visible signs of stress to the eye and by then I had brought some Sako ammo so had the cases from them with a known history to work with.
