11/13/2014 - Getting Back In The Saddle

The last time I shot my .308 (in April) left a bad taste in my mouth.  Not only did the bullets seem to be sprayed all over the place at 100 yards while attempting to reset my Zero, but the cases didn't want to eject from the action of my Savage 308 rifle.  I had many shots touching, but others seemed to by flying around to what ended up being about a 2.5 inch group of about 12 shots.  I was not impressed.  Since the 3-4 times reloaded Lapua Cases didn't seem to want to eject from the rifle even though I'm using a full size die, it seemed that I may be over pressuring the cases.  Given that they eject fine before shooting them, this is the only conclusion that makes any sense to me.  The weird thing is that I've used 45 grains of Varget powder for a few loads now. 

I have decided to load a few different loads and work back up to a good working shot and see how far that gets me.  For this test, I loaded 5 shots of the following loads all using Hodgdon Varget: 42, 42.5, 43, 43.5, 44, 44.5.

A range of different powder loads to try.

Tonight I was hoping to shoot those groups and see if the gun liked any of those better than the others and also look to find out where the cases begin to get hard to eject from the action. I ended up not having enough light (blasted daylight savings time) to get into those groups, but I was able to shoot 10-12 shots of another reload batch (same powder load but Black Hills Match Cases) in order to get an idea of where my zero was holding.  The picture below shows a 6 shot group that I produced with the 175 grain Sierra BTHP, Black Hills brass, 45 grains Varget, with CCI 200 Primers.  All told it's a 6 shot, sub MOA, group with two of the shots more or less in same hole and 4 others making only three holes all touching one another.  It's much better than the last time out, shown below today's result.

When I get a little more time to really be careful and take good notes, I'll be shooting those 30 shots of the five different loads and see if I learn anything.

Today's grouping of 6 shots.  .308 Win, Savage 10FP

6 months ago. Less than stellar...