The dampness made it seem a bit colder than the 35 degrees today but I felt like I was on target with 95% of my shots. I had (3) 3" bullseyes on the left side of a sheet of paper and went thru the each seperate batch of bullet/powder combos before shooting the second and thrid rounds.
As far as the 32gr Nosler Varmint Tips - I'll use what I left for a paperweight. I quit after shooting just (6) Noslers using H322 as I only hit the entire paper (4) times, the closest was 1.8" from the bull which meant none of them hit a 3" bull. They were like my golf shots - high and to the left.
The 39gr Sierra BK with H322 looked the best but this is tainted because I only shot twice each at the 3 bulls. I really wished I hadn't quit and could have seen where the last set would have hit. - but I was cold.
With the 39gr SBK and H4895 I shot 3 times each at (6) set of bulls (and powder ranges). In most case I'd have 2 that were close then a flyer around a 1/2" - 1" away. Actually they weren't too bad.
My main goal was to check the 34gr, 37gr, and 40gr CRT bullets each with 3 ranges of IMR 8208. I had one 3 shot group of the 37gr that was 1/2". As I was shooting these I noticed alot of them had the hollow points a bit distorted. I think this probably happened when I had trouble getting them upright in the case in my bullet seater. I remember feeling them hit the base of the seater quite often before moving to the center and getting seated. If these shoot this good with quite a few of the noses distorted, I can only imagine how well they'd shoot in pristine form (maybe with a VLD chamfer - duh). I did have a few of these hang up in the rifle's throat as I was loading them but assumed the deformed nose was causing this.
However, just as a reference I was periodically shooting a 32gr factory Hornady V-Max at various times throughout the session at a separate target and had a 3 shot group of .8" - my Tikka has always liked these.
All in all, I think the 3 different CRT bullet sizes with 3 powder ranges each were the most consistant because this was an 18 shot group with injured noses (I hope this didn't make them fly better)! My Tikka liked the 37gr CRT with 27.6 grains of IMR 8208 the best - 1/2" group with 2 touching. This could be my future chuck and yote slayer . . .
My day at the range
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K22
Re: My day at the range
Sounds like you had a pretty productive day. Your 1/2" group 37gr. load is pretty close to mine. I'm shooting 27.4gr. of 8208 with the 37gr. CRT.
Your distorted bullet nose brings to mind an interesting discussion I had a few years ago with Chappie Gennet the Genco bullet maker. He told me you could distort a bullet nose a bunch without seeing much accuracy change. I forget what he said the reason was. Anyway, it was pretty surprising to me.
Your distorted bullet nose brings to mind an interesting discussion I had a few years ago with Chappie Gennet the Genco bullet maker. He told me you could distort a bullet nose a bunch without seeing much accuracy change. I forget what he said the reason was. Anyway, it was pretty surprising to me.