Thread: I think I may have F@#%ed up...

Good evening friends.

For your amusement, I have, successfully I hope, uploaded a photo of the target from my first ever attempt at hand loading ammunition.

Please dont hurt yourselves laughing...

nah man...its ALL learning curve....post details of what you did and between us all we sure to suss out what went amiss....good on you for having balls to post .many wouldnt,so miss out on learning from community wisdom.

Originally Posted by Micky Duck

nah man...its ALL learning curve....post details of what you did and between us all we sure to suss out what went amiss....good on you for having balls to post .many wouldnt,so miss out on learning from community wisdom.

Yup, agree. Give up some details, at least you have a baseline now to start from. And you've made a start.

Nice pattern. 00buck was it?

Jip. One at a time.

I'm guessing you tried to do a ladder test,but instead of aiming at one point to establish accuracy nodes, you aimed at different point each time. Oh well next time you'll know what to do.

Well for starters they went bang and not boom so you're on the right track!

Shes a .223 with i believe a rather odd 1in13 twist. Shoots cheap factory 63gr and 55gr ammo sort of acceptably(under 2inches at 200m)

Was hoping it could make do with a heavier projectile for deer, and instead of cloning and perfecting a known good load, i just cobbled shit together and off to the range i went!

Originally Posted by mawzer308

I'm guessing you tried to do a ladder test,but instead of aiming at one point to establish accuracy nodes, you aimed at different point each time. Oh well next time you'll know what to do.

I fired at least two (no point in firing all 5 with that result) rounds of each load at the corresponding dot for that load. None of the loads resulted in two shots even remotely close to each other or the dot i was aiming at

Originally Posted by DCN808T

Shes a .223 with i believe a rather odd 1in13 twist. Shoots cheap factory 63gr and 55gr ammo sort of acceptably(under 2inches at 200m)

Was hoping it could make do with a heavier projectile for deer, and instead of cloning and perfecting a known good load, i just cobbled shit together and off to the range i went!

With a 1:13 (my old one was 1:12) I could never get it to shoot heavier projectiles. Try a 50 gr or even lighter...Mine really liked the 45,50 and 35gr vmax. The slower twist really lends itself to faster lighter projectiles. I never found one over 55gr that wasn't 2" or more at 100m but the 435 and 50gr were mostly same hole...

Nothing wrong with a 2 inch group at 200yds for a start either.It will hit deer.

Originally Posted by Trout

Nothing wrong with a 2 inch group at 200yds for a start either.It will hit deer.

Oops. Sorry. Typo. Thats 2" at 100m.

Originally Posted by timattalon

With a 1:13 (my old one was 1:12) I could never get it to shoot heavier projectiles. Try a 50 gr or even lighter...Mine really liked the 45,50 and 35gr vmax. The slower twist really lends itself to faster lighter projectiles. I never found one over 55gr that wasn't 2" or more at 100m but the 435 and 50gr were mostly same hole...

Ill go buy some more factory ammo of differing projectile weights and test them. People with the same model rifle mentioned to me the had luck with heavier stuff which is what prompted me to try. In my mind a deer is more dead the heavier the bullet!

As with all light calibers it's all shot placement me personally I like head or neck shooting as dead is dead or completely miss

Dead deer is a lot to do with where the bullet goes rather than how big it is, 55 gr is plenty big enough.
One thing the photo made me think of seeing they are all 2 shots was double grouping. Shooting a 3 or better still a 6 round string will determine that, you will end up with two separate clusters of 3 shots if it is.
Then the answer is checking the bedding of the action in the stock.