Thread: Where to from here with my 7WSM?

Thought I'd post an update for the benefit of everyone who has offered advice & help.

Contrary to good scientific method, I changed everything at once Left the brake off and ran ladder tests on a number of different projectiles thanks to an awesome forum member. Tried 130 grain Hot-Cors, 162 and 180 grain ELD-Ms, 175 grain ELD-Xs and 180 grain Berger Hybrids. Accuracy was still shit, but I was only looking at velocity & elevation to get an idea of optimal charge. A couple of projectiles did show more promise than others though.

Then took off my Meopta scope and chucked on a Burris 3-9x40 and a Hardy Gen VI can. Back to the range to test 2 charge weights behind the Hot Cors (I'm loading these to SAAMI spec so they fit in my mag) and 3 x seating depths for each of the 162 ELD-M and 175 ELD-X.

The Hot-Cors shot one group of 3 rounds almost touching with a fourth about 0.75" to the right. The other group had about 1.25" of horizontal dispersion and 0.75" of vertical. I believe horizontal dispersion indicates poor seating depth, but as I don't want to seat them longer and it's only ever going to be a sub 200m load I'm happy with that.

All three x three-shot groups of the ELD-Ms were within 0.25" of the centreline. The group jumping 20 thou' had 2 in the same hole and a third 0.75" below them, but the 80 thou jump wasn't much worse. I'm happy with that too, but might try a touch more powder in case it tightens them up further.

What was most pleasing was the repeatability of the groups, with the two Hot-Cor groups having very little vertical dispersion and the three ELD-M groups almost no horizontal ruling out poor shooting technique, bedding issues etc. Hunting this weekend, then I'll swap the scopes back to see if it goes to shit again which will tell me if it was the scope or adding the can.

Thanks all for your input!