Dan, Impressive targets indeed withe the 315 bullet. I looked it up on NOE. The Barrel that I'd be shooting it through has a bore that is .300 and a groove of .3080". I have been sizing my bullet at .3090" and recently came across a .3095" die that I'm about to give a try. Any suggestions to the dia. I should be sizing at or the sizes I mentioned within the right area?
Sendaro
Sendaro..as I said earlier I am not the most disciplined guy in the world..I like to spend time on the range rather than in the "lab"...so my approach is different than most on this site...
I don't slug my barrels or "pound cast"...what I do do when I get a new gun is to cast up some bullets..size some what I think the bore and throat maybe..and then size some up .001 and some down .001..I then load them up with anything that will get them out of the barrel..next step is to go to the range and shoot them...then I simply read the targets..one of the sizes will obviously shoot better than the others..that's the size I will use...
I am just looking for the best group...one maybe 10" the other 8"..doesn't matter... one is going to be better than the other..that's all I need to know...from there I start looking at bullet styles, powders, AOL etc...
Too many times in life I have seen things that should work don't and thing that should not do...many many times I have seen people who show up at the range trying cast bullets for the first time...going against all wisdom and accepted norms end up shooting exceptional groups..
In fact that happen when trying loads for my M1 Garand ..conventional wisdom says .." bullets of at least 200 grns and a starting load of 32 grs of x powder"..well a friend of mine brought his m1 to the range to try it with cast bullets ...180 gr Lee ,behind 32 grs of powder..three rounds touching right off the bat..
So I loaded up some of my 155 grns behind 30 grs of the same powder.. shot them out of my M1 ..1st round out 2" next four 7/8"..
tried another 5, 1 1/4"...yup those don't work...
My 700 VS using the above method told me it liked the .310..and it does..
The 1917 took me from .311 to .313
One well shot out 03 match gun was brought back to all of its' previous glory with .312
The other 03's and a3's told me they preferred .311
The 30-30 with out question preferred the .310
The M1 couldn't really make up its mind but I settled on .310
Two items then I will go;
1. an overly large nose is better than a too small one..
2. I buy Lee .309 push through sizers and hone them out with a wooden dowel and emery cloth..
3. An extra..I would go with a .310 sizer and at least a .302 nose in the .308 VS...mine has plenty of space for the longer bullets..don't know about yours..
Thanks for listening...Dan
PS.. look at the target below and tell me what size you would use..