Hazy, hot and humid!

[Richard]

Not as bad as last week but still pretty warm. NO wind to blame anything on . Some surprising groups...........no, not great but surprising non the less.
To foul the barrel a little I shot a load that has been kicking around in my tool box for some weeks now. A duplex with4759 and Varget! The same powder that shoots bughole with my 6mmBRX. It may want some tweaking but did not shoot too bad
The next three groups are the surprise groups. This is a duplex load that I tweaked from last week that has been doing pretty good. I was getting lot of fire out the muzzle and wanted to correct it. I removed two grains of the main charge: H-335 and added one grain to the booster: 4759. The flame decreased somewhat but is still there. (more tweaking) So, using this load which I had enough for 25 shots, I wanted to do a comparison of the three sabots we mainly use in the .45: The tan MMP, the Harvester blue crush rib and the Harvester smooth "Easy Load!" The results are groups 2,3 & 4. All fairly similar in size. What I have noticed is that the tan MMP's load much harder than the crush rib (which loads fairly easy) The Smooth blue's load about inbetween the other two. The velocity with the tan's was also somewhat higher than the other two with the crush ribs being the slowest. I used the same Nosler 200 gr. bullet with all three sabots. I then shot the same load with the 200 SST and smooth blue sabot with group results similar to the noslers.
For group 6 I moved out to 200 yards with the same sst. Nothing great, but 3, 4 & 5 did make a 1.7" group. All five opened to 4.2" Actually I had waited about 20 minutes prior to shooting this group due to BS . This may have allowed the barrel to be just a bit cooler and it left the first shot out of the group.
The last group was shot with the SST and triplex which just did OK.
Some week I hit on a good combination and others not? Fortunately, it keeps me busy thinking about what I am going to try next week ;D
Richard
Please Note:.....................The duplex load that I shot the five groups with?? SHOULD READ: H-335 and NOT H-322. Neither is a high pressure load........Just a mind F _ _ t! I have used H-322 so much as my main charge. They are both in the same burning range. Sorry. Man, EDGE is on the ball ;D
Richard

[Richard]

Added a note: The main powder charge used in targets 2 thru 6 was Ball powder H-335 and NOT H-322.
Richard

[esshup]

Richard, thanks for posting all that you've been doing with the different loads.

Any idea why the grouping of load 6 looks like a "T"? (with the exception of the one flyer)

[Richard]

Esshup...............Here is my theory and thats all it is Concerning this group?? Prior to shooting this group a new perspective club member showed up and a fairly length BS session ensued ..........Maybe to the tune of 20 to 25 minutes. All this time the barrel is sitting idle and cooling to MAYBE a different temperature then when I am in the more "rapid" fire mode .........Shoot, cool, clean, load and shoot (3 to 4 minutes).
So my theory is that this "First" shot went where it went The next four then formed a group...........and the last three really settled in and tightened up??? Don't really know? This is another reason why I dispute the "first three shot theory" being they are ALWAYS? The most accurate Countless time I have found that this is not the case. Some times its shots 2,3&4? or 1, 4 & 5 that group? or any combination. Sure, I could easily say: Shot #1 was a called flyer But that is not the case? It just went where it went ...........No wind, solid rest (lead sled) crosshair hanging right on the "dot" no problem with trigger squeeze..........No logical reason why all the shots should not have been a tight group. Answer??? Some powder/bullet/sabot combinations shoot better than others? But even so, the unexplained flyers occur? I try to keep my variables few and things as consistent as humanly possible.
Don't know if this sound logical or not
Richard