I have swapped bullets this year and was out setting my scope yesterday and ran into to a couple issues! When I push my bullet down over the powder it comes to an abrupt stop about where it should, my issue is, if I kind tap it with the ramrod, it will go about 1/4 inch further. Shot it and all was well, but then I realized it was scarring up the end of my ramrod, I guess from "tamping" the bullet. I removed a bullet after the loading and "tamping" procedure and it was also kinda scarred up where the hollow part drops in! Question is should I just seat it till the ramrod stops firmly and stay away from the "tamping"? If it matters I am shooting a TC Endeavour/240 Hornady XTP/Harvester Sabot/100 grains BH209. Thanks!
Bullet seating?
- Thread starter JAY B
- Start date
I tamp mine dow. I have a extra head that screws on my ramrod for bullet seating.
- Joined
- Sep 27, 2010
- Messages
- 13,575
no tamping push it till it will not go anymore than mark your ram rod on seating depth, tamping can be very inconsistant
Wobblyshot1
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Oct 13, 2010
- Messages
- 3,513
I vote for firm pressure....no tamping. Try to be as consistant as you can.
Ok, I shot the gun after loading bullet without tamping and just pushing till it seats firmly. Had to re-adjust scope as it was not shooting the same at all. Took about 6 shots, the final three were in a 2" group @100, so I can live with that for sure!
Cy
Well-Known Member
Jay, were the "push it till it seats" groups higher or lower than the "tamping" groups?
I'm interested in what the pressure was doing. Higher grouping should equal higher pressures. Compressing the powder should have increased the pressure, getting you higher velocities.
I agree with not tamping. You could deform the bullet, but the larger problem is getting the same compression shot to shot, which would decrease the accuracy potential of the load. Consistent powder loads are only half the battle. Maxing out accuracy requires that every step in cleaning, loading and shooting be as consistent as possible shot to shot.
I just starting shooting BH209, and did some experimenting. I found that the groups got smaller with:
-Tighter wads...I tried the TC yellow "superglide" wads, which didn't shoot as well as the black "magnum" wads (Shockwave). In my Omega, the black ones are harder to load, but the groups shrank by at least an inch. Over the years I have found that experimenting with different plastic sabot wads is much more effective (faster and cheaper) than fooling around with bullets and powder charges. It's hard to beat 100 grains of anything and a 250 grain bullet. But sometimes you have to try several different sabots to get good groups.
-Wiping the bore after each shot. Yeah, I could load without wiping with the Blackhorn. But the groups say wipe it out. I did a "wet patch, dry patch, dry patch" routine. The second dry patch was always almost perfectly white. I am partial to wiping anyway, because I want all shots to go to the same point of impact, which requires the same barrel condition each shot.
-I also found that BH powder granules are larger than Trip 7, which makes it trickier to get consistent powder charges. I've got a funnel that screws on to the top of those powder jugs and one of the clear plastic powder measures with the funnel top that swivels. I settled on a slow pour from the jug to the measure, overfill the measure just slightly, and close the funnel on top of the measure to "scrape off" the excess powder. You want to experiment, tap your measure on a table and see how much extra powder you can get into that measure...it's eyeopening.
The load I settled on with the BH209: 100gr BH, 250gr Shockwave bonded (blue tip), CCI 209 Magnum primers. This load averaged just over 1.5" at 100yds over 5 3-shot groups.
I'm interested in what the pressure was doing. Higher grouping should equal higher pressures. Compressing the powder should have increased the pressure, getting you higher velocities.
I agree with not tamping. You could deform the bullet, but the larger problem is getting the same compression shot to shot, which would decrease the accuracy potential of the load. Consistent powder loads are only half the battle. Maxing out accuracy requires that every step in cleaning, loading and shooting be as consistent as possible shot to shot.
I just starting shooting BH209, and did some experimenting. I found that the groups got smaller with:
-Tighter wads...I tried the TC yellow "superglide" wads, which didn't shoot as well as the black "magnum" wads (Shockwave). In my Omega, the black ones are harder to load, but the groups shrank by at least an inch. Over the years I have found that experimenting with different plastic sabot wads is much more effective (faster and cheaper) than fooling around with bullets and powder charges. It's hard to beat 100 grains of anything and a 250 grain bullet. But sometimes you have to try several different sabots to get good groups.
-Wiping the bore after each shot. Yeah, I could load without wiping with the Blackhorn. But the groups say wipe it out. I did a "wet patch, dry patch, dry patch" routine. The second dry patch was always almost perfectly white. I am partial to wiping anyway, because I want all shots to go to the same point of impact, which requires the same barrel condition each shot.
-I also found that BH powder granules are larger than Trip 7, which makes it trickier to get consistent powder charges. I've got a funnel that screws on to the top of those powder jugs and one of the clear plastic powder measures with the funnel top that swivels. I settled on a slow pour from the jug to the measure, overfill the measure just slightly, and close the funnel on top of the measure to "scrape off" the excess powder. You want to experiment, tap your measure on a table and see how much extra powder you can get into that measure...it's eyeopening.
The load I settled on with the BH209: 100gr BH, 250gr Shockwave bonded (blue tip), CCI 209 Magnum primers. This load averaged just over 1.5" at 100yds over 5 3-shot groups.
MikeyB
Well-Known Member
One of the things that I've found with 777 pellets is if I put too much pressure, when i load, I crush the pellets and get inconsistency.
Knightrider is right on having a mark or line on you ram rod is a GREAT idea, regardless of what your powder is.
Consistency yields accuracy!!!
Knightrider is right on having a mark or line on you ram rod is a GREAT idea, regardless of what your powder is.
Consistency yields accuracy!!!
