.243/58gr z-max help

[ultratec1]

Well guys I have a question...... My 85gr sierra spitzers shoot lights out out of my Remington 700 SPS varmint. Soooo last night I tried to load some 58gr z-max and they would not group at all.

I tried RL15, IMR 4064 and H414.

None of them shot the groups that I was looking for. The best result was with RL15 at the middle of the road load. ANy suggestions on where I should start off again. I seated the bullets at the suggested length of 2.61. I'm not around the gun right now to check the twist rate. I couldnt get my 75Vmax to shoot very well either and ended up selling them. ANy help would be great.

 

[GP100man]

Seat the bullets out farther .

As long as they`ll fit in the mag & feed & are`nt over pressured to heck with suggested length , besides it was a suggestion.

How close to the lands are you now .



The bullet may be getting out of kilter jumping the freebore??
Yeah I know it says 308 but it`s a good represintation of what we`re talkin `bout.

Most 243 I`ve loaded like the bullet very close, regardless of powder charge.

I`ve "fixed" more loads by moving bullets ,than loads.

 

[wankerjake]

The problem with this little bullet is that it's too short to seat to lands. I think I'm shooting them at the recommended length but would have to check when I get home. I'm on the hotter end of the data using h414. They shoot pretty well for me so far.

 

[witchhunter]

I agree with trying seating them a little longer. I use H-380, 42.2 grains with the 58 Vmax, but check your load data to make sure that is ok....

 

[kingmt]

Use a faster powder.

 

[wankerjake]

I would have thought that 4064 would be fast enough. If I recall, when I was debating which powder to try first, a lot of guys liked 4064. But, I tried H414 first (and I have 4064) so I'm not sure.

Here's what I mean by not being able to stretch much more length out of this bullet. It's tiny. Here is a picture of a bullet next to one of my loaded cartridges, the OAL is the recommended 2.60" (Sorry for the lousy cell phone pic):


Untratec, how much of each powder range did you work through?

 

[ultratec1]

I worked from the low to almost max. I ran 4 diffrent loads for each powder.

 

[wankerjake]

Did any of the loads shoot at least decent? You could try working up smaller increments (0.3-0.4gr) around the best loads of what you tried. May find something good in there.

How bad is bad, in reference to group size?

 

[ultratec1]

THe best load was a middle range of RL15, I dont have the log book with me to give exact numbers. RL15 is what I use for my 85gr and it works AMAZING.


I see some people posted Varget on another thread so I may try that, its just that I wanted to keep my Varget supply strictly for my .223

 

[ultratec1]

THe best load was a middle range of RL15, I dont have the log book with me to give exact numbers. RL15 is what I use for my 85gr and it works AMAZING.


I see some people posted Varget on another thread so I may try that, its just that I wanted to keep my Varget supply strictly for my .223

the groups ranged from .75 MOA with one flyer(RL15) to 2.5" (H414).

 

[wankerjake]

If it were me, I would do more testing with several loads surrounding whatever load gave you .75 MOA, in increments of 0.3-0.4 grains. Even if you can hold .75" at 100 yards... that's not too shabby