Look familiar??
That group came from this target, the 25.5gr load of the ladder test.
There's 3 things that caused the fliers in that 25.5gr group. It's easily a moa group which translates to "It's a good plinking load". If I were to step out with that load 500yds+ a 12" gong might not care but a 6" gong would make it interesting. Or shooting a 600yd reduced to 100yd service rifle target would show the weakness of that load considering the x-ring is +/- .4".
This 1st thing wrong with that load was the bullet. It's too short for the long jump of the chamber of the savage axis that fired those groups. The bullets used were home swaged .224" for the 223rem made out of 22lr cases and range lead/berm lead for cores.
The 2nd thing I did wrong was the 223rem cases. If you look at the target above you will see the words "mixed nato cases". What I used was free range brass that I picked up at the range. I sorted the brass into 2 piles, commercial & nato. I have no idea what headstamp was on those cases or how many times they were fired.
The 3rd thing I did wrong was grab some old ww sp primers I had laying around for 10+ years??? While most primers are good for plinking loads. BR primers are called just that for a reason.
What the deal with that target posted above was all about. Was I wanted to see how hard it would be to take a +/- $200 rifle, free home made bullets, free brass that was laying around and shoot moa groups. While 1 group doesn't mean much, the moa 5-shot groups are easily repeatable with that rifle/blammo ammo combo. It took 1 range trip to tell me it actually pretty easy to take a $200 rifle, home made bullets and mixed brass and do 5-shot groups that are under an inch @ 100yds.
In the past I've chased my tail looking for accuracy with the 223rem, 308w, 30-06 & 300mag. It all starts with a bullet that can be loaded long enough to get near to in the lands. Your brass needs to be match prepped and consistent. Then you need the right powder/primer combo for the caliber your using.
10+ years ago my brother was running a rock river ar with a wylde chamber. They were a extremely popular choice for the service rifle matches. A common load for that rifle ( a bunch of people used the same load in that rifle) for the 600yd line was a 80gr smk bullet loaded 10/1000th's off the lands. LC brass that got match prepped then kept sorted by how many times it was used and tossed at the 3x. Varget was the powder of choice and the load was over max (I will not post it for that reason) & the Remington 7 1/2 br primers were used. I can't even begin to count the # of people that used that bullet/brass/powder/primer/ar combo. My brother was up at Camp Perry 1 year with that combo and while he was on vendors row he asked 1 of the Hodgdon reps about that load and if it was safe. The rep replied "I hope so, I'm using the same load in my rock river".
Keep in mind that load was hot enough that you only got 3x loadings out of the lc brass. Anything over that and you stood a chance of the primers falling out and getting stuck between the receiver and the bolt. Ask me how I know.
Anyway, when you see high #'s and fliers you have a bunch of things to change. When you low #'s and fliers you have a component issue (cheap bullet/brass issue). You have high #'s and bugholes you have crimp issue, wrong powder, wrong primer for that powder or inconsistent ignition with the firearm.
