Well, my groups on larger caliber guns are more like 1.5 to 2.5 inches so clearly I have an issue with recoil. If I don't concentrate I have a pretty bad flinch. Working on improving that.
I reload for three reasons. Cost, accuracy and pleasure. (no particular order). I expect better results from reloading than factory rounds. I also find it fun to sit down at the bench and reload for a few hours. Certainly the cost is offset by the time it takes to re-load so if I did not have fun I would just buy ammo. I'm new to reloading so I do not expect to be a pro after only a few months of loading.
I only have 8 data sets for factory ammo. The Remington Actutip’s do perform well, but I think overall my re-loads are doing as good or nearly as good. That ¼ inch group was pretty cool though! They were definitely better than the Hornady factory rounds. The first table has my data for the factory loads.
I am now tracking brass type and primer in my data.
I know this gun will shoot 1/4 inch groups or better at 100 yards if I work on it. The factory 3 shot bench target they sent with the gun was a single hole group probably .22 caliber in size...
I did hit the range on Saturday and I shot 16 5 shot groups.
four groups for each of the following config:
-Barnes Var Gren RL 10x at 2.240 OAL
-Barnes Var Gren RL 10x at 2.300 OAL
-Vmax H4895 at 2.240 OAL
-Vmax H4895 at 2.300 OAL
I got Velocity info on half of the sets. I had issues with my chrony half way through the day and it took several sets to correct it. For those sets I was able to get Velocity info on, within each set, the readings were within 1.5% of each other in all but one of the sets (one was 2.25%). (FYI I calculated this by taking the max reading minus the min reading as a percentage of the average reading-not sure if that is how others figure it out or not). I interpret this to mean my loads are pretty consistent.
Largest group was 0.875, smallest was 0.375, average across all groups was 0.6.
A table is listed below. My conclusions are:
-The 32 grain V Max seems to outperform the Barnes with only 2 of the 8 Barnes groups coming in under a half inch vs 4 of the V-max. I think once I shoot up the bullets I have, I am done with Barnes for the 204.
-The worst performing round was the Barnes V grenade in 2.300 OAL
-The best OAL was the V Max in the 2.240. (2.240 was better for Barnes too)
So next steps:
I have 80 more shells to shoot in the V-max. 40 in the N140 and 40 in W 748 (both powders have 20 in each of the two OAL's).
My prediction is that the W 748 with an OAL of 2.240 shooting 32 grain V max's will be the shell I choose.
Then I'll load a bunch of those up and head of to Wyoming for a little bit of varmint hunting. When I get back I’ll start seeing how they shoot out at 300 yards. (will try to play with that before I go to Wy time allowing)
