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bustedknuckleinc

Bullets that just won't shoot well?

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So I bought some of the 142 grain long range accubonds for my 6.5 Creedmore. I loaded them with the load I use for the 130 grain Bergers thinking it would put me in the ballpark. The 130 Bergers shoot a half minute no problem! Only thing I changed was the seating depth. I started at the lands and back it off .040 each time. So four different seating depths. My creedmore is a savage model 12 with a 1/8 twist. My problem is that they all shot like a 30 inch group! I have never had a load shoot this bad? I went back to the Bergers and it shoots a half minute no problem! Any thoughts?

 

Thanks,

 

Mike

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My advice would be to start with a powder charge below the max charge.

+1. There is a good chance you are over the max charge.

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Per the hornady book, for a 140 grain bullet and H4350, starting load is 38.1 gr and max is 40.9. Start low and work your way up.

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I realize this is max load and I have used it with 140 grain Bergers and 140 grain AMAX and don't have any pressure signs on brass or stiff bolt lift. I will bring down charge and see if that will clean up a 30" group.

post-1965-0-09952500-1441080456_thumb.jpg

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if you're like me and always shoot great big stuff, 30 inch groups ain't too bad. just hafta make sure you shoot stuff that is over 30 inches. actually, if you're shooting 30 inch groups, you have some serious problems somewhere. not just one problem either, multiples. i've shot out many a barrel and never had anything even close to that. do any of the rounds keyhole? .040" off the lands seems kinda excessive. don't see it as 30 inch kinda excessive tho. let us know what you figger out. .264 diameter is kinda fickle sometimes, when you start shooting really long bullets. requires a lotta attention to barrel twist. these new bullet designs where a 140 gr bullet is same length as a 165 useta be, cause folks problems sometimes, if they ain't twisted quick enough. one of my old .264's groups went to hel l all the sudden once, when i went to some 140 gr sierras. i figgered it was the bullets. so i loaded some 130's, same thing, then 120's. then realized the throat was burnt out, and it just happened to get real bad at the same time i swtiched bullets. it wouldn't shoot anything well. but it didn't look too bad. took awhile to figger out what the problem was. but it was a lot better than 30 inches. has this barrel had a lotta rounds down it? Lark.

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I had a .17 rem one time that started doing that when I tried moly coated bullets back when they were the rage. Shot 3/4 moa all day with 25gr bergers. Tried some 25 gr moly bergers and it started key holing and shooting patterns instead of groups. I switched back and t kept doing it with the bullets that i used to use. Turns out the barrel was really on its way out and he slick moly coating I the barrel put it over the edge. Tried scrubbing the heck out of the barrel to no avail. Ended up having to re barrel. Never shot as good after.

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There is a great thread on the 142 ABLR on longrangehunting.net. Seems like lots of guys are saying they aren't getting the advertised results.

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Can't see a max or over max charge blowing up a group like that. My best guess would be a stability issue. Are the holes in the paper round? Even with an 8" twist you may not be running them fast enough with that cartridge to get the spin rate to stabilize them.

 

My second guess would be jacket damage during seating. I understand those bullets have real thin jackets up front. Seems like Casey posted some pictures of really deformed ogives on some long range accubonds he tried seating with too much neck tension.

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