168gr Federal Gold Metal Match

I do wonder if some of it is just confidence that something worked out, felt good and the confidence adds to the focus and shooting accurately.
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IMHO I think this is very true in many things in life , sports more so . I don't believe for a second that if you don't spit 3 times and do a 2 step as you take the field It's going to cause the universe to make you play bad . I do believe there are those that are not strong enough mentally that if they don't do there ritual before taking the field it messes with there head enough that they will play bad .

I have one of those mental things that I know makes NO sense and yet it effects me greatly . It has to do with golf and how my club looks at address . There are clubs like drivers that look like a tear drop that I can not hit well . Not that they are bad clubs but my confidence goes to pot when I look down at them right before I swing . Irons are the same way . If I don't like the look at address I don't hit them well .

If you don't have confidence in what you are about to do . It's unlikely you will do it to the best of your abilities .
 
Off topic but in answer to the below, I drove a motorcycle in Hawaii, riding leather coat (heavy, with lining), heavy duty jeans, work boots, gloves and a full face helmet (in a state where shorts, slip flops were the norm, I don't remember if helmets were mandatory or just on the bike)


Downtown Honolulu, 85 degrees, I get pulled over for having my face shield up! so yea I understand crazy. I also bicycle to work in the winter as much as I can over 11 miles of icy trails (and some roads).

that said, I loaded up 20 rounds of the Accurate 4064 I have to match the load of the Federal in Hornady, they will be seated to what works in the 308 with the Hornady bullets, will see how they do. The accurate 2495 was as good or better than the IMR 2495 so will see (per below this should have been IMR 4895)

I think benchrest shooters have a sense of humor, and some might agree, they are crazy, in their own ways.

[Whenever the weather is too hot, I accuse the XTC shooters around me of being insane. It will be 90 + F weather, and we are wearing sweat shirts under quilted coats. If that ain't crazy, tell me what is!..
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Has to be better. There is no IMR 2495. :D;)

How much the out-of-square case matters depends on the rifle. It causes one side of the case to make contact with the bolt face first, then the other side slams home. Harold Vaughn showed by measurement that asymmetries like that introduce recoil moments to varying degree. The orientation of that moment for the out-of square head will vary with how the high and low sides are oriented in the chamber. If you are lucky, that effect is small, and if you are not lucky, it isn't. Which it will be just has to be tried out in your gun. Some guns may be virtually immune. Especially if they are heavy.
 
The out of square brass problem can come up from the bolt face, the chamber, the tennon threads, or the receiver threads.

It showed up first in the Garands shooting high power (and the infamous "banana" shaped brass problem as well), the 1903 shooters never seemed to report that particular problem although I know that out of true bolt faces are the norm for milspec bolt action rifles.

So it could be that the semi-automatic nature of extraction and ejection with the Garand and M1A/M14 was just violent enough to exacerbate the problem. Who knows? There are so many potential causes that it's not worth debating, suffice to say that truing up the action when the rifle gets re-barreled does seem to help with Garands and M1As.

Jimro
 
Metal- I am with ya on the steps, I have a thing about loading that is just stupid, If I have a Match on Saturday, I will prep my cases and Powder on Thursday night, but will not seat the bullet till Friday Night:o. I can guarantee you it makes no difference other then in my head.
 
No, but where you do the loading can. In the 1995 Precision Shooting Reloading Guide, one of the authors reported a load that worked fine when he loaded it at home, but that caused sticky bolt lift when he charged cases and seated bullets at the range. He finally figured out the particular powder he used was being compacted by vibration during transportation from his house, with the result that it took longer for the flame front to move between the more tightly packed grains. In effect, it had reduced the burn rate of the powder. This is mainly a stick powder issue. Some are more immune to it than others. A very slightly compressed load like the GM308M load will tend to lock powder into position and therefore not be subject to that change. Otherwise, 4064 can compact a lot (see below).

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Has to be better. There is no IMR 2495.
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Ooops. IMR 4895. I am running so many powder right now I am loosing it, have to look at my notes and make notes when shooting (and still have some of those, now what was that group from?)

4895 was not very good in the 43.5 loading. A couple of hard to extract, makes sense as its up at the max listing (slightly above) per the Hornady manual with their 168 match bullet.

Will try dropping 1.5 grs and see how that goes. I do seem to have located the COAL spot for the rifle though I am playing up and down .010 to see if it locks in on any given load.
 
Jimro re: post #13
Yes the seating depth due to the different bullet ogive with the Hornady 168 does make a big difference. If you were to leave the seating die adjustment the same as used with the Sierra, the cartridge OAL would be considerably longer after seating the Hornady. Big surprise if not aware of this ahead of time.
 
Condor Bravo,

Yes, and if you loaded your SMKs for magazine length, odds are the Hornadys will have excess jump to the lands, especially in a standard cut chamber. Now they could still shoot well, but you won't know until the trigger has been pulled a few times.

Jimro
 
Right on. With a bolt gun you can compensate some by adjusting seating depth but not so much with the Garand since the rounds must still fit the magazine and probably resulting in excessive bullet jump to the rifling as you indicate with the Hornady secant (concave) ogive.
 
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No complaints with the Hornady 168s and the Garand. With the Hornadies seated to the same depth as the Sierras, with the exception of one unaccounted for high shot, the remaining 15 shots of the two eight shot groups were right in there, with the better group being better on the average than groups with the Sierras. There is still enough magazine room left where the Hornadies could be seated farther out if needed to reduce bullet jump to the lands.
 
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