Posted: 8/26/2015 7:05:15 PM EDT
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So I am a week and a half deep into reloading and I think I am starting to pick it up well! Today I shot on my club's 200 yard range and had good groupings. My go to load at the moment is a IMR 4064 powder at 43 grains, Hornady brass, Winchester large rifle primer, and a 150 gr Hornady SST. I did find my 165 gr Sierra HPBT, Remington brass, Winchester primer, and 42 grains of 4064 to be flying pretty well. I am shooting a completely stock Howa 1500 .308 with 20" BBL, the only upgrade is the Vortex Razor HD 3-18x sitting on top of it. I wanted input from others, but I feel like I've maxed potential for this gun, not that there is anything wrong with that.
Thoughts? See pictures below. Would a new stock and trigger help me THAT much? I shoot off a shotty Vanguard rest that is a little shaky, but I am extremely happy with my groups from a stock hunting rifle. Targets Howa 1500 .308 Exotic Nebraska Palms....And Howa 1500 |
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Quoted: So I am a week and a half deep into reloading and I think I am starting to pick it up well! Today I shot on my club's 200 yard range and had good groupings. My go to load at the moment is a IMR 4064 powder at 43 grains, Hornady brass, Winchester large rifle primer, and a 150 gr Hornady SST. I did find my 165 gr Sierra HPBT, Remington brass, Winchester primer, and 42 grains of 4064 to be flying pretty well. I am shooting a completely stock Howa 1500 .308 with 20" BBL, the only upgrade is the Vortex Razor HD 3-18x sitting on top of it. I wanted input from others, but I feel like I've maxed potential for this gun, not that there is anything wrong with that. Thoughts? See pictures below. Would a new stock and trigger help me THAT much? I shoot off a shotty Vanguard rest that is a little shaky, but I am extremely happy with my groups from a stock hunting rifle. Targets Howa 1500 .308 Exotic Nebraska Palms....And Howa 1500 Edit-your 100 yard groups don't look too bad, but your 200 yard groups opened up a lot. |
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Well, have been rifle hunting for about 15 years, never target shot, other than zeroing, until this summer. I don't consider myself an amazing shot by any means, but have a 156' and 174' deer hanging from my wall. Being an average shot, or as much of a good shot as a hunter needs to be, has never been too big of an issue, just never tried to shoot precise, tight groupings.
I guess for a stock rifle I thought that was probably pretty good shooting. You always hear guys telling you that their stock Remington or Savage shoots 1.5 MOA, or things of that nature. The Hornady 150 SST with 43 grains of 4064 shot a 1.468' group, the Sierra Game King 165 HPBT shot 2.213" at 200 yards. I guess my thought is that MOA at 200 is 2.094', so my Hornady load is sub-MOA and SGK load isn't far off. Had about a 12 mph wind from about 7 o'clock behind me, which came and went and didn't seem to have much effect on my shots windage wise. My Hornady 150 SST 43 gr of 4064, 100 yard group was .859" and same load with 44 gr 4064 was .727". Without dropping a crap ton of money, can my Howa 1500 really shoot better than that?!?!? Drop a Timney trigger in and get a nice stock for $600-$800 more and get .25' better groupings? Maybe I have yet to grasp this long range shooting stuff, but at the end of the day I am just a hunter looking to hone in on the best groupings a stock hunting rifle can provide. |
It can get better. Father in laws 1500 is an amazing shooter. I'd suggest working on trigger time, replacing the stock, technique and fine tuning the load. Minute of deer and sub-MOA are two entirely different animals. But since bringing up factory rifles...
One of my better practice groups from a bipod and rear bag. Rifle typically runs 191-197 in F-TR at 600yds, but I haven't shot a comp in close to 2 years. |
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Quoted:
Well, have been rifle hunting for about 15 years, never target shot, other than zeroing, until this summer. I don't consider myself an amazing shot by any means, but have a 156' and 174' deer hanging from my wall. Being an average shot, or as much of a good shot as a hunter needs to be, has never been too big of an issue, just never tried to shoot precise, tight groupings. I guess for a stock rifle I thought that was probably pretty good shooting. You always hear guys telling you that their stock Remington or Savage shoots 1.5 MOA, or things of that nature. The Hornady 150 SST with 43 grains of 4064 shot a 1.468' group, the Sierra Game King 165 HPBT shot 2.213" at 200 yards. I guess my thought is that MOA at 200 is 2.094', so my Hornady load is sub-MOA and SGK load isn't far off. Had about a 12 mph wind from about 7 o'clock behind me, which came and went and didn't seem to have much effect on my shots windage wise. My Hornady 150 SST 43 gr of 4064, 100 yard group was .859" and same load with 44 gr 4064 was .727". Without dropping a crap ton of money, can my Howa 1500 really shoot better than that?!?!? Drop a Timney trigger in and get a nice stock for $600-$800 more and get .25' better groupings? Maybe I have yet to grasp this long range shooting stuff, but at the end of the day I am just a hunter looking to hone in on the best groupings a stock hunting rifle can provide. Having no reference to how you got to your current loads in a week and a half, I'd suggest that refining your load is likely to produce tighter 5-shot groups than anything else. A new stock that free-floats your barrel will help some if your current stock does not, and a trigger upgrade can improve your ability to shoot to the rifle's capability if the stock trigger sucks . . . but I'd like to hear more about your testing before saying those items would help. |