Xdm40rajuy
Bearcat
Not to long ago i picked up a Ruger American Predator in .243 to be one of my new hunting rifles. This caliber made sense to me since all of my in-laws have a .243. After I got on paper, the Hornady interlocks in 100gr grouped .606. That being the case, I thought i would be able to shrink that group down by reloading. However, that was not the case. Regardless of what I did, I could get no better than 1-1.5 inch groups. This was still good enough to put venison in the freezer for a budget rifle, so I settled and moved on to a different grain bullet. I already had some 58gr VMax bullets that I was using to do load development for my in-laws before I picked up my .243, so i just picked up a new powder. Looking on the internet, I found that a few people were having success with H414 and the VMax. I grabbed some and started my load development.
So on 6/11/16 I started my load development for the VMax using the OCW method going from 46 to 49 in .5gr increments. Something strange happened when I got to 47.5gr of H414. After taking the second shot, I was having a hard time seeing where the bullet impacted the paper. I let the rifle cool down and continued to shoot at the targets round-robin style. When I shot the third round, I could see were all the other powder charge weighs impacted the target, but I could not find the third 47.5gr bullet. I somehow thought I missed the target. Upon further inspection, I found the third bullet hole. And I was happy
The results show my OCW was between 47gr (.711") and 48gr (.900), so I went in the middle with 47.5gr (.363"). I didnt want to get my hopes up too high because I still needed to verify my OCW. I had 8 bullets left, so I set up my powder measure to drop 47.5gr. I was not going to trickle up to 47.5, I was just going to throw that amount or close to it. I headed to the range today with the plans of shooting a 5 shot group and a 3 shot group. The first 3 VMax bullets .208", next 2 opened my group to .950". Since I had 3 more rounds left, I wanted to see if 47.5gr was really my OCW. I'd say it was as the last 3 bullets were :shock: .315". I think I have found one of my coyote loads! My Ruger American Predator love Hornady 58gr VMax and 47.5gr H414!
So on 6/11/16 I started my load development for the VMax using the OCW method going from 46 to 49 in .5gr increments. Something strange happened when I got to 47.5gr of H414. After taking the second shot, I was having a hard time seeing where the bullet impacted the paper. I let the rifle cool down and continued to shoot at the targets round-robin style. When I shot the third round, I could see were all the other powder charge weighs impacted the target, but I could not find the third 47.5gr bullet. I somehow thought I missed the target. Upon further inspection, I found the third bullet hole. And I was happy
The results show my OCW was between 47gr (.711") and 48gr (.900), so I went in the middle with 47.5gr (.363"). I didnt want to get my hopes up too high because I still needed to verify my OCW. I had 8 bullets left, so I set up my powder measure to drop 47.5gr. I was not going to trickle up to 47.5, I was just going to throw that amount or close to it. I headed to the range today with the plans of shooting a 5 shot group and a 3 shot group. The first 3 VMax bullets .208", next 2 opened my group to .950". Since I had 3 more rounds left, I wanted to see if 47.5gr was really my OCW. I'd say it was as the last 3 bullets were :shock: .315". I think I have found one of my coyote loads! My Ruger American Predator love Hornady 58gr VMax and 47.5gr H414!
