35REM accuracy

[gcp]

After adjusting the front sight for POI 2" to the right, and lowering the Williams diopter a bit, I shot my reloads today. What a great improvement in accuracy! 5 shots per group, both groups measured a bit under 1.5" at 100 yards. The first 10 were a lighter recipe and the action functioned completely normal. Obviously either my rifle does not like the Winchester ammo, or the ammo itself is not the most accurate.

I have a 5 round hotter batch to shoot next, we'll see how the rifle likes those. I'm happy!! I neck sized the brass btw.

[81police]

That's better than I can do with a scoped 81, great shooting gcp!

[Roger]

It sounds like you've found some loads your rifle likes. Congrats on that one. Good luck with your future work there also.
Thanks for your time,
Roger

[texassako]

Mine did not like any of the factory ammo except Hornady Leverevolution. I have a feeling the better accuracy is from better QC rather than the fancy bullet and powder. Everything was 5-6", and it was 2". One day when I get around to it I want to make up some lighter loads than the Hornady, but I have way to many reload projects(8?) right now to mess with one that is already accurate enough with factory ammo. If you don't mind me asking, what bullet and powder are you using?

[gcp]

I don't mind at all; I necksized the winchester brass I initially shot through my rifle and used 200gr winchester round nose, jacketed bullets, under WC8xx @ 42.7grs (it's a pulldown ball powder which I use for my 30 caliber, or there about, rifles). I am not giving you the exact number just yet because I'd like to verify the specific one when I go back home on Monday, I have a few of those WCs so I don't want to make a mistake.

I've also reloaded at 43grs, the book's max load, which I'll try out today. I medium crimped both batches because this is a semiauto after all.

I do agree, QC is the probable culprit, our country is now suffering in that department. Long gone are the days when "Made in the USA" meant top notch quality and everyone knew it!

[texassako]

Thanks, now I may have another use for the surplus powder I just recieved. Ordered several different WC8xx types from hi-tech ammunition to use in the milsurps I seem to be shooting a lot of lately, and ~$11/lbs or less is so much easier on the wallet.

[gcp]

WCs can indeed be a quality produact and a great deal!

[gcp]

The 43gr load proved to be as accurate as the 42.7. I'll play with 42.5gr next to see if the action cycles reliably.

[gcp]

The powder I used with good success at 43gr & 42.7gr was WC852.

Today I loaded 10 rounds of WC852 at 42.5gr and 10 rounds of Varget at 39.5gr to try out next weekend. I'll report back.

[DWalt]

I can't cite the exact source, but one of the older issues of Handloader's Digest had a very comprehensive article of what factors have the most effect on grouping ability (bullet weight uniformity, powder charge uniformity, uniform flash hole diameter, primer make, case weight uniformity, and a bunch of other stuff). Surprisingly, the most significant effect by far was bullet seating depth. Second was case length uniformity. The conclusion of the article was that more is to be gained by trimming all cases to a uniform length and finding the proper seating depth for whatever bullet is to be used for each specific rifle rather than wasting time by grouping cases and bullets by weight, drilling flash holes, uniforming primer pockets, etc.

Now, with anything loaded for the 8/81, you are pretty well limited in what the maximum cartridge OAL is (because of magazine length), but one could try the effect of seating bullets a little more deeply. And NO, there is nothing dangerous about doing that, as some mistakenly seem to believe. Seating the bullet more deeply definitely does not raise peak chamber pressure, but actually lowers it. Most reloading manuals address this phenomenon.

I have done some load development work along those lines for my Savage 112V in .223, and I found that uniform case length and bullet seating depth does have a major effect on group size. Whether it would in .35 Remington, I wouldn't know. But the reason the LeveRevolution ammunition performs better may simply mean the bullet jump to the start of engagement with the barrel rifling upon firing may be more optimum due to the LR bullet nose profile vs the typical RN bullet design used for the .35 Rem.

[gcp]

Both of the recipes I tried last worked quite well. The Varget hits hard so I expect it'll prove quite the hunting round.

DW, on "trimming all cases to a uniform length and finding the proper seating depth......." you're dead on!

[texassako]

Mine does not shoot as well as yours even with a scope, but I can play with other loads later. This is my attempt to recreate the Leverevolution with Leverevolution powder and FTX bullets that was the best factory ammo out of mine. It is consistent, I will give it that Almost every load was the exact same size except my last 2 where the rear Stith mount loosened up a bit, and the factory load was a bit tighter. These are the first 4 test loads before the loose scope at 50 yards, where I hunt it is all 50-75 yard shots.