It was hard for me to accept that my scale could be off so I conducted a short experiment. I loaded a charge into a case. Poured the contents of the case back on to the scale pan. It weighed out exactly. Poured it back into the case. Loaded up another case. Poured the first one back into the pan and it was way off. So in two cases the original charge would not measure out.

What the heck is going on here?

Tom

BC,

In some of the cases it weighed more. According to the scale that is.

I don't have any magnets in the area as it's sitting on a kitchen table no where near electronics and I don't have any magnetic tools near it. All I have on the table near the scale and cases is the press anda Trickler.

I'm stumped!

Tom

Well I conducted another experiment and I'm even more confused here goes.

Took the scale over the kitchen granite counter tops which I know are solid and perfectly level (measured). Zero'd the scale and charged case number 1. Charged another case, #2. Measured case 1 and it was off high. Measured case 2 and it was perfect. So charged another case, #3. Measured case 2, came in low. Measured case one came in high. Measured case 3 it was perfect. Ok so I follow BC's recommendation and I placed the three new measuredpan charges onto paper plates and conducted the same experiment above. charge 1, charge 2, check 1, check 2 etc all the way up to three charges. They all measured perfect. So I'm thinking it's the brass. Well I doubted it so I then took the charges and placed them intothree brass. Some the same brass as earlier some new pieces. Did the measure test and they were all perfect, dead on. Still doubtedand did the test again and again that all measured dead on.

What the heck is going onhere?

Tom

Charged another 5 brass with no inbetween tests. After filling all the cases I tested for accuracy and all measured out correctly. Went back to the first batch, the ones from the paper plates and they also measured out correctly.

Very confused!

I'm certain that it was off in the beginning on both the kitchen table and the granite tops in the kitchen.

Tom

No, the magnets are built into the scale man.

Are you saying that my trickler being too close to the scale could be causing some of this?

Tom

I'm starting to believe that barrel temp is the primary cause of the accuracy issues I'm seeing. I'm going to be experimenting over the next couple of weeks. I blieve that off a cold barrel the Nosler Accubonds will give me two excellent shots and one good shot. I've done it two weeks in a row now. This is from a scrubbed barrel.

I'll report back after the weekend.

Tom

I've taken this Ruger Mark II in 300 WM to the range now for about 7-8 weeks in a row. Here is the bottom line of what is happening:

The first 2-3 shots are less then a half inch apart on average. The rest of the groups that I shoot for the day have relatively very poor accuracy. It really doesn't matter all that much which bullet combo I shoot with the IMR 4831 it shoots the first 2-3 really well. I was also getting the same effect with RL-22 loaded really hot, 76.5gr. I've let the rifle cool at the range for over a half hour and still the groups suffer. However by the next day the gun shoots again.

Does this indicate that the heat treatment on my barrel is flawed? Do I need a new barrel?

Some additional info, rifle is bedded, floated and has a really great trigger.

Tom

I think you're going to be limited by that Ruger barrel. When top quality factory barrels are the topic of discussion, Ruger is seldom mentioned.

How floated is floated?

A dollar bill or two?

You might be better off with a nueutral'ishpressure point..............