Black Hills ammo?
 

Tom the Enabler Gresham loves to hype this brand. I know they are considered one of the better off the shelf lines but I have one silly question. I go back to the old musty days when we were all told that each rifle is a "law unto itself" regarding ammo. I know you can keep close tolerances in smaller productions but how can you match the seating depth to various chamber throats? My 1967 Forester probably does not match up exactly to the preferences of a new Ruger American I'm sure.:confused2:

That's one of the big reasons to reload your own ammo since you can tinker with a lot of variables, including the seating depth of the bullet to see what a particular rifle likes.

Ammo factories come up with seating depths by shooting rifles from different makers and coming up with one depth that gets best all around by average. It's why some factory rifles like Winchester fac. ammo while others like Fed. and so on and so forth. It goes by whatever rifles they tested it with. I've got quite a few rifles of the same cartridge that each and every one of them like a different load as well as seating depth. Got a matched pair of old Colt .45's with following serial numbers that won't shoot the same loading worth a damn. No ammo maker could live up to the claim that every rifle will like their brand. It's impossible to do. And back in the "old musty days" rifles could be, and a lot of times were, made with closer tolerances than they are today. Hand crafted, closely inspected, and top shelf quality control has went the way of the Greek Gods. Simply a myth anymore.

True dat, but this .243 loves the factory 70gr Ballistic tip in Federal V-Max and sort of like the 85 grain factory loaded Barnes TSX but only tolerates the standard 100 gr flat base loads and does not like the Sierra boat tail 100s from Federal. I'm tweaking loads now to find what it really likes. I have seen groups from a .243 at 100yd of .32" and that's the neighborhood I want to be in.

That'd be a nice neighborhood to live in there Simon. .32" is absolutely nothing to thumb the nose at. Most all of my rifles like Hornady bullets. But of course when you own a small armory, you will get some that are so picky they make you want to wrap them around a tree sometimes. Get into re-loading Simon. You will wake that Old Sako up with a little loving attention at the re-loading bench. After you get some decent glass on it! Don't go buying that junker stuff anymore. Many of my rifles wear glass that cost as much as 3 times what the rifle did. But expensive doesn't ALWAYS mean better. Stick with brands with a proven track record, good warranty, and value for your money.

I have a nice RCBS rig that has sat silent since I no longer own a .45-120-550 Sharps. Kinda hard to find those loads in Wally World. LOL

So get you a set of Dies and get to work on some loads for that .243! They aren't that expensive and if you shoot a lot at the range they will pay for themselves in Ammo savings in no time. Not to mention the "tailoring" you can do to find out that perfect load for that old girl! Every Sako I have ever owned has been a picky heifer about ammo. But once I found the right load they have all been tack driving machines. All but one of them has liked fairly close to the lands and high octane loads. The one that didn't was an older .30/06 that liked a friggin mile jump. Took me a while for that one. It almost became a fence post!

I hear you. I first learned about seating depth when reading about how Roy Weatherby first developed his line of cartridges. ALL Weatherby magnum rifles are free bored and that has always bothered me unless you can metaphysically guarantee that each chamber with be throated exactly the same. I wonder about the Ackley series. They all have a sharp shoulder angle which is said to be an aid in reloading as it makes the fit of cartridge and chamber more consistent. The added 150 fps at safe pressures is not a bug either but a feature.

start .030 off the lands, shoot a group of 5, look for a group within the group, if you see that, first I would back off .010 see if its better, for the same accuracy I'd rather be .050 off the lands than .010.
this group was .030 off the lands at a lazered 752 yards, and its 125 fps faster than the same load at .010 and the primers are much rounder.

RR

[QUOTE=Ridge Runner;4200660]start .030 off the lands, shoot a group of 5, look for a group within the group, if you see that, first I would back off .010 see if its better, for the same accuracy I'd rather be .050 off the lands than .010.[QUOTE]

.030" -.035" is a good place to start unless it is a mono-metal bullet (Barnes, etc.). With the mono-metal bullets .050" - .070" is usually the place to be.