Ralpharama

That was a very interesting article

Praps I've just been lucky. I did not make any seating adjustment. I only started down this route after the problems with getting TMKs and having to try different projectiles. It's all good - I love learning new skills 😀

When I first got the gun I fed it RS52 as some folk said this was good. I then looked at Swiss Powders web site and they suggested RS40, so I tried it, enjoyed the small economy and found accuracy with the TMKs to be far better than I ever expected, even out to 600metres. interestingly I watched a YouTube video on bullets seating and a guy (American) said that TMKs were developed with semi-autos in mind and they like the jump. He also said that Berger, which I have never used, like to start with pretty much no gap, but are pretty much unique in this respect. I have now bought a Forster micrometer die for seating and set it up in a single stage press my friend donated to me for the purpose. I am told to start at 0.009” from the lands and go back in 0.003” increments until the node it found. should be fun 😃

I have measured the bullet seat on the TMK shod rounds and they are 0.107" back, which is a hell of jump, but they are consistently averaging 0.5MOA with 22 grs of RS40 so I'll leave them as they are. They were shooting superbly last Saturday at Bulford. I do need to tune the jump for the Noslers though. The powder load is pretty much the same for best group, but they're not in the same ball park as the TMKs currently, but hopefully I can improve that with messing about with bullets seating.

I'm now a member of both Wessex Rifles and Monmouth Rifle Club with whom I shot today at Rogiet. Both these clubs are friendly, well run and listen to members. Neither club will accept idiots and no club should. Many chaps I knew from ODRC have joined Monmouth and find it a breath of fresh air after the disgusting behaviour of a prominent member of ODRCs management, who was not only rude but was also brought a new level to the term, disingenuous! The way they treated John was unforgivable, particularly the false allegations. The MOD/Landmanc have the keys to the playgrounds and if we want to enjoy our toys we need to adhere to their rules, whatever our personal views. Club officers, or members that argue the toss muck it up for all of us.

Thanks for all the great replies; I feel I have to give it a go - provided I can get them on the electronic paper I will call that a success 🤣

I will have to go on the zero range to do the HME test anyway, so loosing a few extra for the LE is no biggy. I do deeply resent paying £5 from my ever dwindling funds for a target, particularly when I do have an A3 printer 😃 Does anyone know where I can download a copy ? I have found the graduations on the singer sight, to date, to be remarkably accurate up to 600metres. I’ll be using the electronic targets, so if I can register a hit on those I’ll be well happy 😃

I’ve taken my trusty No4 MkII back to 600metres so far, at which it performed surprisingly well, despite my elderly eyes. I’m taking my 300WM to Stickledown in a couple of weeks and wondered if anyone had tried an old Lee Enfield there? I’m just a regular shooter , not competitive, but would love to try if it is at all doable. I guess that I would need to shove a bit more powder in the case than usual 😂 Any one tried this?

I rather like the more organic wind instrument. When I was sailing, the simple windex on the top of the mast was far more use than the super expensive electronic jobbie next to it that fed down to the display in the cockpit. Has anyone seen these for sale?

Stickledown is covered in flags which often point in different directions. My solution tends to be asking those around me what windage they’re using. I then put that on my scope, see where that takes me and then adjust accordingly. Not that the wind stays still for a moment, so one is constantly changing aim, but it’s fun 🤩 whilst it feels that the wind will effect a fast moving bullet less than a slow moving bullet, I’m not sure that is the case because the bullet still weighs the same. Gravity has the same effect on a bullet regardless of velocity. Perhaps I need to dig out some ‘o’ level physics textbooks. It is only a bit over forty years ago, I should still be able to remember 🤔

I’ve invested more money I don’t have in a Hornady bullet seating measuring device and a comparator to attach to one of my lovely Mitutoyo calipers. I did look at making the seat depth gauge but it looked to be a right pain in the bollix to save £45 posted. The comparator whilst easy to make, for those of us blessed with a small machine shop, but was so cheap it really wasn’t worth the time. I will however be making my own test cases because it’s better to work with cases fireformed by one’s own gun and they seem quite expensive for what they are, particularly as I need three …, I don’t think I’ll bother with the Lee Enfield 🤣 Looks like I’ll be spending more time in the Monmouth tunnel 🤣

I did some test loads and the best was around the same weight as before. I haven't adjusted the seating depth, just left the seating die where it was before. I guess I'll just have to play with the seating depths. I don't have any measuring gear currently so I'll have to beg, borrow or buy some. In the past I have just slit an old case, inserted a bullet and pushed it in to find the lands and then set the press up just slight less. A bit less than scientific I suppose.

That’s cheered me up 😃 My CZ has been a wonderful gun and with it’s favourite TMKs was averaging 1/2MOA at 100yards in Monmouth tunnel in groups of five. But now unicorn dung is more plentiful, my initial dalliance with the more expensive, but less visually appealing Noslers, the groups have opened up. I wouldn’t be even thinking about changing anything were it not that the 527s favourite food had become unavailable. I still have some TMKs so she will get an outing next Saturday at Bulford, assuming the Army don’t pull rank and push us plebs off 🤣 I’ll also take the No4 which happily eats and spits out the very affordable PPU bullets, though with RS52 in short supply future loads will be with some cheaper and more readily available powder 🤣 The rifle accuracy matters very little when I can barely see the target through the Singer sight hole 🤣

Hmm sounds tempting, then I could get a 1 in 8 twist for heavier projectiles. Do stainless barrels last as long as the hammer forged ones? I don't compete and were I to spend money I don't really have on a new barrel it would need to last a very long time 🤣

My CZ.223 using 69gr TMKs was super accurate for a cheap gun. As TMKs I pretty much all calibres have dried up, I bought 500 Nosler 69gr bullets following recommendations on here. I made up some test loads yesterday and fired them at 100yards in Monmouth tunnel, but the results were a tad disappointing. Previously I was achieving an average, in the 100yard tunnel, of half MOA with the TMKs, which I thought wasn’t bad. I really love the rifle, particularly as it came in a green Form Rifle stock. I vaguely remember someone saying to me that he had rebarrelled his CZ527 which made it very much less fussy about ammo. A few weeks ago one of my much wealthier than me friends, was shooting some bargain factory ammo he had come by. His Sako wasn’t mad about it, but his AI was achieving V bull after V bull with the same ammo. His view was that the “cheap” Sako wouldn’t shoot just any old ammo, whereas his proper “quality” AI would achieve accuracy with anything it chambered. This got me thinking and whilst I can only dream of an AI rifle, I wondered whether if it would be possible to upgrade my poor persons gun with a quality barrel?

Now I have 500 69gr Noslers for my 1 in 9 barrelled CZ 527, can anyone suggest a load starting point? I am using RS40 powder. 22 grs was the sweet spot with the 69gr TMKs. ie do they use a similar load? In which case it will save me quite a bit of time and the oh so rare reloading components 😃

Thankyou Laurie for taking the time to write that insightful post. Very interesting if somewhat depressing. I am finding I have to shoot less rounds per outing now. If time allowed, I never shot less than a hundred rounds at a range. Now I'm having to9 consider the fact that not only can I not afford such amounts, but I can't even get the components and there seems to be no sign of light at the tunnel with the supply chain; my friend who is an RFD tells me in many cases he is being quoted years not weeks.

I hope my gun likes 'em cos I've just invested in 500off. Even then I had to get them from two separate suppliers 🙄 This shortage of reloading stuff mystifies me - there's a market screaming out for target shooting consumable - why don't the companies step in and satisfy the demand and make a load of wonga? Or is a it a ploy to get the prices up, as they appear to have done with fuels?

Yes please for the 69gr TMKs please

Some while back I bought some Hornady 208grn ELD match bullets for my Sabatti 300 Win Mag. A friend tried them in his and said he didn't get great result and would the 195 TMKs better. My rifle loves 195 TMKs, but they seem to be as plentiful as rocking horse that which promotes growth and vigour currently. Has any one on here tried the 208 ELD-Ms in a Sabatti rifle? Given the lack of nice bullets available currently I am nervous about wasting any bullets on load development if I'm on a hiding to nothing. I haven't found anything as a substitute for the 69grn TMKs I was using in my .223.

People keep throwing them into sand 😂

After spending a lot of time and let's be honest finding food that my .223 likes, I settled on 69gr TMKs and was averaging 0.5 MOA even in my hands. Happy daze .... er until I wanted some more 😝 I must have checked every web site in the western world and telephoned eleventy billion suppliers and discovered that platinum plated unicorn turds are more plentiful. I even emailed Sierra and much to my surprise they emailed back to say that not even they have any and aren't planning to switch on the machine to make 'em for quite a while. FML If I wanted crap human killing ammo, I can buy it by the bucket load, but I just want to make dainty little holes in paper a long way away. My rifle is a CZ 527 Varmint in a Form Rifle stock and I like to shoot it at 600 metres on less windy days. I don't think anything lighter than 69gr is going to be any good at 600, but I also have the opportunity to shoot at 300 & 400 at Bulford. Can anyone recommend anything that would be reasonably accurate at three/four hundred? I know from experience that I need to get loads of what ever I will use as it is very fussy and will need several hundred weight of lead before it accepts it's load I'm assuming that no one on here has a massive stash of 69gr TMKs that are desperate to find a new home for 🤣

"The Beast" my Godier Genoud Z1300 special, My "Ole Gurl" which is my favourite seen with me going round "The Gooseneck" on the island and at the bottom the Z900A4 I was given in boxes a few years ago by a member of the Z1OC - he said he knew I would sort her properly!

What a very fine chap your friend must be Big Zeds are the finest machine ever created I have as many Classic Kawasakis as rifles They are a far better investment. Second hand rifles don't tend to be worth a light, but the price of Z900s seems to go up daily 🤣Naturally the price will plummet should I ever need to sell one 😄

I had a nasty feeling that I had been caught and there was no going back. I assumed, naively perhaps, that if the goods had defects that the seller would be responsible for highlighting them, as with ebay. Roy - As for the costs of carriage, as the owner of an on-line shop I buy and sell goods delivered by courier all the time and to charge £20 on top of the profit made from the sale, is very much extracting the urine. If I charged twenty pounds plus Richi's twenty percent I would not still be going ten years on with nothing but positive feedback (www.bikerstoolbox.co.uk). With the constant increase in the costs of carriage we have to accept that some of the profit we make on a sale has to be earned by packaging the products if we are to remain competitive. We re-use as much of the packaging that comes in to us as we are able to. The box the scope came in was very obviously recycled and wasn't great quality in the first place and was roughly bound up with budget 2" parcel tape. Yes there is a difference and we use the premium quality stuff. It also took them a week before sending it out. I wasn't best pleased about the time considering I was paying top dollar for carriage about the time, but when the product is all sticky and has a defect I was pretty hacked off. I have never bought anything from this type of auction before, so maybe I was expecting too much in the way of customer service. I will chalk it down to experience I suppose