farmer_giles

Yes, £1.50 a round saving that pays for the equipment fairly quickly. I'll ask your advice on a loading setup when the time comes. I'm going to start off with a couple of boxes of these to get my eye in: https://www.shootingsportsuk.co.uk/rifle-accessories/ammunition/superformance-varmint-223-rem-53gr-v-max-box-of-20/ I like the BC of .29 on a 53gr bullet. I also know that I'll end up loading for the 73's... it's just inevitable really

Hi Richie, Yes I had spotted that very nice group. Thanks for lots of great info and data - hugely more helpful than the usual soup of baseless drivel out there. I've been browsing spud but have insufficient (no) loading experience to perform any meaningful equipment selection, although I've been hankering after an RCBS press since about 1985 when I first saw them in Gun Digest. Interesting you got some Lapua cases. I'd tagged them in the back of my mind as go-to quality brass. I'm obsessive about accuracy and cannot cope with a rifle that shoots less accurately than I can, so it's inevitable that I'll end up hand loading. The 73gr eldms sound a good choice. I found this chart interesting: https://www.80-lower.com/80-lower-blog/ar15-barrel-twist-rates-explained/ Most of my shooting is in areas where you don't want the bullets carrying on, so breakup is important. How do the eldms do on that front?

Thanks Richie, that's extremely helpful. Very nice primary group on the metal. I've not hand loaded before but I'm pretty sure I would enjoy it. The only potential problem being my tendency to be a bit obsessive and, as my wife would say, I might "disappear up my own arse". I like the idea of being able to drive the 73gr eld's though. Are they any good on foxes or just stab them like a knitting needle? I would also be interested in working out a hand load for the 53gr hornady vmax's to achieve better than factory-load accuracy. There seems to be a bewildering array of options for brass/primer/powder/bullet/seating depth, so I'm slightly anxious that I might simply create an expensive and time consuming way of making ammunition that's worse than factory loads, particularly if Sako's 55's will print 1/2" to start with. I'm not able to shoot much better than 1/4"@100y anyway. By the way, did you get the 20" or 24" barrel? Article here suggests there's not a lot in it, so I was thinking the 20", particularly given the availability issue. https://www.80lowerjig.com/80-lower-blog/the-ar-15-picking-the-best-barrel-length-twist-rate/ cheers, Giles

Richie, what's the group size like at at 100y with the T3x 1-8" ? considering getting one. factory loads 55gr vs hand loads etc