Interestingly, I was talking to Franco today and if I heard him correctly he runs 48gr of Varget with either a 150 or 155gr projectile.
He said he did not think 168 gr was superior. I tend to hear each camp (150-155 vs. 168 gr) say they prefer their own weight, which is not surprising. I have some 150gr but I have not used them for M1.
The reloading data I was referring to in my manual above is M1 specific rather than generic 30-06. I had another manual but I loaned it a few months ago and haven't gotten it back.
Even at 100 yds I notice a decent hold difference on target with, say, 41gr Varget vs. HXP. I've done as high as 45gr Varget but I don't really remember the outcome.
for the shooting we do and the guns/skill set unless theres a node in the powder charge the barrel harmonics just really disagree with you may or may not see a difference in accuracy with any powder charge from min-max ... Franco is a molded shooter of the XTC days of the M1 and M14/1a where you want the fastest velocity/accuracy to reach out to 600 yards where Velocity will aid in fighting the wind. The faster the bullet gets there the less time the wind has to push it around and then the actual drop. there was a time also when shooters had to use issued ammo and shooters whould load to duplicate the
As long as your loading what works for you is all that matters at least with in the safety margin of the platform/powder and such. Of course when your deviate outside the "norm" come ups and such will be different buy a few to many minutes....
I used to use hornady 150s as they shoot well enough to hold the 10 ring if I can....the thing is that they are no longer cheaper than say the noslers 155s/168s when they are on sale or the 2nds.
im one of those load to the patform/end result type. I wont spend money on anything more expensive than noslers on sale prices. I cant see paying .30 plus cents on a bullet for a gun and skill set that is a touch under 3moa on a good day vs day my friend who loads lapua bullets in his PSA AR ??
It does not show as much with iron sights vs scoped rifles with the OCW method of finding a deent powder charge. I also found as you get closer to max the variations in powder charge seem a bit more critical... I know from shooting my garand and reloading for it that a 44-45+ grain charge load will not be enough to toss a round out of the ten ring.
play around with balistic calculators they can open your eyes to just how the bullet can be influenced down range with velocity changes and such..
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