Anybody use RCBS competition dies?

[Crohnos01]

I bought a set of RCBS competition dies for my 22-250 trying to get the best possible accuracy. I read somewhere to mic the outside of the neck of your case and subtract . 02 to get the proper size neck bushing. I ended up ordering a .250 an then to be safe bought a size up and down... whew... my .249 still leaves the mouth way too large so I just ordered some smaller bushings... does anyone know a sure fire way to not have some rather expensive coated rings sitting around that don't work?

Read More

 

[Goosebrown]

Take the diameter of the bullet. .224

Then mic the case wall thickness on a bunch of cases and get an average thickness. Maybe about .011

Multiply that by 2 because de there are two sides of the neck.
.022

Add the bullet diameter to that and then subtract .002 for the desired tension.

.224 + .022 - .002 = .244

Your numbers on case thickness are going to be different but this is the formula you need.

BTW. As you measure your case thickness if you have a wide range of case thicknesses you are going to get different tensions on the bullet. IMO you should simply stare with a box or two of Lapua brass because if you are going to keep looking for better accuracy that is where you are going to end up anyway.

PS. when you reload consider weighing your cases and group them by weight and then shoot them in that order. It always gets me better results because if the outside dimensions of the case are the same then a higher weight indicates more brass and a smaller case capacity and then you get to apply boyles law on ignition and you get more pressure which is more likely to produce an ab errant shot compared to the others.

Good luck. 22-250 can be exceedingly accurate but try to find an accuracy load down from the top to save your barrel.

Also make sure you are using the right weight bullets for your twist. My barrel was 1-12 and it would not stabilize anything over 62gr. Which is why I re barreled it.

Good luck and let us know how it goes.

 

[Crohnos01]

Excellent information! Thanks for that.
I suspect you're right about the Lapua brass.... it's just so danged spendy that my wallet gets cramps when I buy it.
I agree wholeheartedly also on the dropping down from max load. There's no need to send lead down range at top speed to punch a piece of paper and kill your barrel in the process if you don't have to.
I have found that the best accuracy so far is with a 55 grain Hornady and 38 grains of H380 on my rifle anyway... I want to try to play with the loads a bit more... I also had some promising groups with 4064

 

[Goosebrown]

Have you discovered www.accurateshooter.com?

They have a section on 22-250.

Are you familiar with ladder testing? That is the first step every time. If you have access to a 2-300 yard range that is better than a 100 for that as you can see vertical changes better

Bite the bullet and buy Lapua. Seriously if is paper you want to kill that is what you need

I also like nosler custom however I don't know many long range shooters that do. It is more expensive anyway.

If you ever want to talk load development give me a message.

 

[Goosebrown]

Have you discovered www.accurateshooter.com?

They have a section on 22-250.

Are you familiar with ladder testing? That is the first step every time. If you have access to a 2-300 yard range that is better than a 100 for that as you can see vertical changes better

Bite the bullet and buy Lapua. Seriously if is paper you want to kill that is what you need

I also like nosler custom however I don't know many long range shooters that do. It is more expensive anyway.

If you ever want to talk load development give me a message.

Excellent information! Thanks for that.
I suspect you're right about the Lapua brass.... it's just so danged spendy that my wallet gets cramps when I buy it.
I agree wholeheartedly also on the dropping down from max load. There's no need to send lead down range at top speed to punch a piece of paper and kill your barrel in the process if you don't have to.
I have found that the best accuracy so far is with a 55 grain Hornady and 38 grains of H380 on my rifle anyway... I want to try to play with the loads a bit more... I also had some promising groups with 4064

I would maybe consider H4895 for s test. That is my go to powder. Extruded so harder to through but I use a Chargemaster so it doesn't matter.

 

[Crohnos01]

I wasn't aware of accurateshooter; thanks once again.... I will most definitely be checking out the site.

I also use a chargemaster, and I think I have some 4895 in my stock somewhere. I will definitely take you up on your offer of load development... cool to find some one else who is working with the same loads I am. My goal is to get set up for 600 yard plus shooting... I don't know where just yet I am going g to have to go to do that, but I know there's a 1000 yard range in tri cities if nothing else.

 

[Goosebrown]

I wasn't aware of accurateshooter; thanks once again.... I will most definitely be checking out the site.

I also use a chargemaster, and I think I have some 4895 in my stock somewhere. I will definitely take you up on your offer of load development... cool to find some one else who is working with the same loads I am. My goal is to get set up for 600 yard plus shooting... I don't know where just yet I am going g to have to go to do that, but I know there's a 1000 yard range in tri cities if nothing else.

I am at tri county south west of Portland and they have a 600 yard range. There is a summer and a winter 600yd league at tri county. The summer league finishes Saturday. There is a shoot on Tuesday. If you'd like to come and watch and pull targets with me you'd be most welcome. You'd get to see what it's about and where it is and what equipment people use.

You'd need to be in Sherwood by 5:45 and not a minute later. 5 would even be better. For Tuesday or 9am for Saturday.

Disclaimer. I don't shoot 22-250 any more. I am 6mmbr and 260AI for the 600 league. However I do want to go back to 22-250 at some point

 

[Crohnos01]

That's truly a generous offer, and I thank you from the bottom of my heart for thinking of me. I wish I could, but I am under a tight deadline at work for some designs and I just can't get free this week. Maybe another time though. Thanks so much!

I love that about this community; everyone is so helpful and generous!

 

[Goosebrown]

Well I will find out about the 600 for the winter. It is only open regularly on Tuesday nights but if you can work it out you'd be welcome as s guest as long as you have a load that is supersonic at 600yds without key holing. You need to have a zero at 100 and bullet drop datacforv300 and 600. It sounds like a lot but it isn't.