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So I was at the range yesterday shooting test loads in my Creedmoor. Started with 144 gr. Berger Long Range Hybrid Target (who comes up with these names ?) and VV N555, SD's were looking excellent across the entire range of charge weights, only one out of 10 was over 10, and 4 were under 5. But they shot like crap on the target! Was thinking it was me, then got to thinking about it and came to the conclusion that maybe it was short range instability, I've seen anecdotal info that suggests that the high BC bullets need time to "settle" in flight. Regardless, I was feeling a little let down, I don't consider myself a world class shooter, but I'm usually better than what I was seeing yesterday. Put a few through my new TC Compass .223, that was better, just a few of my reloads, but it's looking very promising, especially for a budget rifle. But then I switched back to the Creedmoor testing, this time with an odd bullet that I originally bought to try in my Grendel but never got around too. It's a Lapua 100 gr. FMJ, called a Cutting Edge due to a ring around the ogive that's supposed to make clean holes in targets like a wad cutter. Funny looking things compared to your typical Creedmoor bullets, looks more like some old mil-surp round nose load. Designed strictly as a short range target bullet, so not exactly a typical choice for the Creedmoor, but I won't always be shooting my Creedmoor at 1K yards, so why not give them a shot ? Glad I did, with a little more work, I think these will be pretty outstanding, I did a very limited run with these, but I had several 5 shot groups under a 1/2". Fast little buggers, too, velocities were in the low 3000's to almost 3200 FPS. Oddly enough, the best group had the highest velocity and SD, but I don't need the velocity in this case, so will focus on one of the lighter charge weights. All in all, a good day. The Creedmoor performed well, the new TC is looking like a real bargain, and my Labradar never missed a beat, either. So Happy New Year, everyone!
Dave
Dave