......My First OCW Test........

dan brothers

dan brothers

New member
Here are the results of my first 133 yds, OCW Test with my Savage 110 243 58gr V-Max... IMR 4895 powder. Win Brass. 2.660

I aimed at five different circles... but shot to the right as you can see... but that's okay... my scope was off... just shooting for groups only. I shot 3 shots at each circle... but only one shot at circle 1... then one shot at circle 2.. and so on until I had shot once at all five targets. I did this round-robin shooting sequence 3 times... so there are 3 shots in each group... and I let the barrel cool down about 2 mins between each shot.... which was hard to wait on.

Target 1 was with... 43.5 grains...= 3515 fps
target 2 was with...43.8 = 3762 fps
target 3 was with...44.1 = 3800
target 4 was with...44.4 = 3840
target 5 was with...44.7 = 3880

(had to aim at lower orange dot for #5)

As you can see... the first 3 groups were stringing left to right... then groups 4 and 5 started lining up vertical and grouping closer together. Group 5, w/44.7 was the hottest and best group by stacking two together and the last one a tad high... which is okay. Haven't tried 45.0 yet..but it will probably be too hot... so the 44.7 may be My Baby for that gun. Once I settle on this load after more testing... I can then do the same thing but ONLY change the seating depth. Can't wait to see how it all comes out.

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nice...I would also play with the 44.7 load. try .1 up or down, often for me this really starts to put a load in "focus". I also do my load testing in the round robin fashion...it shows pretty fast.
 
those targets may look confusing because I was aiming at the circles and the hits were about 4-5 inches to the right. When I aimed at circle 2, it hit over into circle 3... and aiming at 3...it hit in circle 4. It does look crazy at first...I'll have my rifle sighted in better next time before testing is done.
 
you do shoot them at one spot.... but only one at a time.

you shoot one at each spot until you have shot at each spot ONLY once... then start over again from low charge to high charge... they call that round-robin.

By shooting only one shot at each target... and then repeating it again... is so that your groups are not just changing because of barrel heat changes... this way the barrel's heat is on a average temp.
 
People often get confused on the OCW method and go straight to the group that is the smallest and call that the OCW. That's not the way OCW works, though you can often have small groups right around the OCW mark.

It's sort of tough to tell based on the targets and not being able to measure it, but it looks to me like 44.5g or so would be about your OCW.

I say that because finding your OCW is not about the size of the group, but about finding a consistant POI across the widest charge weight difference. Both the 44.4 and the 44.7g groups had a similar POI, and the 44.1 wasn't that far off it either once you triangulate the 3 shots and call the middle of that your POI.

If you are looking to shoot your OCW, I would load up a bunch of rounds at the 44.5g weight and start messing with the OAL and see if that tightens the group. I'll bet you have some good results there, and can not worry too much if you accidently throw an extra .1 or .2 of powder every once in a while or if it's colder or hotter out. The POI should remain the same.
 
Most of those loads show promise with 2 shots close and one shot away. I would try different seating depths and see if the groups closed up.
 
you guys are right... I'm going to load some starting at 44.5... and go up to 44.9... and check those groups, while looking for the best center group of the three best groups. Once I settle on that... I'll then load another round of bullets with different seating depths.... which should make it ready to light matches...LOL.

I've never been a paper hanger puncher... but this OCW has opened up a whole new world of shooting with a PURPOSE.
 
Originally Posted By: dan brothersyou guys are right... I'm going to load some starting at 44.5... and go up to 44.9... and check those groups, while looking for the best center group of the three best groups. Once I settle on that... I'll then load another round of bullets with different seating depths.... which should make it ready to light matches...LOL.

I've never been a paper hanger puncher... but this OCW has opened up a whole new world of shooting with a PURPOSE.

I think that's a sounds strategy right there. Maybe throw 10 - 12 clicks of left on that scope of yours beforehand for us too
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. I think you'll find that those weights you have list all group right in the same area, and will be pretty descent. Like you said, you'll be able to tighten it up even more with some seating depth adjustments also.

If you're not a paper shooter, then OCW is definately the way to go. After you have the OCW for your component combo, you can now quickly load up rounds and not feel like you have to measure every throw and make sure you're not +/- .1 or .2 grains. I still measure every 10 or so, just to make sure nothing is crazy, but it adds confidence knowing that even if you are off .1, you're still going to be able to hit what you're shooting at.
 
LOL... my scope clicks were really off.
What really happened was I only had 15 vmax bullets left... and had to load them all for the test... but had none for sighting in the rifle...so I sighted it in with some 100 gr deer hunting loads... but the 58's sprayed to the right as you can see...but it was too late... and to do the test correctly ... I couldn't change a thing... had to keep on going...

now I have a 500 round box of Zmax in 58 gr.. so I'll get her sighted in and try somemore... and I would have done it already, but that rifle is a savage righty... and my savage 11 lefty just came in today...so I'll be starting all over again with a diff rifle.
 


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