Just getting into reloading and these are my first rounds downrange with my setup. Initial reaction is why the hell It took me so long to get into reloading.
•. Seekins PH3 in 7 PRC (22” barrel)
Area 419 brake
Peterson brass
CCI magnum primers
175gr ELD-X
N565 powder
Seated .047” off the lands
Ran a ladder test—limited data so far, but two shots at 68.5gr clocked 2923 fps and looked pretty promising (bottom middle target)
Any thoughts or advice on where to go from here? I’m going to do another round at 68.5gr (5 shot groups) and see how accuracy/vemocity holds. Then go up to 69gr with 1gr increments to see what accuracy velocity I can get without seeing pressure signs. But tbh if accuracy looks like the initial 2 shots avg 2923, that might be good enough for what I do. This is mainly my elk/ mule deer rifle.
Welcome to the world of reloading! One of the things that makes it fun is you can do what you like. If you’re a tinkerer and want to fiddle with a lot of small changes and things like that, that’s perfectly fine, go do it and enjoy yourself. Personally, I’ve been doing this for about 4 years now, and I’ve gotten to a point where I just want to get load development done as quickly as possible so I can spend as much components on actual hunting rounds as well as practice rounds. I might only make it to the range once a month and if I’m going to do a lot of fiddling with my loads, it could take up to 6 months to get something that would work.
How does that velocity (2923)work for your particular hunting situation? Does it give you the needed impact velocities at the distance you plan on hunting at max? If it’s too slow, and you need more velocity to hunt as far as you want, then increasing the powder charge is definitely needed. However, if 2923 give you the performance that you need, then going for extra velocity really isn’t helpful, and we’ll just burn more components, potentially put more wear on your rifle, etc.
So if 2923 is an acceptable muzzle velocity for you, then I would load up another 15 to 20 rounds and either several more three shot groups or a few larger shot groups to confirm your accuracy and see if that’s acceptable.
That’s another thing, determine what acceptable accuracy is for you. Single hole groups are definitely fun. But in order to get them you may burn through an absolute ton of components and spend forever and burn out a barrel trying to achieve that.
Looking at the load data from hornady, 68.5 grains as well above Max load. You’re probably already over pressure because at 65 grains is calling for 2900 feet per second out of a 24 in Barrel and you’re shooting out of a 22.
Appreciate the insight—that’s a good point. It does confuse me when comparing it to what Hornady and Vihtavuori list as their max-pressure charges for a given velocity. My first loads were at what they considered max charge, and I was only getting 2730 fps. I’ve always wondered if they publish conservative numbers just to cover themselves legally, but in reality you can safely go a bit higher.
The more I think about it, if I can consistently hit the low-to-mid 2900s with good consistency, that’s plenty for me. This is a hunting rifle, so as long as I’m getting sub-MOA accuracy and consistent velocities, it’ll do the trick.
