Franchi Momentum Hornady Interlock

[kilotanker22]

Been playing with this rifles and these bullets trying to find a good load. I can not get them to shoot less than 1.5" throughout the load ranges with Reloder 16. A powder that shoots very well with my other 6.5 creedmoor rifles.

Velocity is lower by almost 100 fps compared to my Savage with the same length barrel. I have been loading these .015 off the lands. I am wondering if these bullets would shoot better with more jump, since they appear to have a secent ogive. If I seat them to the cannelure I am .120 jump to the lands.

The only other powder I have on hand is Reloder 26. Now with Reloder 26 I am confident that I can get the velocity up to where the other rifle shoots the Reloder 16 load.

Anyone have any insight about the interlock bullets?

 

[Unclenick]

The jump being greater may help. Read this article by Berger on how to find the seating depth sweet spot. It's designed for long VLD bullets, but applies to all, in principle. You may want to make shorter steps, say, 0.020", for shorter-than-VLD ogives.

 

[kilotanker22]

Thanks Unclenick, I have some more loaded already at .050 off as well as seated to the cannelure with both powders.

After a more careful measurement, I found that seating just to the edge of the cannelure puts me .100 away from the lands. I will try to get out there to test these this afternoon.

 

[ReloadKy]

I have loaded some 130 gr interlocks in my 270 and have gotten excellent groups and reached published velocity with the powder I was using. i also had them seated way off of the lands. For an all purpose hunting bullet I have found them to be very accurate.

 

[44 AMP]

Does anything else you shoot through that rifle do less than 1.5"??

Sometimes, its not the powder or the bullet or seating ".xxx" off the lands, it the rifle. And sometimes, it all of them in combination.

 

[kilotanker22]

Managed to get to the range. The Reloder 26 load didn't shoot that well. The Reloder 16 load seated to the Cannelure shot ok. 4 in a small group and then the next 3 rounds opened the group way up. Here is a photo of my last seven rounds.

Velocity dropped after seating them deeper into the case, but the velocity spread improved a great deal. Avg velocity 2708 SD of 1 and ES of 4.

I will say that after 5 rounds this barrel is pretty dang warm and after that 7 shot group the barrel was pretty hot.

I guess I should be happy with it. For a light barreled hunting rifle.

 

[kilotanker22]

This is the very first sub 1.5" group I have shot with this rifle.

This is also the first rifle with 4 groove rifling I have ever owned. I wonder if that has something to do with the exact same load in my Savage shooting over 100 fps faster in the same length barrel.

 

[kilotanker22]

I am a believer that barrel heat definitely makes a difference in how a rifle shoots as it warms up. If all of the surfaces and components are not true then as they heat up at different rates that can cause stresses that may cause groups to open up. The barrel also being thinner than the action heats up more. Hotter steel is not as strong as cooler steel. It has been my belief that that is the reason why some lightweight hunting rifles actually shoot better with a pressure.point than they do when free floated.

This is a factory rifle so I assume that the receiver and barrel are not true to each other not are the locking lugs seating perfectly. If I were a betting man. I would say that instead of 5 round groups. If I shot a total of twenty 3 shot groups and took the average size from them. I would see a tighter group than any of the 5 round groups I will shoot.

If I have the action trued, lugs lapped, bolt face "faced true" I would bet that these 5 round groups would not open up as much as the barrel heats.

 

[kilotanker22]

So I decided to try using cases that were not trimmed to the shorter length with this rifle. I loaded 20 rounds with the shorter cases and 20 rounds with the cases trimmed to 1.910. also weighed all of the cases in each 20 round set and sorted them to within 2 grains of each other. Seated the bullets to .040 off of the lands since that is where they shoot well in all of my other rifles.

I saw a 10 fps increase in velocity with the longer cases compared to the shorter ones.

With the shorter cases being weighed and sorted my groups tightened up some.

The longer cases with all else being equal showed considerably tighter groups. At 200 yrads I was able to pull together a .46 moa group, and a .6 moa group. At 100 yards the group size was .74 moa.

200 yard groups with the shorter cases were about 1.5 moa. 100 yards with the shorter cases was also around 1.5 moa.

I am convinced that the shorter cases were the culprit in both my Savage Tactical rifle and this rifle's groups opening up.

 

[jmr40]

100 fps velocity difference between barrels of the same length is on the high side, but not unheard of. I have 2 rifles in 30-06, one is 60-90 fps faster every time depending on the load. Both have 22" barrels. I have a friend whose rifle, also with a 22" barrel was 135 fps slower than my rifle with loads out of the same box.

I have 4 rifles in 308. Two with 22" barrels, one with a 20" barrel and one with an 18" barrel. The one with the 18" barrel is obviously slower, but not as much as you'd think. The other 3 are within 30 fps of being the same, and the one with the 20" barrel is the fastest of the 3.

In my experience some bullets are more sensitive to seating depth than others. None of the Hornady bullets I've used seem to be in that category. I've found that more often than not seating close to the lands without hitting them usually gives best accuracy.

I load mine to just fit the magazine and chamber without hitting lands. That is as close as I can get anyway and if I need to tweak the loads can always seat them deeper later if I don't get the accuracy I want.

 

[44 AMP]

I can not get them to shoot less than 1.5"

The rifle you name specs less than 7lbs.

If you're getting 1.5" groups with a sporting rifle in the 7lb class what are you whining about?

 

[kilotanker22]

I know I know, I should take a lesson in acceptable accuracy....

Trimming the cases to a longer length and sorting the brass by weight showed excellent results. Cutting group sizes in half at the range today when comparing to the shorter brass.

I was able to pull together all sub MOA groups after using longer brass and sorting by weight.