New Winchester 1917- Jewel or Turd?

[Patrick Chadwick]

Amazed at how good a picture I had and you can adjust the height with hand loads if you are running high with the normal velocity loads (these are down around 2400 fps I think)

This points out a basic rule: get the optimum load for the rifle established BEFORE filing around on the foresight blade. Fiddling the load to suit the blade is the wrong way round to do it!

The ideal powder charge/bullet weight combination should be one that is tolerant of a charge spread of 0.2 gn. Which is about the tightest you can get in practical reloading, unless you want to weigh each charge on a chemical balance. I spent a great deal of time optimizing the charge for my Eddystone, and found 2 optimum charges (48 and 50 gn with Swiss N140, 168gn HPBT Sierra or Lapua).

Changing that charge so much that the POI is noticeably affected would mean using a charge that is very sensitive to tiny load changes, and would produce poor groups! The difference between best and worst group size in my 30-06 testing was a factor of 3. A 1 MOA load is a potential competition winner. With 3 MOA you can stay at home.

Optimum load first, THEN sight correction!