I thought this might help anyone doing their own regulation for a new DR. This is my sixth DR. All my previous ones seemed to have no problem regulating. However my new 470 using my Quick Load had the barrels crossing at 50 yards and regulating between 2.5 and 3 inches. While that might not bother most people it bothered me. I want to thank @Mark A Ouellette for his generous help helping me obtain the very best regulation I have ever had in all 6 DRs!!!
My path started as usual with Quick Load which I like. The best load it seemed was using my RL 15.5 powder at 85.5 grains for my CEB Solids for my upcoming elephant hunt. In Quick Load this showed well within safe PSI and 2043 FPS. However, when I shot them, they crossed at 50 yards and had a max of 3 inches. In talking to Mark, he recommended I ladder both up and down from this load to find the sweet spot.
I decided to start at 80 grams up to 90 grams of my RL 15.5 powder with 4 bullets each. Please see the first target...I started with 80 grains and found there was absolutely no crossing of barrels but quite a bit apart. I then went to the polar opposite of 90 grains and found on the same target that indeed as with my 85.5 grains, the barrels were crossing. I used my chronograph and found to my surprise that while QL had told me my FPS was 2,000 I found actually the QL FPS was off by as much as 200 FPS in all tested loads. This instantly told me my best regulation would be somewhere between 80 and 84 grains of RL 15.5. I jumped to 83 and you can see in the second target the barrels still did not cross but still somewhat apart.
The magic came at 84 grains...what a wonderful day!!!!! I was able to place 4 shots within one inch perfectly...this is the absolute best regulation I have ever got in one of my DRs. The chronograph showed this 84 grains produced 2150 FPS. I had seen many of you say this was the perfect FPS for a 470 and man are all of you correct at least for my new DR.
Hope this helps anyone trying to regulate their DR.
My path started as usual with Quick Load which I like. The best load it seemed was using my RL 15.5 powder at 85.5 grains for my CEB Solids for my upcoming elephant hunt. In Quick Load this showed well within safe PSI and 2043 FPS. However, when I shot them, they crossed at 50 yards and had a max of 3 inches. In talking to Mark, he recommended I ladder both up and down from this load to find the sweet spot.
I decided to start at 80 grams up to 90 grams of my RL 15.5 powder with 4 bullets each. Please see the first target...I started with 80 grains and found there was absolutely no crossing of barrels but quite a bit apart. I then went to the polar opposite of 90 grains and found on the same target that indeed as with my 85.5 grains, the barrels were crossing. I used my chronograph and found to my surprise that while QL had told me my FPS was 2,000 I found actually the QL FPS was off by as much as 200 FPS in all tested loads. This instantly told me my best regulation would be somewhere between 80 and 84 grains of RL 15.5. I jumped to 83 and you can see in the second target the barrels still did not cross but still somewhat apart.
The magic came at 84 grains...what a wonderful day!!!!! I was able to place 4 shots within one inch perfectly...this is the absolute best regulation I have ever got in one of my DRs. The chronograph showed this 84 grains produced 2150 FPS. I had seen many of you say this was the perfect FPS for a 470 and man are all of you correct at least for my new DR.
Hope this helps anyone trying to regulate their DR.