Well, seems i wasted the last 18 of my 188 hunter bullets. A couple of weeks ago i ht'd them with the gc on and they shot fine.
Evidently the gcs loosened after hting over the last couple of weeks(should have re-sized them), or something. That's what i get for doing things a different way right in the middle of load developement.
I usually ht, then seat checks and size, but these were gifted to me and came with the checks on.
They were on as tight as they could be originally, so it's MY FAULT for not checking after hting, although they were still tight on the last range trip.
I had loaded 40, 40.5, and 41 gr. of imr 4350 again and was chronoing the 40 gr. load when the checks began to come off. The 5th one hit my chrono screen before i realized what was going on.
Lesson learned. I will continue to ht for shooting with speed with ww alloy, but do it before i check and size. I've never had a problem with THAT technique.
All groups today with that bullet were 4 to 5" with several bullets showing tipping after the checks came off......again, totally my fault and nothing to do with the 188 hunter bullet.
It was doing fine in my last tests and checks were staying on.
However, i did have 10 rounds of my 311299 NOE bullets loaded with 40.5 gr. of imr 4350 which has proved to be a good load in the past.
I shot 5 into the group on the right for a 1.221" group @ 108 yds., then moved the scope to the left for center and shot 3 into .926"
I shot the last 2 off hand from a sitting position at some clays on the berm.
Lol, after that i packed everything up, including my shot up chrony and went home.
I have every confidence in how the 188 hunter shot with those same loads on the last trip, and what happened today was my fault for changing how i do things as far as the ht with the checks on my bullets.
As far as the chronoing went, the first four shots with the 188 hunter @ 40 gr. of imr 4350 were...
2132 fps.
2136 "
2137 "
2149 "