Darkhorse
Handloader
- Mar 14, 2014
- 829
- 202
Thanks for the welcome everyone. The rifle does look nice as I take care of my gear. But if you look up close the blueing is worn in spots and that shiney stock has a few dents. I used this rifle hard for a number of years. It was built December of '81 and I bought it early spring of '82. It's traveled to Colorado and to the deep snow of a New Mexico november elk hunt where I took my first bull.
No, I don't have a 35 Whelan but I do have a .300 Win. Mag. if that's of any consequence.
All testing was done with a Leupold Vari X-III 3.5X10, and from experience 10X is not enough for tight groups with these 61+ year old eyes.
WW cases were neck turned to 85%, primer pocket radius was removed with a tool I ground, flash hole deburred and case mouth chamfered. Cases were trimmed to -.010 nominal case length. An attempt was made to sort by neck hardness but It slipped my mind to sort by weight. Age does that to you.
Cases were full length sized with a "trued" RCBS die with the expander removed. Cases were expanded with the elliptical hornady expander screwed down past the hornady die mouth so no sizing would be done. The die was left loose in the press threads to float and the shell holder was also loose to float.
Bullet seating was done with the Hornady new dimension seating die with sliding stem.
In this case I started with a few known parameters. I knew my longest shot would be 420 yards. I knew I would use IMR 4350 and I wanted my velocity to be around 3100 fps if possible. Closer shots were probable and I wanted to minimize meat damage yet go for a DRT shot.
A few years ago I spent 2 years working with a Browning Abolt .300 W/BOSS, and during that process learned a lot about barrel oscillation. I was going to approach working up a load by varying seating depth and powder charge changes to attempt to tune the load internally instead of externally as with a barrel tuner.
Page 1: Was to set a baseline and starting point and also as pressure checks due to a new lot of powder. Case belts were measured before and after firing along with the normal pressure signs.
60 to 61 grs. at .030 seat depth (all my bullet seating is measured with bullet comparators) looked promising.
Page 2: Target B hit the sweet spot dead on with 60.5 grs. at .030 seat depth.
Target C should have been tighter as I saw a sliver of target white beside my vertical crosshair just as the shot broke.
Page 3: I would probably hunt with Target B as the flyer was probably the shooter and most important 2 shots dead center vertically, the group is also higher than Target B Page 2 indicating higher velocity due to seating closer to the lands and a 1/2 grain increase in powder.
Page 4: Well, I just had to shoot a couple of max loads, after all it is a Magnum. I thought I might luck into a good load for a future hunt and have it for record. It's going to take some more work at a later date.
So, from these pages one group will be decided on for next year. I'm out of bullets. I like group B, page 2 best of all. And it fits my original parameter as by the book 60.5 grains should be right at 3100 fps. My problem is, I no longer have access to a chronograph and I'm just not sure how accurate the book is. I have 2 older Nosler manuals and the data hasn't changed to the present.
I would not have a problem hunting with group B, page 3, with 61. grs. But again, I don't know the velocity.
I know only a Chrono'd load from MY rifle is accurate as to speed. But I'm wondering if anybody out there has an educated guess as to the actual velocity of these 2 loads?
Which one would you pick?
I'm pretty confidant in my shooting and think these groups are a good representation of the effects of small changes in depth and charge. Notice how the POI changes slightly with each change.
Looks like my targets start with #4 instead of #1, but I'm not going to redo them. I'll now better next time.
No, I don't have a 35 Whelan but I do have a .300 Win. Mag. if that's of any consequence.
All testing was done with a Leupold Vari X-III 3.5X10, and from experience 10X is not enough for tight groups with these 61+ year old eyes.
WW cases were neck turned to 85%, primer pocket radius was removed with a tool I ground, flash hole deburred and case mouth chamfered. Cases were trimmed to -.010 nominal case length. An attempt was made to sort by neck hardness but It slipped my mind to sort by weight. Age does that to you.
Cases were full length sized with a "trued" RCBS die with the expander removed. Cases were expanded with the elliptical hornady expander screwed down past the hornady die mouth so no sizing would be done. The die was left loose in the press threads to float and the shell holder was also loose to float.
Bullet seating was done with the Hornady new dimension seating die with sliding stem.
In this case I started with a few known parameters. I knew my longest shot would be 420 yards. I knew I would use IMR 4350 and I wanted my velocity to be around 3100 fps if possible. Closer shots were probable and I wanted to minimize meat damage yet go for a DRT shot.
A few years ago I spent 2 years working with a Browning Abolt .300 W/BOSS, and during that process learned a lot about barrel oscillation. I was going to approach working up a load by varying seating depth and powder charge changes to attempt to tune the load internally instead of externally as with a barrel tuner.
Page 1: Was to set a baseline and starting point and also as pressure checks due to a new lot of powder. Case belts were measured before and after firing along with the normal pressure signs.
60 to 61 grs. at .030 seat depth (all my bullet seating is measured with bullet comparators) looked promising.
Page 2: Target B hit the sweet spot dead on with 60.5 grs. at .030 seat depth.
Target C should have been tighter as I saw a sliver of target white beside my vertical crosshair just as the shot broke.
Page 3: I would probably hunt with Target B as the flyer was probably the shooter and most important 2 shots dead center vertically, the group is also higher than Target B Page 2 indicating higher velocity due to seating closer to the lands and a 1/2 grain increase in powder.
Page 4: Well, I just had to shoot a couple of max loads, after all it is a Magnum. I thought I might luck into a good load for a future hunt and have it for record. It's going to take some more work at a later date.
So, from these pages one group will be decided on for next year. I'm out of bullets. I like group B, page 2 best of all. And it fits my original parameter as by the book 60.5 grains should be right at 3100 fps. My problem is, I no longer have access to a chronograph and I'm just not sure how accurate the book is. I have 2 older Nosler manuals and the data hasn't changed to the present.
I would not have a problem hunting with group B, page 3, with 61. grs. But again, I don't know the velocity.
I know only a Chrono'd load from MY rifle is accurate as to speed. But I'm wondering if anybody out there has an educated guess as to the actual velocity of these 2 loads?
Which one would you pick?
I'm pretty confidant in my shooting and think these groups are a good representation of the effects of small changes in depth and charge. Notice how the POI changes slightly with each change.
Looks like my targets start with #4 instead of #1, but I'm not going to redo them. I'll now better next time.
