mjcmichigan
Handloader
- Dec 26, 2016
- 2,401
- 355
First, thank you to all you enablers and teachers of this reloading craft. I’m getting better at quickly getting to great loads…
This is not my rifle, but given its performance with a minimal investment in a savage with a kit scope…Michigan has a line which I’m a couple miles north off, us above the line can use centerfire rifles with bottleneck cartridges, below the line, shotguns, muzzleloaders and straight-walled cartridges excluding 45/70 because a legislator watched Quigby and had it explicitly excluded from the definition of straight wall cartridges because it was 2mm longer than the max allowed.
I bought Barnes TSX HP 170gn for 350 Legend. First a box of loaded ammo and the bullet shot about 1” groups with factory ammo. Bought 100 cases of Starline and Win 296 powder. Worked up a ladder in 0.3gn increments using data from QL(thank you Dr Mike and Mark). Used Federal GM 205M primers. All my SD’s were 9-15 fps…. Not perfect so repeated with REM Match primers.. worse 12-20fps… so back to Federam GM205M. Next found Jam at 2.395”. Barnes recommends atleast 0.05” jump or more.. so did three test loads focused on Jump. 2.335”, 2.315”, and 2.450”
The Barnes loads in factory box were 2.450”’
Here is the results. I zeroed with the factory ammo, and no scope adjustments were made. My hand loads hit essentially the same ppointnof aim. I did it mention, but I keep a clean brush with my dies. Only gets used to prep the necks with three full twists then I pull it out…
2.245” was 0.4” groups
2.315 was 1.1” groups
2.335 was 0.9” groups at 100 yards.
Loading up 100 rounds tomorrow which I’ll give to the owner. I’ve killed three crop damage deer with it using a box of federal that came with the gun. All three recoveries were simple. Longest was 65 yards, shortest 10.. so the federal blue box works fin in 350 legend. I didn’t mention velocity 2170 fps seems normal.
This was a fun project.
I’ll be shooting3006 or 45/50 for deer this year.
This is not my rifle, but given its performance with a minimal investment in a savage with a kit scope…Michigan has a line which I’m a couple miles north off, us above the line can use centerfire rifles with bottleneck cartridges, below the line, shotguns, muzzleloaders and straight-walled cartridges excluding 45/70 because a legislator watched Quigby and had it explicitly excluded from the definition of straight wall cartridges because it was 2mm longer than the max allowed.
I bought Barnes TSX HP 170gn for 350 Legend. First a box of loaded ammo and the bullet shot about 1” groups with factory ammo. Bought 100 cases of Starline and Win 296 powder. Worked up a ladder in 0.3gn increments using data from QL(thank you Dr Mike and Mark). Used Federal GM 205M primers. All my SD’s were 9-15 fps…. Not perfect so repeated with REM Match primers.. worse 12-20fps… so back to Federam GM205M. Next found Jam at 2.395”. Barnes recommends atleast 0.05” jump or more.. so did three test loads focused on Jump. 2.335”, 2.315”, and 2.450”
The Barnes loads in factory box were 2.450”’
Here is the results. I zeroed with the factory ammo, and no scope adjustments were made. My hand loads hit essentially the same ppointnof aim. I did it mention, but I keep a clean brush with my dies. Only gets used to prep the necks with three full twists then I pull it out…
2.245” was 0.4” groups
2.315 was 1.1” groups
2.335 was 0.9” groups at 100 yards.
Loading up 100 rounds tomorrow which I’ll give to the owner. I’ve killed three crop damage deer with it using a box of federal that came with the gun. All three recoveries were simple. Longest was 65 yards, shortest 10.. so the federal blue box works fin in 350 legend. I didn’t mention velocity 2170 fps seems normal.
This was a fun project.
I’ll be shooting3006 or 45/50 for deer this year.
