At The Range With My Two Ruger Hawkeyes

[bullet]

I went to the range this afternoon and did some real serious load work to establish hunting loads for my 358Win and 30-06 Hawkeye's.

Here was my work sheet for the day to give you and idea of the time and effort that was put into this work.

The 358Win
I was working with 225gr loads using two different lots of AA2495BR and was able to get my 8 pound lot that was cooler than the one pound I had to get velocities and accuracy for a hunting load.

The cooler lot to AA2495BR likes 210primers better and the hotter lot likes 215 primers.

At 47.5grs of of the cooler lot I got good accuracy but just to slow for what I want. I wanted it over 2450fps and I only got 2433fps.

At 49grs I got accuracy and velocities exceeding 2450fps at 2475fps. So this is offically my hunting load for my 358Win leaving me a little over 7 1/2 pounds of AA2495BR.

The 30-06
My 30-06 has really been a project because I believed I could get it to very acceptable accuracy without doing any bedding or work to the rifle but just use it like it came out of the box.

I got 2987fps out of H414 but accuracy was not there and 2902fps out of W760 but not accuracy.

Three shoot group with AA2495BR 165gr Speer Hot core moving 2867fps.

165gr Sierra HPBT bullet using H450 but was to slow

So at this time I still am not settled on a 165gr (medium bullet weight for cartridge).

I was also working on a heavy for cartridge load using a 220gr Sierra RN Pro Hunter and I have found my heavy load. Good accuracy and moving at 2465fps.

 

[Savage99]

Good shooting there bullet.

Your a rifleman.

 

[bullet]

Good shooting there bullet.

Your a rifleman.

The 06 is not as accurate as my customs have been but for out the box and having more than acceptable hunting accuracy I am close to wrapping up the 06. The 358Win has been very accurate from the get go for being an out of the box rifle with a wood stock and no special bedding.

 

[GB300wm]

good work bullet, looks like your there,,, :grin:

 

[bullet]

good work bullet, looks like your there,,, :grin:

Jerry, it has taken a lot of work on these especially the 06 but always believed I could find a load or loads for it. I will be perfecting a few of the good performers in the 06 and wrap it up. It is a good feeling to accomplish something you believe would work. Yep, going to knock some game down this fall with these two rifles and the that will be the satisfaction of closing the circle and when I do it will be because I would not let go until it was done.

 

[JD338]

nice shooting bullet.

JD338

 

[Greg Nolan]

bullet

If you hunt like you shoot I hope you have a big freezer :grin:
Great statistical study and I'll bet it pays off.
Greg

 

[Antelope_Sniper]

That's pretty nice bullet.
ES of 6! 8) 8) 8)

 

[bullet]

bullet

If you hunt like you shoot I hope you have a big freezer :grin:
Great statistical study and I'll bet it pays off.
Greg

Thanks Greg, my wife is getting a little tired of fixing deer meat. We are eating it twice a week and she will have to keep cooking it until Sept. or Oct I figure. Then I will fill it back up and this time I hope with Black Bear also. My trip is for sure. I will leave Sept 25th and preach a meeting for a small church in Morenci Arizona and hunt from Oct 2nd till the 9th and come home the 10th of Oct.


It was the IMR4350 that shot the 1/2" group with the 220 grain bullet. I will be trying it with some 125gr and 150gr Sierra bullets. I made sure I tried as many different powders as I could to nurse a good load out of the 165 grain bullet. I tried H450, H414, H4350, H380, H4831sc, RL-22, RL-19, IMR4320, IMR4895, IMR4350, AA2495BR. This work has allowed me to tweak the 06 and a few more times at the range as I play with seating depth will wrap up the 165gr load.

Now I want to make sure that the rifle either likes or dis likes the 125gr and 150gr bullet. To do this I will run it through the same process as I did the 165.

Greg, I am going to find that load where all three rounds touch and without having to do special work on the rifle. I believe my patience at the load bench and good shooting technique at the range if I will focus will produce that load.

 

[FOTIS]

Thanx for the update.

 

[baltz526]

CCI 250 primers and 56-58gr h414. my prefered 165gr was a ballistic tip. always magnum primers with h414 is what was always in the old hodgdon book

 

[bullet]

CCI 250 primers and 56-58gr h414. my prefered 165gr was a ballistic tip. always magnum primers with h414 is what was always in the old hodgdon book

Hey, thanks, I have only used 210 primers, got great Velocities but not the accuracy I wanted, I will try it.