First (and second) range trip with Browning Mountain Ti

[onlybrowning]

Well I have an interesting story about my new to me Browning Mountain Ti in .300 WSM. I have loaded for my Stainless Stalker in .325 WSM, so I am not new to the short mags. I had a ton of trouble getting the brass sized to fit in my chamber correctly. I could not get teh brass to "small" enough to allow bolt lockup without a lot of force closing the bolt. I had some that were pretty tough to chamber, so I tried them. The results were ok, but I knew the fit of the cartridge in the chamber was terrible. After a few hours of thinking and talking with others, I figured out what needed to be done. I had to shave about .003" off the bottom of the sizer die. This allowed the die to size the brass to perfect dimensions. So, I packed up my stuff and headed to the range again. I tried some loads well below max for the gun, and slowly worked up to just below max in this gun. I found that Hodgdon's data gave a max load that was no where near max for me. They state 65.5 grains as max, and I reached max accuracy with this load at 66.0 with absolutely no signs of excessive pressure. The best load for me was:

66.0 grains of H4350 with Win brass, Federal 210M primers, and a 165 AccuBond with a COAL of 2.850". This yielded a very small one hole 5 shot group. I was kind of worried about using a standard primer in this gun, but it was about 6 ot 7 degrees out this morning and ignition was excellent. I will see if I can get some pics of the target soon.

Rob

 

[FOTIS]

Velocity?

 

[JD338]

onlybrowning

Way to go! 3-4 range sessions will verify if indeed this is the load.
As Pop asked, what is our velocity?

JD338

 

[onlybrowning]

My tripod is on the fritz, so I have nothing to hold the chrony. I will have it fixed up real soon. I am curious as well.

 

[jtoews80]

So, you have a minimum spec chamber then??? :? That has its perks and liabilities doesn't it. No issue shooting handloaded ammo out of it with the mods you made to the die. My question is can you load factory ammo into it?? Not meaning to be a joykill or naysayer, but if you go to sell that thing and it will not shoot factory ammo you will lose alot of your price. I know this because I have a barrel that is tight chamberred intentionally, on the occasions that I am out of brass or loads I have no options.

Just a thought, but on the bright side, as you said accuracy, oh the accuracy....
Brass life will be better too from being worked less.

JT.

 

[onlybrowning]

Factory ammo does fit, but some are more snug than I would like. They do chamber and feel as though they will function. I can't see myself selling this one, being so accurate and all!