I had a pretty dang good day at the range today! Took the 270 WSM, my dads 270 win., the 7STW, and my 338 WM. I was working on a 140 AB load fror the 270 WSM, a 140 PT load for dads gun, some 160 ABs for the STW, and you guessed it, still the 225 AB for the 338 WM.
My brother (ATM) bought an inch pound torque wrench so I double checked my screws on the 338 WM. I figured What it couldn't hurt to check one more thing off the list. As much as I hate to admit it, my screws were not near tight enough
The group that is outside the circle was the first three I shot (68gr RL-17). The next group was after I tightened my screws and went up a half grain to 68.5.
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So I'm thinking that I'll trweak this load a bit more and retry the RL-19 load again. Seemed to make a big difference. I'll be very happy with anything around 2800.
This was the first group out of dads old 270 Win. Was using RL-19 and 140 PTs. The chrony was readying 2600, but I don't think that was right. The nosler book says it should be around 2800-2850. I think it was reading so slow because of the location of the shot through the chrony. I'll have to check it out to 400 and that will tell me if the chrony is fibbing or not. It seemed spot on on all the other guns though, but even with RL-22 I couldn't get it to read over 2700 with the nosler book max! :?:
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I also had a pretty promissing day with the 270 WSM, 140 ABs, and RL-25. RL-25 seems to have been the most accurate out of the Magpro, RL-22, Retumbo, and RL-25 that I have tried. I was able to get up to 3300 fps, and under an inch :shock: , but it was a bit warm. So I'l going to tweak with this load a bit and try to get the one to go join his other two buddies. I would be STOKED to get a 140 AB going 3250 close to .5". This load didn't have any signs of being to warm. It walso had some pretty dang good ES and SD numbers. If I can get my hands on some more RL-25 I'll shorten them up a bit and try again.
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The winner for the day was the STW with the 160 ABs. I shot a load out of it the other day that was .374", I had a few others that had potential @ a higher powder charge as well. I reloaded the 79.5 gr load of Retumbo that shot very well the other day, along with a few other laods of Retumbo up to 81.5 gr. The 79.5 repeated with a nother group under .5". This time I had the chrony though, and the numbers were not very impressive. I got a velocity of 3150, but the ES and SD were both way to large for LR shooting. Last week 81 showed some potential as well, but it was doing the darn two & one deal. So I shortened them up a bit and loaded three, then three more a bit shorter. They shot better, but not good enough. Last up was the 81.5gr load of Retumbo. They shot really good, and they were cooking! Average speed was 3260, and the group measured .544" I think I can tweak the seating depth a bit and get it a bit better. The ES and SD numbers were exceptable as well.
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So far I have 96 rounds down the tube on this thing and have a load for the 140 BTs that will one hole, and now a 160 AB load that is a real smoker. I'm really liking this gun. I tried to get a better pic of the stock, I'm not happy with any of the pics that I have got of it yet. I'll get a good one one of these days that doesn't make it look purple. The red webbing on the matte black stock gets me so excited everytime I see it. Here is todays attempt at a better picture. Was pretty overcast all day so the lighting wasn't so great.
My brother (ATM) bought an inch pound torque wrench so I double checked my screws on the 338 WM. I figured What it couldn't hurt to check one more thing off the list. As much as I hate to admit it, my screws were not near tight enough
The group that is outside the circle was the first three I shot (68gr RL-17). The next group was after I tightened my screws and went up a half grain to 68.5.View attachment 4
So I'm thinking that I'll trweak this load a bit more and retry the RL-19 load again. Seemed to make a big difference. I'll be very happy with anything around 2800.
This was the first group out of dads old 270 Win. Was using RL-19 and 140 PTs. The chrony was readying 2600, but I don't think that was right. The nosler book says it should be around 2800-2850. I think it was reading so slow because of the location of the shot through the chrony. I'll have to check it out to 400 and that will tell me if the chrony is fibbing or not. It seemed spot on on all the other guns though, but even with RL-22 I couldn't get it to read over 2700 with the nosler book max! :?:
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I also had a pretty promissing day with the 270 WSM, 140 ABs, and RL-25. RL-25 seems to have been the most accurate out of the Magpro, RL-22, Retumbo, and RL-25 that I have tried. I was able to get up to 3300 fps, and under an inch :shock: , but it was a bit warm. So I'l going to tweak with this load a bit and try to get the one to go join his other two buddies. I would be STOKED to get a 140 AB going 3250 close to .5". This load didn't have any signs of being to warm. It walso had some pretty dang good ES and SD numbers. If I can get my hands on some more RL-25 I'll shorten them up a bit and try again.
View attachment 2
The winner for the day was the STW with the 160 ABs. I shot a load out of it the other day that was .374", I had a few others that had potential @ a higher powder charge as well. I reloaded the 79.5 gr load of Retumbo that shot very well the other day, along with a few other laods of Retumbo up to 81.5 gr. The 79.5 repeated with a nother group under .5". This time I had the chrony though, and the numbers were not very impressive. I got a velocity of 3150, but the ES and SD were both way to large for LR shooting. Last week 81 showed some potential as well, but it was doing the darn two & one deal. So I shortened them up a bit and loaded three, then three more a bit shorter. They shot better, but not good enough. Last up was the 81.5gr load of Retumbo. They shot really good, and they were cooking! Average speed was 3260, and the group measured .544" I think I can tweak the seating depth a bit and get it a bit better. The ES and SD numbers were exceptable as well.
View attachment 1
So far I have 96 rounds down the tube on this thing and have a load for the 140 BTs that will one hole, and now a 160 AB load that is a real smoker. I'm really liking this gun. I tried to get a better pic of the stock, I'm not happy with any of the pics that I have got of it yet. I'll get a good one one of these days that doesn't make it look purple. The red webbing on the matte black stock gets me so excited everytime I see it. Here is todays attempt at a better picture. Was pretty overcast all day so the lighting wasn't so great.
