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Well, the wife and kids left Saturday morning to go to Illinois for a week, and I'm bacheloring it at home. Saturday was "emergency fix the truck's brakes" day, since I heard grinding on the way home Friday night. Got that done, along with an oil change and tire rotation, and still had time to get to the loading bench and build a few rounds in the evening. I loaded up some 300Wby with 180gr E-Tips and RL22, as well as H1000. I also loaded up, on the advice of many folks here, some 30-06 with 168gr Nosler BT's and H4350. Nothing too special on either one - just max feedable length for COL on the -06 stuff, and about .030" under that for the 300Wby E-Tips, in an attempt to duplicate the results from my 270Wby and E-Tips. Sunday afternoon was rainy, so I junked around the house and got a few chores done, watched a good movie, and played with my very large, very lonely-without-her-kids, dog. Yesterday after work I had about 3.5hrs to get to the range, set up, and shoot. So I piled a bunch of guns in the truck, along with all my supplies, and headed out. Here's a list of what I was working with:
243Win Browning BAR - Nosler Custom 85gr Partitions, Federal 100gr Blue Box
30-30WCF Win94 - 170gr Hornady, Win748, last two sets for load workup (a project I started too many years ago and just never finished)
270Wby Mark V synthetic - 130gr E-Tip over IMR7828ssc (my hunting load, just checking zero on this one)
30-06 Colt Light Rifle - 168gr Nosler BT over H4350 - this is the first load workup for this rifle
300Wby Mark V Stainless Synthetic - 180gr SST's over a max charge of H1000 (finishing an old workup), 180gr E-Tips over H1000 & RL22
8x57 Rem 700 Classic - 180gr Nosler BT's over IMR4895 (checking zero on this one after missing a doe at the end of the season)
So, I set up the chrony and actually had the rifle section of the public range completely to myself. Of course, it was 97deg when I got there, and I tied a bandana around my head to keep the sweat out of my eyes. But I was finally at the range (first time since hunting season ended!). First up was the 300Wby with the 180gr SST's. They shot well, and show promise. Velocity is a little shy of the 3200fps I was wanting, and the group is bigger than I want, at 1.7", but it's two together and one outlier, so I think seating depth tweaks will straighten this one out nicely. It's the group to the upper right of the center bull, below the top righthand target. Scope adjustment was the order of the day for this rifle, but I did give it a thorough cleaning recently.
Next up was the 30-06. I took the advice of several folks here, and went with 57, 58, and 59gr of H4350 (I have a manual that pushes it to 60gr, but I heard so many good things about 59gr I just stuck with that). Well, 57gr is the bottom left group on the above target - just over 1", and acceptable, for sure. 58gr is the two-shot group on the lower right of the same target. I had a primer fail on me...hmmm. 59gr is the sweet spot, for sure, at 2900fps, here's what it did. I was puzzled at the move from left to right of groups with this one as I shot through the workup. I have to give 8 clicks adjustment on the 59gr load, and I'm going to re-test it in the next few weeks to be sure, but I certainly like the results!
I went through the 30-30, and accuracy was about what I expected - around 5" for six shots at 100yds. Overall, not bad, and certainly minute of deer out to the 200yd range limit. I also found that the max load was a waste of powder, in that it simply added powder burned but plateaued in terms of velocity. If I choose to swap up to these 170gr's, I'll drop back to about 1.5gr lower, which was still 2200fps+ with the 170gr. No pressure signs, and the primers looked just like the ones at the start charge, and the last factory rounds I fired in this gun. You can see the groups on the upper and lower right hand side:
Also on the above target, the 243Win Nosler Custom ammo is in the center bull. I was disappointed in the groups, but I think the rifle's forearm screw is too tight, and will be addressing that shortly. On the other hand, the Federal blue box put in a tidy little group right at 1.5" in the upper left. Worst case, I can deer hunt with the remaining 17 of those this year if I carry that rifle afield.
The 270Wby gave me the expected performance, producing a group with my 130gr E-Tips that was small with the exception of a called "low-right" flyer as the first shot. I knew I pulled it when I touched it off. If I hadn't, I'd have a nice sub-1" group from this load, I suspect. Lower left target on the above set.
The 300Wby/180gr E-Tip/RL22 loads gave me nice velocities, and no pressure signs at 3200+ with mid-charges. Interestingly, the recoil with the start charge was as expected, but the recoil from the mid-charge that gave me the velocity I wanted could only be described as punishing in comparison. It wasn't prohibitive to the point I could not shoot it, but it was uncomfortable in the heat, at least. Accuracy was not good (see upper bullseye groups on the first full target above) although I suspect it could be better with some seating depth tweaks, as these groups look strung much like the first E-Tip groups from my 270Wby, which improved dramatically with COL changes.
Final group for the day was just for fun - but aren't they all? - as the sun was winding down and my chrony stopped reading consistently. So I pulled out three rounds of an old standby load for my 270Wby - 82gr of AA8700 and a 150gr Speer Hot-Cor, with Norma brass and Fed215 primers - and put out this little three shot zinger:
This isn't the first "sub-caliber" group for this rifle/load combo. It's not even the second. But it still gives me great pleasure to shoot off three rounds at the end of a 3hr shooting session and get these results. It clears my mind and settles my soul. And that's what group therapy is for, right?
243Win Browning BAR - Nosler Custom 85gr Partitions, Federal 100gr Blue Box
30-30WCF Win94 - 170gr Hornady, Win748, last two sets for load workup (a project I started too many years ago and just never finished)
270Wby Mark V synthetic - 130gr E-Tip over IMR7828ssc (my hunting load, just checking zero on this one)
30-06 Colt Light Rifle - 168gr Nosler BT over H4350 - this is the first load workup for this rifle
300Wby Mark V Stainless Synthetic - 180gr SST's over a max charge of H1000 (finishing an old workup), 180gr E-Tips over H1000 & RL22
8x57 Rem 700 Classic - 180gr Nosler BT's over IMR4895 (checking zero on this one after missing a doe at the end of the season)
So, I set up the chrony and actually had the rifle section of the public range completely to myself. Of course, it was 97deg when I got there, and I tied a bandana around my head to keep the sweat out of my eyes. But I was finally at the range (first time since hunting season ended!). First up was the 300Wby with the 180gr SST's. They shot well, and show promise. Velocity is a little shy of the 3200fps I was wanting, and the group is bigger than I want, at 1.7", but it's two together and one outlier, so I think seating depth tweaks will straighten this one out nicely. It's the group to the upper right of the center bull, below the top righthand target. Scope adjustment was the order of the day for this rifle, but I did give it a thorough cleaning recently.
Next up was the 30-06. I took the advice of several folks here, and went with 57, 58, and 59gr of H4350 (I have a manual that pushes it to 60gr, but I heard so many good things about 59gr I just stuck with that). Well, 57gr is the bottom left group on the above target - just over 1", and acceptable, for sure. 58gr is the two-shot group on the lower right of the same target. I had a primer fail on me...hmmm. 59gr is the sweet spot, for sure, at 2900fps, here's what it did. I was puzzled at the move from left to right of groups with this one as I shot through the workup. I have to give 8 clicks adjustment on the 59gr load, and I'm going to re-test it in the next few weeks to be sure, but I certainly like the results!
I went through the 30-30, and accuracy was about what I expected - around 5" for six shots at 100yds. Overall, not bad, and certainly minute of deer out to the 200yd range limit. I also found that the max load was a waste of powder, in that it simply added powder burned but plateaued in terms of velocity. If I choose to swap up to these 170gr's, I'll drop back to about 1.5gr lower, which was still 2200fps+ with the 170gr. No pressure signs, and the primers looked just like the ones at the start charge, and the last factory rounds I fired in this gun. You can see the groups on the upper and lower right hand side:
Also on the above target, the 243Win Nosler Custom ammo is in the center bull. I was disappointed in the groups, but I think the rifle's forearm screw is too tight, and will be addressing that shortly. On the other hand, the Federal blue box put in a tidy little group right at 1.5" in the upper left. Worst case, I can deer hunt with the remaining 17 of those this year if I carry that rifle afield.
The 270Wby gave me the expected performance, producing a group with my 130gr E-Tips that was small with the exception of a called "low-right" flyer as the first shot. I knew I pulled it when I touched it off. If I hadn't, I'd have a nice sub-1" group from this load, I suspect. Lower left target on the above set.
The 300Wby/180gr E-Tip/RL22 loads gave me nice velocities, and no pressure signs at 3200+ with mid-charges. Interestingly, the recoil with the start charge was as expected, but the recoil from the mid-charge that gave me the velocity I wanted could only be described as punishing in comparison. It wasn't prohibitive to the point I could not shoot it, but it was uncomfortable in the heat, at least. Accuracy was not good (see upper bullseye groups on the first full target above) although I suspect it could be better with some seating depth tweaks, as these groups look strung much like the first E-Tip groups from my 270Wby, which improved dramatically with COL changes.
Final group for the day was just for fun - but aren't they all? - as the sun was winding down and my chrony stopped reading consistently. So I pulled out three rounds of an old standby load for my 270Wby - 82gr of AA8700 and a 150gr Speer Hot-Cor, with Norma brass and Fed215 primers - and put out this little three shot zinger:
This isn't the first "sub-caliber" group for this rifle/load combo. It's not even the second. But it still gives me great pleasure to shoot off three rounds at the end of a 3hr shooting session and get these results. It clears my mind and settles my soul. And that's what group therapy is for, right?
