Little shooting today....

[Songdog]

Ran up to a spot where I like to do a little shooting to sight in the new Minox, and test/verify a few loads. We have an old family friend that has lived up in this spot for as long as I can remember, and he lets me do load development there. Here's a pic from his driveway:

I'm still trying to finalize a load with the 105 Amax in the .243. I had a couple loads to try, and wanted to shoot a 'pressure ladder' with Ramshot Magnum (to see if last time was an anomoly.... well, it was not). First up was the load of 41 grains RE-17, COAL 2.830", I had established this as a max load in the rifle.... shot two three-shot groups.... not impressed, they're the two you see on the right... 'bout 1.3-1.5". Went to the truck and bumped them back .010" to 2.820"... you can see that group to the left... goes about .72". Shot another one that went .71".... and the average velocity was 3058... so we'll call that load good.

On to the "Pressure Ladder".... this is the way I establish what is max in my rifle. QL max for Ramshot Magnum and a 105 Amax is 51 grains. So, I load 1 round at 48, 49, 50, 51, 51.5, 52 grains.... then seat them to max COAL and see what happens. Well.... you can see the 6-shot group goes .80"... with shots 2-6 going .510"... and shots 4-6 (51, 51.5, 52 grains) went .18". The last the shots the velocities were: 3078, 3106, and 3129. I like when powders act like this.... this load is definately worth exploring further.

 

[FOTIS]

Loving shots 4,5,6!

 

[Elkman]

Looks good to me, wrap it up and go chase varmits!!!!!

 

[JD338]

Nicely done. You are going to have a real nice coyote load for sure.

JD338

 

[Songdog]

Coyotes.... Varmints?

I'm planning on running an Amax through plenty of those..... but I'm also planning on running one through a muley and a black bear this fall.

I think there's a real load in the making with Ramshot Magnum.... I'm not surprised, it has worked well in everything I've shot it in.

 

[jmad_81]

I don't have think i would advocate a a 105 gr anything for black bear let alone an AMax!

That is one fine group though. And better velocity than I'm getting out of my 26" tube with h1000.

 

[Songdog]

Black bears are just big racoons... I've seen enough killed to know one thing: it ain't caliber that kills black bears... it's shot placement. You miss both lungs.... and it don't matter what caliber... it's a rodeo. Flip side.... I've seen several 100 NBTs out of a .25-06 exit bears.... and as far as I can tell the 105 is a little tougher bullet.

 

[IdahoCTD]

The only bear I ever lost was shot with my 7-300wm and 150gr NBT's at 3300fps. I hit it in the vitals. I tracked it for over a mile before the blood went away and I lost the track. One thing I've noticed with bears is the fat on them tends to plug up holes. So even if it's a killing shot and it runs off you might not have enough blood to find it. That's a good reason to shoot a bullet that has a good chance of exiting and I doubt a Amax would exit a bear. After seeing what 105 Amax's do to chucks I wouldn't risk shooting a bear with one.

300gr Barnes X's work really well out of a .416. I shot my last bear a couple years ago with the 300's and it rolled it up in a ball and didn't move. It blew right through both front shoulders and drove it right to the ground. It might have been overkill but there is no such thing as too dead.

 

[FOTIS]

Black bears are just big raccoons...

:mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

 

[Songdog]

The only bear I ever lost was shot with my 7-300wm and 150gr NBT's at 3300fps. I hit it in the vitals. I tracked it for over a mile before the blood went away and I lost the track. One thing I've noticed with bears is the fat on them tends to plug up holes. So even if it's a killing shot and it runs off you might not have enough blood to find it. That's a good reason to shoot a bullet that has a good chance of exiting and I doubt a Amax would exit a bear. After seeing what 105 Amax's do to chucks I wouldn't risk shooting a bear with one.

300gr Barnes X's work really well out of a .416. I shot my last bear a couple years ago with the 300's and it rolled it up in a ball and didn't move. It blew right through both front shoulders and drove it right to the ground. It might have been overkill but there is no such thing as too dead.

I've seen a lot of bears get shot.... and I've lost one myself.... but there is one common thread, and that is shot placement. Bears are not hard to kill.... they are hard to find after you shoot them, particular on a marginal hit.

A 12 pound .416 with break and 20x glass sure don't do me much good at 11,000 feet 7 miles from nowhere. But a 7lb .243 can go anywhere I can.... and put bullets where they need to be for a long ways.

 

[CatskillCrawler]

Looks very promising. Nice country too.

What did you think of the Minox?

 

[Songdog]

I was very impressed with the Minox, and thought it compared very favorably to the Zeiss Conquest and the VX3. I really like the weight and the BDC, there is a little paralax at 100 yards, but that's where it seems the worst... I haven't noticed it as I've looked through it at extended ranges though. Optically, I believe it is a wonderful value... we'll just have to wait and see how it holds up.

 

[SJB358]

Looks like Magnum is a great powder in the 243. Might have to goof around a little with the A-Max's in my son's 243 this year. Be cool for him to have a good longer range steel shooting load. Might have to find another Minox for his rifle, as it has a 2-7 Leupold on it now, so it would be fun to dial it for longer range. See what my young lad is capable of.

 

[sask boy]

My Nephew shot a 243 for a number of years before getting his 7 mm mag. He anchored most of his largest Whitetails with 95gr partitions. Here in Saskatchewan we do have large deer :wink: it is all about shot placement and confidence.

Blessings,
Dan