Nosler model #48

[Charlie-NY]

My buddy just purchased a new Nosler 48 rifle in 28Nosler. Right out of the box I liked everything about it, (except the gaping holes in the bolt body). He also picked up a couple of boxes of Nosler Trophy ammo with the 160 AccuBond bullet.

I mounted up a 4-14 Zeiss and brought it to the range. Threw a few quick rounds down the tube at 100 yds to get the rifle "on target" and moved to the 200 yd line. The first 3 rounds clustered into 1.5" and were right in the orange dot. Not bad for a production rifle and no load work up. A few follow up shots confirmed that this was a good shooting rifle.

I wouldn't mind getting one for myself but Nosler gets an extra $500 for a left hand model and that doesn't settle well with me. All in all, it's a nice rifle for the price.

 

[JD338]

The M48 is a well built rifle that delivers excellent accuracy.
The 28 Nosler is a flat shooting hammer.
Which M48 did he get?

JD338

 

[Guy Miner]

Nice...

 

[FOTIS]

What was velocity?

 

[Charlie-NY]

I believe that it was a Patriot. Synthetic spiderweb painted stock with blackened SS bbl.

The velocity was NOT at the advertised velocity of 3,300 ft/sec. Considering that it was Nosler's ammo and intended for their own rifle I expected the velocity to be right on the nose but every round came in at about 3,200 ft/sec when fired over my Oehler 35P.

 

[SJB358]

It surely has the case space to get 3300 with 160's.

 

[Charlie-NY]

Firing the rifle again revealed an average velocity of 3,225 ft/sec at 10' from the muzzle. That would be only 100 ft/sec faster than my 7WSM which launches the same bullet at just over 3,100 ft/sec and my barrel is an inch shorter. Virtually no advantage to using the 28Nosler with factory ammo over my 7WSM with handloads, although that may be comparing apples to automobiles. I have never fired factory ammo in any of my rifles.

All-in-all I really like the Nosler model 48 and wouldn't mind adding one to my collection of shooting irons.

 

[longrangehunter]

I can't speak for all of the advertised velocity of Nosler's ammunition, but when I wanted to test the velocity loss in a M4 (14.5" bbl.) vs. a 24" barrel using their 77 gr. Custom 223 Remington. That box of ammo was 250 fps slower then the advertised velocity on the box (2750 vs. 2500) from a 24" bolt Remington R5. All loads were tested over my Oehler 35P as well. My only interested was calculating the velocity loss from a 14.5" barrel, needless to say I was a little shocked!

So to see a 7WSM approaching on the heels of the 28 Nosler’s factory ammo doesn’t surprise me, but I don't know that cartridge well enough to say much other then what I've experienced first hand using a different cartridge.