rjm158
Handloader
- Oct 15, 2009
- 748
- 810
I have an egg shoot coming up this Saturday. Normally, I devote some time to testing loads and rifles but work and weather interfered so that I was running out of time. After work I took a couple of rifles and some loads I came up with to see what shot best and that is gonna be what I use Saturday.
One of the rifles I tried is "Old Faithful", a Tikka T-3 Varmint stainless 308. I've had it a long time and it's always been a shooter. I had a load I had shot before and the numbers were really good, but the accuracy was .75 at best. I set up my gear and the first group had two touching but I yanked a shot making group .8 or so. I let the barrel cool somewhat (it takes a minute when it's 90ish degrees) and tried again.
I'm not sure if I held my mouth right, took more time, or the moon and planets aligned, but whatever it was worked and all three bullets went into one hole. I again let the barrel cool then shot a couple more to fine tune the scope adjustment and stopped. When I got home I measured the group and it was .154 center-to-center.
The load is a Sierra 169 gr Matchking (2nds), 44.5 gr of Varget, Federal 210M, in Federal GMM brass. I have included photos of the chrono data and the group.
One of the rifles I tried is "Old Faithful", a Tikka T-3 Varmint stainless 308. I've had it a long time and it's always been a shooter. I had a load I had shot before and the numbers were really good, but the accuracy was .75 at best. I set up my gear and the first group had two touching but I yanked a shot making group .8 or so. I let the barrel cool somewhat (it takes a minute when it's 90ish degrees) and tried again.
I'm not sure if I held my mouth right, took more time, or the moon and planets aligned, but whatever it was worked and all three bullets went into one hole. I again let the barrel cool then shot a couple more to fine tune the scope adjustment and stopped. When I got home I measured the group and it was .154 center-to-center.
The load is a Sierra 169 gr Matchking (2nds), 44.5 gr of Varget, Federal 210M, in Federal GMM brass. I have included photos of the chrono data and the group.
