.300winmag
Handloader
- Oct 17, 2011
- 660
- 1
Well made it out to the range the other day to make some final checks on all the rifles and it started pretty frustrating to say the least, but I learned several important lessons! Here's how it all went.
It all started with a trip to Cabela's, where I bought everything I needed for hunting season and a buch of other things I didn't need but got my hands on and walked out with. I hope I'm not the only one with this problem in this store... any ways, one of the things I actually needed was RL-22. I have been using this powder for over ten years now and been very pleased with it, and it is my powder of choice for both of my .300 Win. Mag. loads. I came home, cleaned my rifle and loaded up 20 210gr. Berger VLD's and 10 190gr. Sierra MK's and headed behind the house to shoot.
Since I had just cleaned my rifle I decided I'd foul my barrel with my light load of 70.4 grs. RL-22 and then move onto the stout load with the Berger's. I settled in behind the gun and fired my first shot. Nothing out of the norm so far, until I tried opening my bolt. It was extremely stiff and there was a very evident extractor mark on case head. This threw up a red flag immediately. I had been shooting this load for three years now and never had any signs of pressure. The load is way under max according to the books. I decided to shoot one more and see if it was a fluke. The same thing happened. I knew something was wrong then, so I packed up and headed for home.
Once home, I set up my scale, calibrated and zeroed it and pulled the bullets in the 190 load and weighed all of the charges to make sure they were correct. All weighed 70.4 grs. Now I was puzzled. So I called Alliant, surprisingly someone picked up immediately, I told them my issues and they asked for the serial number on the powder. I gave it to the fella and he said that "that particular lot has been reported to being 'hot', I'd suggest backing your loads off 5 percent". This kind of got to me, I understand there are lot to lot variations but this seemed a little extreme to me, needless to say that can of powder has been labeled hot and set away in my reloading area.
I wrote down the serial number and went to a different store and bought another pound of powder in a different lot number, came home loaded everything back up with my chronograph this time and headed back out. At the range I crossed my fingers and squeezed off the first round. Everything seemed alright so I fired four more. No problem and the group was just how it should be, around 1/2 inch. So I stepped up to the 210 Berger's with a stiff charge hesitantly and fired a three shot group. No pressure signs, chronograhed within 10 fps of average and grouped well. Alright! Every things good!
Now I decided to shoot at some distance. I set up my target at 622 yards, plugged all the info into the ballistics program and dialed it all in. Checked the wind, dead calm, perfect day for getting no wind zero's. So I began shooting, drove down to the target. The group was about four inches, perfect for elevation but about 4.5" right. At the time I didn't think much of it.
So I moved back to 816 yards. This time I set up a clay pigeon next to my target to shoot the first shot at so if something was wrong I'd save some bullets. I dialed it all in on the scope, checked the wind, still dead calm. I took aim, and shot, the round hit about a foot to the right, about 1/4 MOA high. My jaw dropped. I reloaded and took another shot. Same thing. The frustration had returned. I stepped away refraining from throwing my rifle down the hill and then it hit me.
I have a level on my scope I use for checking cant and I am religious at making sure the bubble is centered. So I got back behind the gun, leveled the bubble and checked the crosshairs, they did not look quite level with the ground. So I grabbed a makeshift plumb bob, hooked it up about a hundred yards away and lined the crosshairs up on it and checked the level, it was off. I re-leveled the bubble, and decided to try that. I got back behind the rifle, took a quarter minute down, checked the wind, still calm, leveled the rifle and fired. Hit the base of the clay pigeon knocking it down. I then shot at paper at 816 yards and got a group that dropped my jaw, and then moved back to 620 yards to verify that cant was the issue. It was on again. Curiously though my group at 620 was bigger than the group at 816.....Not sure how that happened.
But moral of the story is 1) Lot to lot variations in powder can ruin your day, I've never experienced one this bad before but it was an eye opener. and 2) Make sure you keep your rifle level, not sure how my level got bumped but it makes a world of difference at long range. Try it for yourself at 600 yards, shoot with the rifle level, cant it to the right take a shot, then cant it to the left and take a shot. You'll be amazed at the horizontal stringing you get.
The day ended well though. Killed some milk jugs at 600, 800, and 1,042 yards and a rock at 1,217, so everything seems to be alright with the rifle now. Am going down to the store tomorrow to buy as many pounds of the same lot of powder I got as I can so I can be assured this won't be an issue for a while.
Here are a few pics of the final groups of the day.
It all started with a trip to Cabela's, where I bought everything I needed for hunting season and a buch of other things I didn't need but got my hands on and walked out with. I hope I'm not the only one with this problem in this store... any ways, one of the things I actually needed was RL-22. I have been using this powder for over ten years now and been very pleased with it, and it is my powder of choice for both of my .300 Win. Mag. loads. I came home, cleaned my rifle and loaded up 20 210gr. Berger VLD's and 10 190gr. Sierra MK's and headed behind the house to shoot.
Since I had just cleaned my rifle I decided I'd foul my barrel with my light load of 70.4 grs. RL-22 and then move onto the stout load with the Berger's. I settled in behind the gun and fired my first shot. Nothing out of the norm so far, until I tried opening my bolt. It was extremely stiff and there was a very evident extractor mark on case head. This threw up a red flag immediately. I had been shooting this load for three years now and never had any signs of pressure. The load is way under max according to the books. I decided to shoot one more and see if it was a fluke. The same thing happened. I knew something was wrong then, so I packed up and headed for home.
Once home, I set up my scale, calibrated and zeroed it and pulled the bullets in the 190 load and weighed all of the charges to make sure they were correct. All weighed 70.4 grs. Now I was puzzled. So I called Alliant, surprisingly someone picked up immediately, I told them my issues and they asked for the serial number on the powder. I gave it to the fella and he said that "that particular lot has been reported to being 'hot', I'd suggest backing your loads off 5 percent". This kind of got to me, I understand there are lot to lot variations but this seemed a little extreme to me, needless to say that can of powder has been labeled hot and set away in my reloading area.
I wrote down the serial number and went to a different store and bought another pound of powder in a different lot number, came home loaded everything back up with my chronograph this time and headed back out. At the range I crossed my fingers and squeezed off the first round. Everything seemed alright so I fired four more. No problem and the group was just how it should be, around 1/2 inch. So I stepped up to the 210 Berger's with a stiff charge hesitantly and fired a three shot group. No pressure signs, chronograhed within 10 fps of average and grouped well. Alright! Every things good!
Now I decided to shoot at some distance. I set up my target at 622 yards, plugged all the info into the ballistics program and dialed it all in. Checked the wind, dead calm, perfect day for getting no wind zero's. So I began shooting, drove down to the target. The group was about four inches, perfect for elevation but about 4.5" right. At the time I didn't think much of it.
So I moved back to 816 yards. This time I set up a clay pigeon next to my target to shoot the first shot at so if something was wrong I'd save some bullets. I dialed it all in on the scope, checked the wind, still dead calm. I took aim, and shot, the round hit about a foot to the right, about 1/4 MOA high. My jaw dropped. I reloaded and took another shot. Same thing. The frustration had returned. I stepped away refraining from throwing my rifle down the hill and then it hit me.
I have a level on my scope I use for checking cant and I am religious at making sure the bubble is centered. So I got back behind the gun, leveled the bubble and checked the crosshairs, they did not look quite level with the ground. So I grabbed a makeshift plumb bob, hooked it up about a hundred yards away and lined the crosshairs up on it and checked the level, it was off. I re-leveled the bubble, and decided to try that. I got back behind the rifle, took a quarter minute down, checked the wind, still calm, leveled the rifle and fired. Hit the base of the clay pigeon knocking it down. I then shot at paper at 816 yards and got a group that dropped my jaw, and then moved back to 620 yards to verify that cant was the issue. It was on again. Curiously though my group at 620 was bigger than the group at 816.....Not sure how that happened.
But moral of the story is 1) Lot to lot variations in powder can ruin your day, I've never experienced one this bad before but it was an eye opener. and 2) Make sure you keep your rifle level, not sure how my level got bumped but it makes a world of difference at long range. Try it for yourself at 600 yards, shoot with the rifle level, cant it to the right take a shot, then cant it to the left and take a shot. You'll be amazed at the horizontal stringing you get.
The day ended well though. Killed some milk jugs at 600, 800, and 1,042 yards and a rock at 1,217, so everything seems to be alright with the rifle now. Am going down to the store tomorrow to buy as many pounds of the same lot of powder I got as I can so I can be assured this won't be an issue for a while.
Here are a few pics of the final groups of the day.
