RiverRider
Handloader
- Dec 9, 2008
- 1,450
- 103
When primers got hard to find about four years ago, I laid in a supply of Wolf primers. They were only about $18 per thousand at that time and I figured they'd be better than nothing should things go from bad to worse. When I tried them for my .223 Remington loads to be shot in my Y2K 700 Classic they seemed to work. Maybe I was too quick to pronounce the load as being "the one" for that rifle, but I did. The load was Midsouth's Varmint Nightmare 50-grain softpoint (which I believe is actually a blemished Hornady SX) over 26.5 grains of Benchmark. I was seating around 0.020" off the lands. I then put the rifle in the back of the safe and worked on a few others.
I can't say why I dragged the rifle back out. I think it may have been one of those days I needed something else to shoot to make the trip to the range worthwhile, but it's more likely that I wanted something to shoot while my 6mm-284 was cooling off...yeah, that's gotta be the reason. I was working with the 6-284.
I was disappointed each time I had the rifle out over the last few months. I switched back to V-Max to see if they worked any better. I'd get five shots in a little over half an inch once in a while, but 3/4" to 1" seemed to be the norm. I then began to question my shooting technique and everything else under the sun.
The 700 Classic in Y2K has the J-Lock firing pin, and I began to suspect it was giving me problems. Examining it closely and how it behaves led me to think I needed to replace it with a conventional firing pin assembly, so I bought and installed one. The next trip to the range just added to my frustration. I decided to redevelop the load pretty much from scratch. Only this time I chose three charges: 26.0, 26.2, and 26.4 grains of Benchmark. I decided to try Federal primers again along with Wolf to see what I might see. And this is what I saw:
I think there's a pretty clear indication here that the Wolf primers just weren't ideal for my application. I wouldn't jump to the conclusion that they are just inferior, but they may well be. Why they seemed to work well when I first tried them...who knows? Like I said, maybe I was too anxious to declare my load "finished."
I am pretty confident that the last load with the Federal primer is going to be my load, but not confident enough to load up several hundred rounds. I'll shoot that one again. If it starts shooting one-inch groups I may have to let my hair grow out so I can start pulling on it. Something tells me I've got a load here that will reliably shoot a half inch or better!
That lower right-hand group measures to be 0.28" center-to-center!
I can't say why I dragged the rifle back out. I think it may have been one of those days I needed something else to shoot to make the trip to the range worthwhile, but it's more likely that I wanted something to shoot while my 6mm-284 was cooling off...yeah, that's gotta be the reason. I was working with the 6-284.
I was disappointed each time I had the rifle out over the last few months. I switched back to V-Max to see if they worked any better. I'd get five shots in a little over half an inch once in a while, but 3/4" to 1" seemed to be the norm. I then began to question my shooting technique and everything else under the sun.
The 700 Classic in Y2K has the J-Lock firing pin, and I began to suspect it was giving me problems. Examining it closely and how it behaves led me to think I needed to replace it with a conventional firing pin assembly, so I bought and installed one. The next trip to the range just added to my frustration. I decided to redevelop the load pretty much from scratch. Only this time I chose three charges: 26.0, 26.2, and 26.4 grains of Benchmark. I decided to try Federal primers again along with Wolf to see what I might see. And this is what I saw:
I think there's a pretty clear indication here that the Wolf primers just weren't ideal for my application. I wouldn't jump to the conclusion that they are just inferior, but they may well be. Why they seemed to work well when I first tried them...who knows? Like I said, maybe I was too anxious to declare my load "finished."
I am pretty confident that the last load with the Federal primer is going to be my load, but not confident enough to load up several hundred rounds. I'll shoot that one again. If it starts shooting one-inch groups I may have to let my hair grow out so I can start pulling on it. Something tells me I've got a load here that will reliably shoot a half inch or better!
That lower right-hand group measures to be 0.28" center-to-center!
