Inspector shut down our jobsite today so I got to spend a beautiful fall day at a blissfully uncrowded range. Got a basic zero on hunting rifles and played with some vintage stuff. The .280 mauser was interesting. Went from 1.5" groups to 3 and walking with the same load. Need to look into that. Checking for loose screws, prime suspect is jacket fouling. This rifle did that before when I neglected the bore too long.
The real eye opener was the wife's rifle that I restocked and glass bedded last year. Was always a good shooting rifle, now it's phenomenal. Went from 1-1.5" typical groups to cloverleafs at 100 yards. Handling and steadiness from field positions are remarkably improved. Spent some time dinging a 400 yard 12" gong with PRVI military ammo to give it a bit of a torture test and make sure nothing loosened up. Wind was tricky, but was pretty easily dinging it from prone and sitting once I found the sweet spot.
Wife's deer load was a bit tougher. Its a mid-velocity load. Around 2500 fps with a rather blunt 150 grain, the old Speer mag tip. Took a bit of trial and error to find the aiming point at 400. Was shooting about 12" lower than the FMJBT military load, with a lot more wind deflection. If anybody's interested, load is 45 gr 4064, SB primer, PRVI brass. Lights out accurate, a bit less recoil and blast than factory or max .308 loads, still plenty tough on deer with minimal meat loss. Basically turns the .308 into a .300 savage. The Speer MT is discontinued, but have also used the same velocity with the Nosler PT 150 in a .300 Sav with fine results. I suspect the Lapua Mega would be a fitting substitute also, with it's squat profile and flattened tip. Really seems to do the trick on whitetail in the woods with that geometry.
The real eye opener was the wife's rifle that I restocked and glass bedded last year. Was always a good shooting rifle, now it's phenomenal. Went from 1-1.5" typical groups to cloverleafs at 100 yards. Handling and steadiness from field positions are remarkably improved. Spent some time dinging a 400 yard 12" gong with PRVI military ammo to give it a bit of a torture test and make sure nothing loosened up. Wind was tricky, but was pretty easily dinging it from prone and sitting once I found the sweet spot.
Wife's deer load was a bit tougher. Its a mid-velocity load. Around 2500 fps with a rather blunt 150 grain, the old Speer mag tip. Took a bit of trial and error to find the aiming point at 400. Was shooting about 12" lower than the FMJBT military load, with a lot more wind deflection. If anybody's interested, load is 45 gr 4064, SB primer, PRVI brass. Lights out accurate, a bit less recoil and blast than factory or max .308 loads, still plenty tough on deer with minimal meat loss. Basically turns the .308 into a .300 savage. The Speer MT is discontinued, but have also used the same velocity with the Nosler PT 150 in a .300 Sav with fine results. I suspect the Lapua Mega would be a fitting substitute also, with it's squat profile and flattened tip. Really seems to do the trick on whitetail in the woods with that geometry.
