Woodleigh vs Partitions in my 30’06 Springfield.

[longrangehunter]

Now as most of you know I am a Nosler fan when it comes to hunting bullets. That said, until the Fat Lady Sings, or in this case produces 3/4” moa groups or less I’m not in a dating mood! But I’m also not one to spend my time and money wasting components and barrel life chasing the death trap on a given load!

The background is a new CF Benchmark on my Blue Mountain Precision hunting rifle Eric put together for me. It’s a lightweight 8.5 pound gun for me at least. It originally showed up as a 25/7 PRC with the same type of Benchmark on it. This one is wearing a 1:9” 22” bbl that was chambered with a PTG Serengeti Reamer with a .340 inch neck and a .086” FB that the German Salzer came up with decades ago.

I broke the barrel in weeks ago and started testing with IMR 4350, and H 4350 using either the 168 BT, and then the 165 NPT. Neither one was particularly great, not even good as I was having fliers @ 2/10-4/10 mils at 100 yards that were not going away with seating depth changes so I threw in the towel and switched to trying out some Woodleigh Weldcore 180 gr. PP SN bullets that I had sitting around.

I don’t know what possessed me to use these as I had planned on trying the 180 gr. Norma Oryx bullet that have always worked well in multiple 30’06 rifles that I’ve owned in the past.

Well I checked the seating depths and I found 3.340” COAL was in the lands. Now it’s been found that these Woodleigh’s like to be right on the edge of the lands to shoot tiny groups. So that’s where I was going to start. Except I didn’t realize that I had to back off my Redding Competition seating die that much from what was used on the Nosler bullets and came out way shorter than my intended length! The first one was 3.2100” so I pulled it. Next one a little further out at 3.2700”, then 3.3000” which was still off the lands to fall out on its own from the chamber. So I thought let’s start there.

The three shots into the 1” Dot target were all @ 3.300” over 56.5 H4350 W/ F210M primers in new Lapua brass.

Not too shabby for not a lot of effort.

Sometimes it’s better to ask the ugliest bullet to the dance. After all, she might be the best dancer you ever thought, and who knows what else she may have in store for her next act….. Like taking the wind out of the sails of your next big game animal, and do with more authority than you ever thought possible!

‘Cause that’s what these Woodleigh’s were designed to do. Sure, Hornady makes fancy looking Red Tip bullets sleeker than a super hero, but they can go from hero to zero right before your eyes! I’ve never been less of a fan of them than ever, but that shouldn’t come as a surprise.

Anyway, I loaded up three more to test at distance, 370 yards like I did with the 168 BT’s pictured below. From this picture the fliers were excessive enough that one missed the target completely.


Hopefully when I get around to test firing the Woodleigh at this distance I’ll see a similar group minus the fliers!?!

 

[longrangehunter]

I don’t want people to think that I’m not impressed with Nosler bullets. If fact I’ve had better luck finding exceptional loads with them than not!! I’ve also killed more game with them than anything else too!

But I’ve also had good luck with a lot of the other players that make bullets too.

Decades ago Kenny Jarrett told me “The barrel will either like the bullet or not!?! Don’t overthink it either, just move on to something else”.

He told me back in November of 2004 that he has made more Tunes (final loads) with Nosler’s bullets than any of the other’s combined. He always begun his load development with a Nosler Ballistic Tip, because they are easy to tune and they are great hunting bullets!

His next choice was always a Partition bullet. I rarely saw a Woodleigh on file that made it into his Tune drawer that sat in his reloading room!

I did come across one index card though when I was doing load development for a 7mm Remington Magnum that a previous rifle left there loaded with Woodleigh 160 PP SN’s. I tried it that weekend, but never could get it to work….. His accuracy standards at the time was that every rifle that left his shop would shoot 3/8” or less!

Before leaving there I ended up buying hus remaining 7mm 160 gr Weldcore’s stock since he only had three boxes left and the partial box I had used, and I still have those to this day.

I had developed a Tune for one of his 300 Jarrett’s that I shot three 3 shot groups into the One’s…. 0.123” etc. I was so impressed I could hardly wait to show him what I had done! He looked at the three targets and looked up at me and said “Go back and reshoot this with a bigger group! If a client sees this and he can’t duplicate it, he’ll be calling me asking what’s wrong with his rifle and I’ll have to tell him that he just can’t shoot it that well!!”

Needless to say he was right. I went back and reshot the test targets that went with that gun and its new owner. All three were under 3/8” using a Nosler 165 Ballistic Tip going 3,400ish. Which speaks volumes about how well they typically perform, and why I like them so much!

Did I think these Woodleigh’s would shoot that well? Not in a million years! But they ended up with shooting a 0.1400” three shot group for me right away. Was it a one and done or just luck, well I’ll just have to retest it again and see what happens?

Sure it could have been a fluke! Guns are that way, sometimes more often than not. But when the art and science of reloading shines through great loads are developed. That is what we are hoping to achieve in the end, a load so good that if you miss you know that it’s not the gun, but you!!

 

[longrangehunter]

I just shot this 3 shot group off my bench @ 250 yards. I got bad dope from my Shooter App, it called for 8/10 mil @ 250, but my previous three shots @100 weren’t dead center. So I’ll have to fix that.

Looks like a 2” group to me @ 250 yards. Plenty good for hunting game IMO, but honestly I thought it would have been better!?!
Of all the places for the group to land it was in the grease from the pizza. Not very clear to see.

 

[SJB358]

I had a great load with the 175 Woodleigh in my 7 Mashburn Super. I’ve used them here and there and like them. Glad they are available again.

 

[longrangehunter]

I had a great load with the 175 Woodleigh in my 7 Mashburn Super. I’ve used them here and there and like them. Glad they are available again.

I remember when you first wanted to have a barrel spun up for your Super Mashburn, and how much I enjoyed reading about that cartridge in Bob Hagel’s books so long ago and you made that possible for yourself! Super round in 7mm.

Merry Christmas to you and your family Scotty! May you have a blessed New Year ahead too.

 

[Blkram]

Looks like the rifle likes the Woodleigh!
It's great when the plan comes together!
No moose, elk or bear is going to be going far after receiving that in the vitals.

And we all have our good days and bad at the bench...after all we are the most significant variable in any shooting equation.
I have days where I realize that it was just me affecting my groups, and I will need to go back on another day and repeat the process to attain better results.

 

[SJB358]

I remember when you first wanted to have a barrel spun up for your Super Mashburn, and how much I enjoyed reading about that cartridge in Bob Hagel’s books so long ago and you made that possible for yourself! Super round in 7mm.

Merry Christmas to you and your family Scotty! May you have a blessed New Year ahead too.

Thank you!

Still love the Mashburn. I put it down this year but it’ll be back out and about soon enough.

 

[longrangehunter]

I had an issue with the O-Ring under the turret cap fail which I just removed, but I had to re-zero the rifle. So I thought I’ll foul out the gun and zero it with 165 gr. Woodleigh’s.

This is with RL16, and a mild load too 56.0-56.5 for the first three shots, but I had to wonder…. Are they really all in that tiny hole!?!

So I’ll put some Scotch tape over the hole and shoot it again.
By mild they are only going 2775 fps.

 

[longrangehunter]

Yah, something is wrong. I taped over the hole and nothing! Not even hitting the cardboard!

Now I put up a 4’x4’ piece of cardboard to see what is going on!?!
Why it changed 2.5 mils high I don’t know, but I turned the elevation up and down a few times after the second shot that went to POA, and it went where it was supposed to go !

Now, when it comes to scopes, and they start acting weird? I tend to not have any faith in it!

I zeroed the rifle at 33 yards after missing the target completely on the first round. Which only took me two shots to get it to zero at 33 yards. I Calculated I need to go up 1.4 mils to get it to 100 yards, which got me really close. But then what happened?

I sent multiple shots down range after I hit very close to the 1” dot, after that I don’t know what happened with the next two shots. Either way in the end I completely missed the small pizza box I was shooting at with the five 1” dots.

I guess I’ll just have to see if it’ll stay put!?!

 

[Slimfinn]

Fingers crossed

 

[jimbires]

Yah, something is wrong. I taped over the hole and nothing! Not even hitting the cardboard!

Now I put up a 4’x4’ piece of cardboard to see what is going on!?!
View attachment 28280Why it changed 2.5 mils high I don’t know, but I turned the elevation up and down a few times after the second shot that went to POA, and it went where it was supposed to go !

Now, when it comes to scopes, and they start acting weird? I tend to not have any faith in it!

I zeroed the rifle at 33 yards after missing the target completely on the first round. Which only took me two shots to get it to zero at 33 yards. I Calculated I need to go up 1.4 mils to get it to 100 yards, which got me really close. But then what happened?

I sent multiple shots down range after I hit very close to the 1” dot, after that I don’t know what happened with the next two shots. Either way in the end I completely missed the small pizza box I was shooting at with the five 1” dots.

I guess I’ll just have to see if it’ll stay put!?!

this post reminds me I have one that needs sent back . I swapped out a scope for a very similar issue , about a year ago before a moose hunt . I couldn't take that scope, knowing what it did .

 

[Hunter26]

Sounds like a scope or scope mount issue. Just to try it, have you fired a known good load through it?

 

[longrangehunter]

Retested the 168 BT’s and RL-16, as well as some Norma 180 Oryx’s with their URP Powder. They seem to like them very close to the lands.

 

[longrangehunter]

Sounds like a scope or scope mount issue. Just to try it, have you fired a known good load through it?

New barrel on a newly built rifle in another caliber so nothing to compare it to.

That said I have 114 rounds through this barrel as of today.

A lot can happen when shooting that can easily affect the group.

More than twice the break came loose while shooting it which affected the group.

Too much cheek pressure and they will move. Hand placement, amount of pressure including that which is pushing into your shoulder.

Natural point of aim helps a lot, but on a light weight gun it’s going to move. I do my best to get good data, but in the end if it’s grouping into one hole or another it’s usually a good load for a lightweight hunting rifle IMO. It boils down to how much time you want to spend on it, a given bullet, and the amount of powders that you’re willing to go through to get the results you want?

Some guns will only produce a given group size across various bullets used, and when I see that I tend to say that is it, and maybe that’s all it’ll do?

I could see testing another 130 rounds in order to make every effort to finding the perfect load, but in the end if after 250 rounds it’s still doing the same job it’s doing now that is the best it can do.

I have some Hammer Bullets coming that I’ll test, and maybe the Barnes 168 TSX BT’s I have that have worked very well in a 30’06 before but honestly it wouldn’t matter if I just stopped here and assembled what has already been produced to shoot under 1 moa and go hunting.

Is it a fly killer on paper, nope, I can do that with my Vudoo .22 LR at 100 yards, I’d just as easily take down game at 300-400 yards with the loads I have seen already though too in this rifle. But I won’t be taking head shots either knowing what I know either.