longrangehunter
Handloader
- Jun 19, 2011
- 1,751
- 555
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. From this picture it’s clear that the fliers were not going away. Hopefully when I test these it’ll come together.
One completely missed the target too.
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. From this picture it’s clear that the fliers were not going away. Hopefully when I test these it’ll come together.
One completely missed the target too.
