lunde
Gold Member
- Joined
- Jun 20, 2000
- Messages
- 3,668
Given that Adobe Systems is shut down this week, and my wife and daughter are in Japan for ten days, I decided to work with my latest rifle, a Cooper Arms M52 Excalibur chambered in .30-06 with a stainless unfluted barrel. The scope is a Leupold VX-III 4.5-14x40mm LR with Varmint Hunter's reticle.
Step 1: I ordered the .30-06 dies (Forster Full Length standard die and L.E. Wilson Bullet Seater and Neck Sizing hand dies) and other things for handloading this cartridge last month, in anticipation of this week. I already had the bullets, primers, and powder from the .308 handloading that I have done.
Step 2: I opted to use the Sierra 150gr Spiter Boat Tail (aka, Game King) bullet, mainly because it performed so well when I was shooting .308. I tried two different powders, IMR 4064 and Hodgdon Varget, and loaded up 15 rounds using each, and using new Nosler brass. I measured the neck wall uniformity, and used the best cases. I did the handloading yesterday.
Step 3: Get to the range. Well, as luck (or lack thereof) would have it, it was extraordinarily windy this morning. When I arrived at the range, I almost decided to leave, but I figured that simply shooting 30 rounds through the barrel, and cleaning every three rounds, would be good for the continued barrel break-in. (I fired the first twenty rounds through it last October, when I visited my parents in South Dakota for antelope hunting. My dad loaded those twenty rounds for me.)
I did manage to take advantage of a no-wind situation, which allowed the rifle to produce this fantastic group:
I am now preparing to load up another twenty rounds of so using the same recipe, but using once-fired brass. Well, eighteen will be with once-fired brass, and another six will be with new brass.
The rifle now has exactly 50 rounds through it, and if the range session I have planned for this Friday morning has little or no wind, I should be able to confirm this load, and also dial in the scope.
Step 1: I ordered the .30-06 dies (Forster Full Length standard die and L.E. Wilson Bullet Seater and Neck Sizing hand dies) and other things for handloading this cartridge last month, in anticipation of this week. I already had the bullets, primers, and powder from the .308 handloading that I have done.
Step 2: I opted to use the Sierra 150gr Spiter Boat Tail (aka, Game King) bullet, mainly because it performed so well when I was shooting .308. I tried two different powders, IMR 4064 and Hodgdon Varget, and loaded up 15 rounds using each, and using new Nosler brass. I measured the neck wall uniformity, and used the best cases. I did the handloading yesterday.
Step 3: Get to the range. Well, as luck (or lack thereof) would have it, it was extraordinarily windy this morning. When I arrived at the range, I almost decided to leave, but I figured that simply shooting 30 rounds through the barrel, and cleaning every three rounds, would be good for the continued barrel break-in. (I fired the first twenty rounds through it last October, when I visited my parents in South Dakota for antelope hunting. My dad loaded those twenty rounds for me.)
I did manage to take advantage of a no-wind situation, which allowed the rifle to produce this fantastic group:
I am now preparing to load up another twenty rounds of so using the same recipe, but using once-fired brass. Well, eighteen will be with once-fired brass, and another six will be with new brass.
The rifle now has exactly 50 rounds through it, and if the range session I have planned for this Friday morning has little or no wind, I should be able to confirm this load, and also dial in the scope.
