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Spent Tuesday at the range
skyfish
Member Posts: 1,068 ✭✭✭✭
Had two loadings for my 204R and two different bullets for my 250 Savage.
First all, I had a cup off coffee on the way there, I have never been so unsteady. Walked around awhile after setting up targets and chrony(1st time using mine!).
204 Ruger, 40gr V-max with IMR3031 and RL-15. All shot at 200yds. Howa Varmint, 24" barrel, Sightron SII 4.5-14x.
The best group was the 4th load of IMR3031(26.2). Measured just over 1.5" Not bad, 5 shot group. Velocities on Master Chrony read: 3707/3789/3723/3734/3817 Didn't seem to consistent to me, but group was good.
I found out my load of RL-15 was way slow, so working up 28.4 grns was just below 3700fps but groups were opening up for the last two increases of powder anyway. So, thanks for the suggestion to try IMR 3031, it worked in this case. I still plan on trying different primers and possible 39gr Sierra's.
Now for the 250 Savage, model 99. Gram pa's old rifle. Has a Pentax 3-9 on it, It seems to have a parallax issue IMO. And needs 1-2" more eye relief. Anyway 87gr Speer and Hornady bullets pushed by RL-15 and CCI primers. Found several loads that would shoot ~2" at 100 yards, good enough. I'm looking for a up to 200yds general purpose gun. I would really like to shoot 1.5" at 100, but I did find I was not pushing the bullet fast enough to stabilize before this day. The Hornady 87 did perform better on a whole, but not much, sadly had different points of impact. The Speers moved up 3" and right ~1" from a centered Hornady. I think a 2-7x power scope with 5" of eye relief would be a nice Southern Iowa antler-less (doe) season rifle. Oh yea, only Chrony one load from Savage, the last of the Speer. 3029/2991/2990/2992/2997. About what I expected. Sorry I was long winded, just taking a break from cleaning and transcribing notes. Always good to go to the range, next time no coffee.
First all, I had a cup off coffee on the way there, I have never been so unsteady. Walked around awhile after setting up targets and chrony(1st time using mine!).
204 Ruger, 40gr V-max with IMR3031 and RL-15. All shot at 200yds. Howa Varmint, 24" barrel, Sightron SII 4.5-14x.
The best group was the 4th load of IMR3031(26.2). Measured just over 1.5" Not bad, 5 shot group. Velocities on Master Chrony read: 3707/3789/3723/3734/3817 Didn't seem to consistent to me, but group was good.
I found out my load of RL-15 was way slow, so working up 28.4 grns was just below 3700fps but groups were opening up for the last two increases of powder anyway. So, thanks for the suggestion to try IMR 3031, it worked in this case. I still plan on trying different primers and possible 39gr Sierra's.
Now for the 250 Savage, model 99. Gram pa's old rifle. Has a Pentax 3-9 on it, It seems to have a parallax issue IMO. And needs 1-2" more eye relief. Anyway 87gr Speer and Hornady bullets pushed by RL-15 and CCI primers. Found several loads that would shoot ~2" at 100 yards, good enough. I'm looking for a up to 200yds general purpose gun. I would really like to shoot 1.5" at 100, but I did find I was not pushing the bullet fast enough to stabilize before this day. The Hornady 87 did perform better on a whole, but not much, sadly had different points of impact. The Speers moved up 3" and right ~1" from a centered Hornady. I think a 2-7x power scope with 5" of eye relief would be a nice Southern Iowa antler-less (doe) season rifle. Oh yea, only Chrony one load from Savage, the last of the Speer. 3029/2991/2990/2992/2997. About what I expected. Sorry I was long winded, just taking a break from cleaning and transcribing notes. Always good to go to the range, next time no coffee.
Comments
Thanks for the report! I too was a little dismayed at 'how well' my Savage 99 shot. But then after checking things out, I have a 1915 made rifle shooting 1.5" when the best recorded record of the mid 30's was .75". So, I don't feel so bad. I have to remember to take this rifle shoot it as a deer rifle, into the kill zone, and call the range as far as I can make it good. With the 1-14" twist I'm limited to the best 87 and most 90 gr. bullets. But, they do the job at those velocities. I was in the same ballpark getting 2990-3050 depending on load. I love the rifle, but the real way to test it would be to put it in a trued up bolt action with an awesome barrel and check it out that way.
Anyhoooo, thanks for the report. I always like hearing about the .250-3000