DrMike
Ballistician
- Nov 8, 2006
- 36,959
- 5,170
I spent the day at the range with two of my newest rifles. It was a good day, and it was a bad day. Temperature wise, it was a beautiful day. There were scattered clouds. Temperature when I arrived was 18 C. It climbed slightly throughout the day, reaching a high of 24.1 C by 3:30 in the afternoon. On the other hand, I was doping the wind. The wind was a 180 degree wind, gusting to 15 km/hr and averaging 9.3 km/hr. In short, a typical day on the edge of the prairies.
First off, I had the 9.3X64 Brenneke out for its maiden run.
It looks pretty awesome just nestled there atop the bags. I shot a few rounds of some factory ammunition I had; it is a 193 grain RWS Uni load. The recoil felt more like a definite push than a kick. However, when I pull the trigger, there is a pronounced push just to remind me that it is somewhat larger than a 257 Bob. First up for loads was a series built around the 250 grain AccuBond. When I pulled the trigger on these, there was a decided kick rather than a push. The rifle is showing promise. Here is a group with 250 grain AB charged with 65.0 grains of RL15.
I could only fire two of the next set as one of the cases was deformed. I had missed it when loading. In any case, I didn't count it when determining velocity and accuracy. I'll likely do this load again, increasing the charge incrementally to find the upper limit.
I also built a series of loads around 286 grain Partitions. These show definite promise. Here is one charged with 64.0 grains of RL15.
This is the group when charged with 66.0 grains of RL15 (V = 2601 +/- 8 fps).
I also had the 338 Federal with me and a number of loads for testing. I had two sets of loads built with 200 grain E-Tips, three built with 200 grain ABs and one built with 215 grain Sierra GKs.
This rifle has shot very well with factory loads, and I had no doubt that it would perform well with my hand loads. The very first set was one of the loads built with 200 grain ABs, and the first load set performed beautifully.
However, as charge weight increased, standard deviations also increased and groups opened up. Next up, I tried another set of loads built with 200 grain ABs and charged with A2520. Again, the very first group was very good. Surely there is potential here.
As charge weights increased, standard deviations decreased and group sizes remained essentially the same. At the top charge, this was what the group looked like.
I'll likely increase the charge incrementally to move toward a slightly higher velocity whilst watching to see if the group will tighten somewhat.
I shot one of the groups built with 200 grain E-Tips and A2520. The standard deviations indicate that I should have an excellent group. However, I'll need to work with this again, playing with seating depth. At the moment, I'm about 0.100 off the lands. I'll have to test at some other distances. I also shot a series built with the 200 grain AB and A2495 that mirrored the data generated with A2520. Velocities were virtually identical, and the groups were quite similar as well. I did build one other set of loads with 215 grain Sierra Game Kings and IMR8208XBR. This gave me some promising groups that I'll revisit while altering seating depth.
As a final note, when I stopped by the shop, the smiths showed me a group they generated with one of their custom rifles for which I had done load development last week. It turned in a group of less than 0.74 inches at 710 yards. I recommended that they photograph that one and post it on their web site as advertising. They do build a quality product. I allowed that I would not be ashamed to have that rifle (a 7WSM).
First off, I had the 9.3X64 Brenneke out for its maiden run.
It looks pretty awesome just nestled there atop the bags. I shot a few rounds of some factory ammunition I had; it is a 193 grain RWS Uni load. The recoil felt more like a definite push than a kick. However, when I pull the trigger, there is a pronounced push just to remind me that it is somewhat larger than a 257 Bob. First up for loads was a series built around the 250 grain AccuBond. When I pulled the trigger on these, there was a decided kick rather than a push. The rifle is showing promise. Here is a group with 250 grain AB charged with 65.0 grains of RL15.
I could only fire two of the next set as one of the cases was deformed. I had missed it when loading. In any case, I didn't count it when determining velocity and accuracy. I'll likely do this load again, increasing the charge incrementally to find the upper limit.
I also built a series of loads around 286 grain Partitions. These show definite promise. Here is one charged with 64.0 grains of RL15.
This is the group when charged with 66.0 grains of RL15 (V = 2601 +/- 8 fps).
I also had the 338 Federal with me and a number of loads for testing. I had two sets of loads built with 200 grain E-Tips, three built with 200 grain ABs and one built with 215 grain Sierra GKs.
This rifle has shot very well with factory loads, and I had no doubt that it would perform well with my hand loads. The very first set was one of the loads built with 200 grain ABs, and the first load set performed beautifully.
However, as charge weight increased, standard deviations also increased and groups opened up. Next up, I tried another set of loads built with 200 grain ABs and charged with A2520. Again, the very first group was very good. Surely there is potential here.
As charge weights increased, standard deviations decreased and group sizes remained essentially the same. At the top charge, this was what the group looked like.
I'll likely increase the charge incrementally to move toward a slightly higher velocity whilst watching to see if the group will tighten somewhat.
I shot one of the groups built with 200 grain E-Tips and A2520. The standard deviations indicate that I should have an excellent group. However, I'll need to work with this again, playing with seating depth. At the moment, I'm about 0.100 off the lands. I'll have to test at some other distances. I also shot a series built with the 200 grain AB and A2495 that mirrored the data generated with A2520. Velocities were virtually identical, and the groups were quite similar as well. I did build one other set of loads with 215 grain Sierra Game Kings and IMR8208XBR. This gave me some promising groups that I'll revisit while altering seating depth.
As a final note, when I stopped by the shop, the smiths showed me a group they generated with one of their custom rifles for which I had done load development last week. It turned in a group of less than 0.74 inches at 710 yards. I recommended that they photograph that one and post it on their web site as advertising. They do build a quality product. I allowed that I would not be ashamed to have that rifle (a 7WSM).
