Made it to the range today, first time since November, as I figured, being the only range open in the county and a nice Sunday after quite a spell of bad weather, it was busy, very busy!! Got there at 9am when they opened, by 9:20, there were 6 shooters waiting for a bench on the upper range where I needed to shoot at 25yds since 4 of the 6 rifles I brought had only been laser bore sighted.
Got those done and moved to the big 100 to 300yd range, set up my chronograph and posted 6 targets on my target frame. Today I brought the 7mm-08 and .500 S&W Handis, .280 Improved, .300 WSM, and .35 Whelen Ultras and a CVA Optima Elite 7mm-08.
Started with the .300WSM since it was the last one shot on the 25yd range. Normally I would have shot 50yds also just to make any correction to make sure I would be on at 100yds, but because of the crowd waiting on the short range, I moved directly to the big range, mistake, first round never cut paper, so I aimed for the center of my 6 targets and found I was 10” high, made adjustments and aimed for the target that I hit with the second round.
Accuracy with the .300WSM didn’t come until I got near the max loads I had made of 74.6gr which was much later in the day, started at 71.5gr and worked up in .5gr increments. By that time I was getting very tired and the recoil of the .500S&W and .35 Whelen loads were taking their toll, but I was able to get 2 out of 3 shots touching with 75grs of Magpro under the 150gr Ballistic Silvertips at 2940fps, but the barrel release was getting sticky, no stuck brass and no flat primers, so I need to check the latch out, may need a little smoothing or it’s a pressure issue which means I can’t go any further with warmer loads.
The good news is the action still locks up as tight, so it appears my underlug fix works!!
I continued my load work with the 225gr TSX loads thru the 35 Whelen Ultra, got a real nice 1” group, (not as nice as Matt’s!!) with 62.5gr of RL15 at 2867fps which is a max load by Barnes’ standards for the TSX which is 1.5gr over a 225gr X-bullet load. Primers were starting to flatten, but I got no stuck brass, probably could go a little more, but I don’t see the need, it’s already a thumper load, compare that to .338 Win Mag velocities!!!
The .280 Improved Ultra shoots the 160gr Accubond real well, a near start load of 58gr IMR 7828 at 2740fps gave me a great little .570” 3 shot group. The data is for a .280 Ackley, but mine is chambered a fair bit larger so I still have a ways to go before reaching the potential of this cartridge.
The 7mm-08 Handi showed some promise with the 140gr Fusion ammo, but shooting the 130gr Speer BT didn’t seem to pan out as well as I hoped, 1” was the best I got with it and them, but the worst part was the first round from a cold barrel was always away from the 2nd and 3rd shots which were real close to touching, so I need to work on the forend some, I think.
The .500S&W Handi was a disappointment, I shot the 350gr XTP on top of Lil’gun, velocity was good at over 2100fps with 38.5gr, but accuracy just wasn’t there, 4”-6” groups was the best I got so far. Max is 42gr, so I still have some more shooting to do, but the recoil was getting uncomfortable at that point in the day, so I quit on it, up to that point, I had shot 141 rounds in 6 guns, the recoil of the Whelen and Smith being substantial!!
The CVA Optima Elite was also a disappointment, the handloads that I made for it were primed with Rem 9½ primers, 2 out of the first 3 didn’t go boom, even after a second hammer drop, very deep pin strike, but no fire. So I didn’t get to shoot handloads thru it. Did shoot some Rem and Fusion 140gr factory thru it, 2-2½” groups were the best it would do, I even tried a washer to float the muzzleloader forend, but no great improvement, I might have to get a centerfire forend for it, or work on it to make it work.
For the most part, it was a successful, but loooong day, got there at 9am, punched out at 4:10pm, and my shoulder is a bit sore, shoulda put some weight in the Whelen stock and put a Limbsaver on it.
Tim
