Took my 06 to the 100yd range Friday night and tried a few things. All handloads are with IMR 4895 and CCI 250 primers (because I bought magnum primers by mistake and the store won't take the primers back). I used Lee dippers for these loads so everything is in CC instead of grains.
1) Federal Barnes 168 gr. I wanted to see how my rifle groups with factory ammo, and I'm generally pleased. Less than 1.2" @ 100 yds, three shots from a cold barrel.
2) 110 gr Barnes TSK crimped to the second groove so that just a small amount of the bullet was seated in the neck and one groove is exposed. These give the longest possible OAL, and have proved to be better than crimped to the first groove. Tried the "ladder" method by graduating .1cc from 3.4cc to 4.0cc. Interesting thing was how the bullet grouped well at 3.4-3.6cc, but subsequent .1cc graduations resulted in large changes in POI. See the attached image, that's a big difference for a small amount of powder. I'll load these to around 3.5cc.
3) Nosler lead-free 150 gr, 3.1cc IMR 4895, 3.300" OAL, no cannelure, but I put a light factory crimp. Three shots into less than .5"! This is less than a starting load, 3.1cc is a mere 42.6 grains. But with accuracy like this what's a few hundred FPS? It was interesting to see that the handload Noslers shot 7" lower than the factory Fed Barnes.
4) Hornady 110 gr SP loads from 3.4 to 4.0 cc as I did with the Barnes. No picture of these, but they tended to like higher pressure, around 3.8-4.0 cc before they grouped together. These are mostly just a waste of powder, I probably won't load them again.
-Mario
