A little work with my 30-06 barrel

[rickt300]

Well after fitting it this has been my first opportunity to scope it, load some ammo for it and give it some honest range time.  I happen to have a couple hundred 170 gr. Round nosed Remington Corelocks that I figure will do just fine being pushed to around 2500 fps and recoil wouldn't be too severe.  I picked 15 cases out of my considerable collection of range pickup brass, cleaned it up and loaded them with 48.0 grs. of H380 and topped with the 170 gr bullets.  I shot the first 15 up sighting in and fireforming the brass to my chamber.  I experienced my first misfire from not pulling the trigger back past where it releases the hammer.  The round went off with the second try.  Loaded the brass up again and went to the nearby range.  I fine tuned my sight in and put ten rounds into 1 1/2 inches. If I were to discount the two farthest out rounds the rest were in a group of a little over an inch. I let the barrel get pretty warm and I experienced no real stringing.  This load is very mild giving somewhere around 41,000 CUP.  I fired the rifle 45 times and realized no actual fouling other than what a ball powder leaves when used at low pressure.

[myarmor]

Nothing wrong with loading the -06 down a little, thats one of the best things about it... it's versitility... but you know that and it sounds like you found a load you are comfortable with. It's a working mans cartridge thats for sure.
Start fresh with some new brass or a box of 1x fired and I am sure your consistantcy will improve even more.
Have fun.




-Aaron

[rickt300]

Well considering I intentionally put together a mild mid range hunting load and not a target load it worked out pretty good.  I also have the flu, hopefully not the dreaded swine flu but I am not comfortable.  Something else, I normally seat the bullet first with the base of the bullet even with the neck shoulder junction and work down from there by chambering and seeing if the rifling hits the bullet and seating the bullet deeper until I have about a half turn of the seating die stem of clearance.  This barrel is long throated and this relatively blunt bullet cleared the rifling seated way out there.  My 223 Superlight barrel is the same way, the relatively long 60 grain Hornady HP is seated with the base of the bullet even with the neck/shoulder junction did not touch the rifling  and with both rifles the cannelure is seated a good ways above the case mouth. I guess I could work at getting the bullet seating just right but I see no reason to just yet.  If I were really interested in seeing bullet holes touching I would have brought my heavy barreled 22-250 and shot some groups that really save space on a target.

[myarmor]

As most, all my barrels are/have been very long throated as well and the bullets have to "jump" to the lands. Only in a rare couple I have owned could I touch the lands with the bullet I wanted to use... in bottle neck cartridges anyway.
 Still, you can work up an accurate load with such and given the variables(not to mention the health...hope ya feel better by the way ) you are working with it turned out not bad at all for you.
I like to have a couple loads worked up for different conditions I may be hunting in.

[rickt300]

It rained pretty hard yesterday so I just about had the range to myself which was nice.  Trekking thru the 100 yards of mud to the targets wasn't so nice.  One of the guys on our lease normally shoots a iron sighted 30-30, trouble is he is getting so he can't see the sights(old).  Last year I had him use a scoped 270 of mine and he did real well, 4 shots and two deer with only one miss so he is up to 75%.  His yearly average with his 30-30 is 7 shots per deer which is a lot of shooting and who knows how much wounding he does.  He complained the 270 was too heavy and it's length of pull was too long for him.  This year I am going to try to get him to use this 30-06 for his deer hunting.  He seldom shoots at much over 100 yards and maybe if he has only one shot he will take care to get it where it needs to go.  But who knows, the grumpy old fart may use his worthless 30-30 again.  He had a rear sight replaced on his old Marlin and actually thought the gunsmith would know exactly where to set it so it would be sighted in, and he has no idea of how to sight any type of sight in.  He fell and broke the old rear sight completely off.  I guess he thinks they come sighted in from the factory.

[wreckhog]

I think that he needs a 12 gauge with magnum buckshot not a rifle.

[rickt300]

I'd like to see him leave the lease but until then I'll help him as much as possible.