Finally made it to the range this morning, nice day, not too hot, little wind, and not too many shooters so it was very pleasant!!
Took 6 rifles and a handgun, 30-30AI, 357Mag, 44Mag, 38-55 Target, SS 45-70 Ultra, 338 WinMagTikka T3 Lite and the Kel-Tc PF9, all groups shot at 100yds except the PF-9 which was shot at 7yds on the pistol range.
Got to shoot all of them, but the big disappointment was the SS 45-70, it has a combination of too much headspace, the rim cut is too deep at .075" as best I can measure it, I think the SAAMI spec is .070", and/or the firing pin is too short. 405gr Rem factory ammo shot most of the time, but had to drop the hammer a couple times on two of them, and the 300gr Win and 350gr PMC wouldn't fire at all. I got two of my 300gr TSX handloads to go after a couple hammer falls, velocity of those two was 2340 and 2342fps, didn't take a pic of them, they weren't grouped at all, but that was my start load, that's not surprising with the TSX, they usually have to be pushed hard. The 405gr Rems didn't shoot too bad considering they were the first rounds out of the gun after 2 shots at 25yds to get on paper, they grouped in 2", considering the headspace, that's not too surprising either. Rather than send it back, for now I think I'll try to build up the front side of the extractor with epoxy to hold the rim flush with the chamber face, if that doesn't work, then it's off to H&R.
UPDATE 8/13/2008: It shoots great!! http://www.gboreloaded.com/forums/index.php/topic,149618.msg1098623394.html#msg1098623394
The 30-30AI got some fireforming loads run thru it, 150gr Hornady Interlocks w/28.5gr IMR 3031 ran about 2040fps, but grouped nicely, shot the last 6 rounds onto one target. I also shot some 150gr Rem factory loads thru it, they didn't shoot to bad, but velocity was about 100fps slower than they do in my 30-30 barrel. and the accuracy wasn't as good.
The 38-55 Target(scoped w/Weaver K15 for my old eyes) shot excellent, I was shooting some .379" 220gr JSPs that I got from Boer Bullets, I loaded them using 375 Win data from the Lyman 48th in Starline long brass, the start load of 36.5gr of RL7 shot the best at 2251fps, 39gr pushed them to 2385fps, but accuracy wasn't quite as good, I went one grain higher in the data since the COL is longer, I could go another .5gr-1gr or so I think, but there's probably not really much to be gained.
The 44mag shot the 225gr FTX and 240gr XTP respectably with the FTX a tad better, velocity was 1763fps for the FTX and 1758fps for the XTP. The 357Mag didn't like the 140gr FTX at all, it stayed on the paper, but that's about it!! The 44mag would do better with a scope, it's got a WGRS rear and Firesight front, my old eyes don't do hard sights well, but I was happy with the results. The 357 has a 2x scout scope on it, it could do better too, but I wouldn't expect much with that ammo.
The Tikka T-3 338 Win Mag did exceptional too considering that's all it's been shot, 1 shot at 25yds to get on paper, no Lead Sled there too, BTW!! Then on to the 100yd range, shots 2-3-4 are the upper group, then I let it cool and dropped the elevation 3" and shot the lower group, shooting the $28 a box 225gr Remington Corelokt, I have handloads for it, but that's for another time.
I don't shoot pistol much, used to shoot a flintlock pistol at blackpowder rendezvous, but haven't since '98, bought a Kel-Tec PF9 last fall, shot it while waiting for barrels to cool. I shot this 14 shot group with 2 different loads, American Eagle and Remington green box, the first three rounds went high, two just cutting the paper, then I got used to the 2 breath trigger, and continued shooting the rest into a group that's ~3¼"x2" at 7yds, I was real happy since many say the PF9 is hard to just keep it on the paper!!
Tim
