Nice weather on Saturday so I packed up a couple Contenders and spent the afternoon at the range. First up was my 14" 35 Remington Very Improved with a 2X Leupold launching 180 gr Hornady SSP and Speer FP bullets pushed by 42gr. 748, 38gr. H322, or 40gr H4895. The most accurate load was the Hornady bullet coupled with 748 which produced a 5 shot group at 100 yards on just under an inch. The Hornady bullet did almost as well with the H322 and H4895 loads with the 5 shot groups measuring inder 1.5 inches. The 180 gr. Speer struggled to keep 5 shots under 2", with the H322 load delivering a respectable 1.75" group.
Next up was my 10" Bull barrel in 256 Win Mag topped off with a 4X Leupold scope. I decided to work up some loads using the 75 Sierra HP and 75gr Hornady V-max bullets pushed by Lil'Gun. I was fire forming necked down 357 Mag Starline brass primed with Fed 100 SP primers. This is one of those wonder barrels, as 14.0 gr of H4227 and the 75gr. V-max bullet shoots like a house a fire, printing the smallest group I've ever fired, 5 into less than 3/8" at 100 yards. I started at 13.0 gr. of Lil'Gun and started working upwards in 0.5 grain increments. The 13.0 grain load showed promise, with 5 under an inch, but 13.5 grains of LilGun pushing the 75 grain V-max printed a nice round cluster measuring less than 1/2". The group opened up back to about an inch with a load of 14.0 gr. of LilGun. I called it a day as the light was getting poor.
