Twist Rate Question

Originally Posted by Second Wind

Phil.
Tell you what, if you come up with the answer to this riddle the drinks are on me

I have so often seen two or three guns of the same style, caliber and manufacturer that will
shoot one bullet well but horrible with another

All things being equal, which they never are, I have yet to see anyone render a really spot on explanation
for this

Rifle barrels are a lot like women, they don't all go for the good looking, witty and charming blokes like me, some actually prefer something different

I know, hard to understand isn't it

Oh there are so many variables with rifles and loads I don't know that I'll ever truly know what's going on here. This stuff just fascinates me. Besides that my 14 year old is starting to take to this. He's my oldest and this transition from my "little buddy" to teenager has had it's challenges. Time on the bench and at the range is mentor/buddy time involving little discipline time and thus it's always fun.

I had to go buy some 150's in the TTSX yesterday. I'm going to work up some loads with them for my son's .308 and some for both of the .300 Winnies. If they shoot well in my Tikka, will it be explained by the twist rate? Perhaps, but I really won't know with certainty.

Well the joys of pool maintenance got in the way of reloading this weekend. Come 2am last night I'd had enough.

Loaded up some 150 TTSX's for the son's .308 but not enough time for either of the .300 WM's. Results were good! In various weights of Varget and RL15 working to the max, we (my son doing most of the shooting) got 1" or better groups. This was my first time working with Varget and to say the least I was impressed. The TTSX loved this powder as all of the groups were 1" or better from min to max loading.

I did load up another six 180's for my M70 .300WM in the same 74gr's of IMR 7828. Shot the first three with a just under 1" group allowing lots of time for barrel cool down. When we left the range today it was running about 102. The next three were shot in relatively short order. The group held together well. I think I've got a winner here after the recent visit to the gunsmith. And it's a darn good thing, my 200gr North Fork load has disappeared. I ran a bunch of these through various weights of the 7828 and got nothing like I had been getting before.

Unfortunately I just did not have enough time last night to get setup with the 150's for my Tikka in .300 WM and this is going to have to wait until October or so. It's just too blasted hot now even at 8am and we spend a lot of time letting the barrels cool down between shots.

We have been having near steady rain and rarely above 60 degrees all of May and most of June here in the NW. Pouring right now and yesterday as well.

Varget, R15 and IMR4895 are IMHO the best 3 powders to start with in a .308 Win., with Varget perhaps my favorite. Very little diff between it and R15 as you can load charge for charge and get about the same results, both excellent powders.

Originally Posted by sestoppelman

We have been having near steady rain and rarely above 60 degrees all of May and most of June here in the NW. Pouring right now and yesterday as well.

Heading for 114 next week, wanna trade?

Nada! The webbing between my toes might shrivel up and blow away. Then where would I be?!?!

Phoenix Phil- I've used a lot of Varget and RL15 and like both of them I get better pressure results with RL15 for my 338/06 and my 30-06. My son who's now 39 has just started hunting with me and we got some pigs a few weeks ago near his home in Houston. It was great hunting with him. My oldest who's 43 did some bird hunting with me when he was 12-13 and did real well but just never took to it full time.
Pool maintenance? I used to be a licensed pool technician in Los Angeles many many years ago. I gave up pools and lawns 16 years ago when I moved from LA to Las Vegas and then Page AZ.

Originally Posted by Cliffy

Phoenix Phil- I've used a lot of Varget and RL15 and like both of them I get better pressure results with RL15 for my 338/06 and my 30-06. My son who's now 39 has just started hunting with me and we got some pigs a few weeks ago near his home in Houston. It was great hunting with him. My oldest who's 43 did some bird hunting with me when he was 12-13 and did real well but just never took to it full time.
Pool maintenance? I used to be a licensed pool technician in Los Angeles many many years ago. I gave up pools and lawns 16 years ago when I moved from LA to Las Vegas and then Page AZ.

Yesterday started out with a much needed cleaning of the motorocycle, then it was off to clean out the filters on the pool. That went well and off to the pool shop to get the water tested. Back home for some chemical adjustments and fire up the filter pump. This is when things went bad with a leak in the air relief valve on the filter. Back to the shop to get that part. Make the fix and fire up the pump again. Next problem discovered. The impeller that turns the gear to distribute water to the in-floor system isn't turning. Strange as I had just replaced that part a little while back. Remove lid and check it out and no jam. Looks like it needs a new lid, a bit hard to explain except that it will probably run just shy of $200 for the part!! By the time I was done with all of that, it was time for my weekly softball games. So I didn't get started on loading until about 10:30pm. But at least by then it was reasonably cool in the garage.

Phil you dont need a pool !!! You need a new place to live!

Originally Posted by BARTFRNCS

Phil you dont need a pool !!! You need a new place to live!

Here's the kicker, I made the choice on my own to leave Idaho for this..... It's okay, it gave me the chance to chase these AZ elk, and they are special.

Originally Posted by PHOENIX PHIL

You I bet those 150's do a good job on elk. I've seen numerous elk taken with 150gr cup-n-cores out of a .270. I'm going to try them on my son's .308 and perhaps the Tikka, we'll se how it works out.

This would of course suggest the twist rate and bullet length/weight are correlating if they shoot accurately.

Phil thats funny you should bring up the 270 while in Africa I was talking to the PH's around the fire about what gun I should bring next time I come I said I may bring my 300Win Mag or one of my 270s and what surprised me was that every PH there and there were 4 or 5 of them said the same thing bring the 270 its all you need, after all the Controversy about the 270 just bing a necked down 30/06 that kinda surprised me. not trying to steal the thread it just brought it to mind when you mentioned taking Elk with them. I used 150gr Etip in my 308 and 180gr TSX in debs 30/06 and they worked out great I'm going to try them in the 300 and the 270 and see what groups the best at 300yds.

Originally Posted by Bobpuckett

Phil thats funny you should bring up the 270 while in Africa I was talking to the PH's around the fire about what gun I should bring next time I come I said I may bring my 300Win Mag or one of my 270s and what surprised me was that every PH there and there were 4 or 5 of them said the same thing bring the 270 its all you need, after all the Controversy about the 270 just bing a necked down 30/06 that kinda surprised me. not trying to steal the thread it just brought it to mind when you mentioned taking Elk with them. I used 150gr Etip in my 308 and 180gr TSX in debs 30/06 and they worked out great I'm going to try them in the 300 and the 270 and see what groups the best at 300yds.

My wife and I moved to Pocatello, Idaho about a year after we were married, pretty young couple back then. In a small town as well as friendly town it was, you tend to make friends with folks of all ages. One of the couples we came to be quite close with, retired soon after we lived there. At the time they probably had some 40 plus years of hunting elk in Idaho. A few of which were taken with .30-06, still quite a few others with a .243, by far the most taken with a .270.

I remember Travis telling me the first time about that and I could help but chuckle remembering what the guy in the gun shop in Texas where I lived prior told me about elk hunting. He said the .300WM was the bare minimum and a .338WM was more proper.

The adult hunters I knew in Idaho mostly grew up hunting and started on elk with .243's, .25-06's, 7mm-08's and the like. Now I do prefer to carry as much gun as I can shoot accurately as more can never be worse and sometimes is better. But no doubt bullet placement means far more than anything else.

Originally Posted by sestoppelman

We have been having near steady rain and rarely above 60 degrees all of May and most of June here in the NW. Pouring right now and yesterday as well.

Varget, R15 and IMR4895 are IMHO the best 3 powders to start with in a .308 Win., with Varget perhaps my favorite. Very little diff between it and R15 as you can load charge for charge and get about the same results, both excellent powders.

I agree the IMR4895 and the 150gr Etip is what I loaded for my 308 for Africa 46gr at 2864fps 1/2 inch groups off the rest at 200 yds.

Bullet Diameter is less important than its placement. But there is no free lunch theres no replasement for displacement.

Originally Posted by Bobpuckett

I agree the IMR4895 and the 150gr Etip is what I loaded for my 308 for Africa 46gr at 2864fps 1/2 inch groups off the rest at 200 yds.

Must have missed your report Bob. Was the 150gr Etips for the .270 or a .308? What was the largest animals you took and what was the performance on those?

You left Idaho for Phoenix?????

Why oh why would you do that?

Leaving Idaho for any reason is generally a mistake. I've done it twice, but now I'm back - for good I hope. Actually, with you gone, maybe I'll draw an elk tag this year.

Originally Posted by BryceM

You left Idaho for Phoenix?????

Why oh why would you do that?

Leaving Idaho for any reason is generally a mistake. I've done it twice, but now I'm back - for good I hope. Actually, with you gone, maybe I'll draw an elk tag this year.

Don't worry about drawing tags go to the Santa area lots of potlatch property there free hunting at less when I owned property there it was free, good wintering elk area Black Bear and Whitetail deer as well.