Gomer
AH veteran
Ok, this is kind if a Part II of my thread about my trend of dumbing down my reloading. I am not a long range shooter, I am a hunter who is comfortable shooting from improvised positions out to 300 yards.
I just did a “OCW test” (Optimal Charge Weight to find “nodes”). I am shooting a Pre-64 Winchester M70 in 30-06. The rifles has a Leupold FX-II 6x36 in Leupold Dual Dovetail mounts and low rings.
In my prep for a plains game hunt, I read through the experienced hunters on this forum and decided to load 180gr Swift A-Frames. I read this bullet doesn’t shoot as well as others, so I thought they would be perfect for my experiment. I looked through load data books and saw H4350 and Ramshot Hunter had decent velocities and high load density/case fill. I used brand new Winchester brass (also chosen for not being the greatest) and CCI 200 primers. All brass was full length sized, trimmed to 2.484”, and case mouths were chamfered. I did not have any culls. I did not sort the brass in any way. Each bullet was seated to the cannelure and have a light roll crimp. I did not measure OAL, just a visual that the neck was in the cannelure, and then I tightened the set screw. I do, however, measure every single charge with an electronic scale.
With H4350, I started at 54gr @ 2684 fps and went up in .3g increments to 57gr, which yieleded 2835 fps. Keep in mind this is a spread of 151 FPS. Here is the 100 yard group:
Next was Ramshot Hunter. I started at 57gr and went up in .3gr increments to 60gr. Velocity spread was 2676 to 2825 fps. That is a 149gr spread. Here is the group:
No scope adjustments. I will say, the rifle is bedded, the trigger is nicely honed to 3lb, and the scope rings were square. I zeroed with some leftover 165gr loads at 2850 fps.
So….I guess I will pick a load where the case neck started to come out clean and call it good. I probably could have picked something .5 to 1gr below max and been just as happy. Basically, even the 20 shots (which is half of what it used to take me when I cared) were kind of a waste of time for a hunting rifle and a shooter that keeps shots at 300 yards or less.
Edit to add: Assuming 5 firings per case, each round cost roughly $2.35 per round. About 55% the cost of factory ammo with the same bullet.
I just did a “OCW test” (Optimal Charge Weight to find “nodes”). I am shooting a Pre-64 Winchester M70 in 30-06. The rifles has a Leupold FX-II 6x36 in Leupold Dual Dovetail mounts and low rings.
In my prep for a plains game hunt, I read through the experienced hunters on this forum and decided to load 180gr Swift A-Frames. I read this bullet doesn’t shoot as well as others, so I thought they would be perfect for my experiment. I looked through load data books and saw H4350 and Ramshot Hunter had decent velocities and high load density/case fill. I used brand new Winchester brass (also chosen for not being the greatest) and CCI 200 primers. All brass was full length sized, trimmed to 2.484”, and case mouths were chamfered. I did not have any culls. I did not sort the brass in any way. Each bullet was seated to the cannelure and have a light roll crimp. I did not measure OAL, just a visual that the neck was in the cannelure, and then I tightened the set screw. I do, however, measure every single charge with an electronic scale.
With H4350, I started at 54gr @ 2684 fps and went up in .3g increments to 57gr, which yieleded 2835 fps. Keep in mind this is a spread of 151 FPS. Here is the 100 yard group:
Next was Ramshot Hunter. I started at 57gr and went up in .3gr increments to 60gr. Velocity spread was 2676 to 2825 fps. That is a 149gr spread. Here is the group:
No scope adjustments. I will say, the rifle is bedded, the trigger is nicely honed to 3lb, and the scope rings were square. I zeroed with some leftover 165gr loads at 2850 fps.
So….I guess I will pick a load where the case neck started to come out clean and call it good. I probably could have picked something .5 to 1gr below max and been just as happy. Basically, even the 20 shots (which is half of what it used to take me when I cared) were kind of a waste of time for a hunting rifle and a shooter that keeps shots at 300 yards or less.
Edit to add: Assuming 5 firings per case, each round cost roughly $2.35 per round. About 55% the cost of factory ammo with the same bullet.
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