Load workup for the 500 Jeffrey

Backyardsniper

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I'll post the results here as I am working building a load for this rifle. Hopefully it may be useful to someone in the future. Since components are difficult to aquire and expensive when you do find them I figured this may save somebody some headache and some cash in the future. I'm loading for the Sako Brown Bear and at the moment I am using Norma brass and I have 475 CEB Raptors, 510 CEB solids and 570 Swift A Frames. I am working with H4350, Reloader 16, and Varget mainly although I may try some others depending on how this goes. Also as a side experiment i tested the first batch of recipes mostly just to see if there was going to be any pressure issues with these bullet and powder combos and I used one piece of brass repeatedly. The neck cracked on the 7th reloading, however that piece of brass had some damage to the neck prior to me using it and I also did not aneal it at any point so I think its possible to get close to 10 reloads from a piece of the Norma.
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I included a pic of my new work area that I built a couple days ago, I needed a new place for the Rock Chucker so I moved.the reloading operation out of the gun room and into the main area of the basement.
You can see some of the recipes I tested yesterday. The biggest issue is regulating the load with the iron sights. The sights are adjustable for windage but not elevation and I don't know if Sako makes any different inserts to replace the front sight. I do have some scope rings and bases on the way though, but I still want the iron sights to be on with whatever I use. I may end up with a red dot on it.
The 475 Raptors with 105gr of varget was right on at 60yd. The 510 shot just slightly left with that same load. I think with a little bit of trial and error I can get those two close together. The 475 Raptors will not fit in the magazine with the tips on them, which is no big deal, but those tips look really cool.
I will most likely do some further testing today amd I will keep you all posted with the results.
 
Also after a little further inspection, I believe the front sight on the brown bear is adjustable for elevation. If that is the case then that simplifies things greatly. I'll just find a soft solid combo the works well together and then I can zero the rifle for that combo.
 
H4895 also gives you good results with 570gr A frames also will fit the brown bear magazine. Yor rifle may produce slightly different results.
Krish
 
Yeah I have hears good things about H4895. I don't have any onhand but will look for some. I may also try CFE223. It is in that same burn rate zone. Slightly slower than varget. It is also a ball powder.
 

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