Guns & Outdoors Forum

I rebarreled the service rifle a week or so ago. It had a Wilson, which are good barrels, they just reach the end of their useful life a bit faster than some others. For short 2-300 lines its OK, but I was getting some wonkey stuff at 600. That means that if it aint done, its about to be. So I figured I would change it at about 4K on it.

I had a Wilson 1:8 on it and a Wilson 1:7 on standby in the safe. After Perry I now have a Kreiger 1:7.7 on standby.

Measured to my lands with the 80.5 bergers and set them on 24 gr of N140 with a CCI BR primer.

I loaded 6 each because I wanted 5 for record if I yanked one. 15 thou off, 25 off, 35 off and 45 off. I have been told they like to jump, but the 1:8 liked them 15 thou off. Set up the shotmarker for 2 sighters and record MOA. Have I mentioned I really like that thing? I only wrote down what I was seeing on the crono and what I felt

From 200 yards, benched and bagged on a lead sled. 2 fouling shots, 6 for record, oil, brush, patch dry, repeat.

Started with the 45 off.
Didnt put the cronograph out..... duh. Group was .59 MOA 6 shots. Ok, well that was nice.
Shotmarker also records speed at target, 2323avg. No idea if that is a realistic measurement.

Next was 35 off.
Pulled the first one, Wrote disclaim down. Shot the rest. .26 MOA..... yeah a half inch at 200 with a service rifle and a 4.5 scope. I am pretty sure that worked as well as Blue Chew Gold....
2339 avg at target, 2625 at muzzle, ES 24.9, sd..... 9.5

Then 25 off was .81 MOA
2358 at target, 2532 at muzz, sd 15 es 38

and 15 off was .91 with a much higher SD and similar velocity.

Moral of the story. In a lot of barrels, Bergers like to jump, and I am loading them 35 thou off.

Sounds like you're doing some good work. Well done!

Kind of like the young kid at the point of being unsure about whether or not Santa and the Easter Bunny exist, I'm sort of at that point on the topic of the criticality of seating depth.

In our Highpower days of Sierra Matchkings and moly-coating, I recall that Dad and I were pretty commonly running pretty tight to the lands - maybe .005" off. And yeah - it worked

Deer hunting kind of took over around 2010, and we've got to use copper here in CA.

My Remington 700 has a long throat and a long magazine, and it LIKES 168gr Barnes up close to lands. OH DARN! More room for powder and now we have a half-MOA .30-06 that throws them almost like a .300 Win Mag

The Ruger Scout .308 demands a lengthy bullet jump simply by virtue of the magazines being shorter than the chamber. The 130gr Barnes get seated to fit the mag - worrying about how far off the lands they are is pointless. But when the load R&D got me three shots into 0.3", I decided there wasn't much to worry about.

The .30-06 Ruger Hawkeye ended up liking a lengthy jump with the 150gr Barnes TTSX seated at exactly book recommended COAL Shoots about as well as the other two.

So. . .dunno. Having had numerous instances over the years where a round fit at the loading bench but wouldn't smoothly chamber on arrival at the range, I've come to think that I'd rather find a load that works with bullet jump out of a full-length (or nearly) sized case than one at the ragged edge of not fitting in the chamber. It's gotta shoot first, before it shoots well.

These arent ever going to fit in a magazine.

I got talked into them by a lady who was sponsored by Berger and the gunsmith who built my LR gun around the campfire at Reade which is an interesting place to listen if you are into competition. More knowledge was forgotten by that group and most will have a chance to know.

The 80.5 VLD are interesting. I came a MOA down on my 600 yard dope because they fly that much flatter than the 77SMKs. They are more persnickety than the 80gr SMKs and they like what they like.

One of the reason I like SMKs and GKs of any caliber is you stick them in a case with any powder behind them and they will shoot well. My mag length 77's have rolled up a couple 100-9x targets from sitting at 200 and a bunch of 100-8 and 7x. They are great and the rifle likes them. I need all the help I can get at 600 though.