handirifle
08-13-2012, 05:19 PM
Took three Savages to the range today. Two of them as deer rifles, third as varmint. The 2 were 308 and 30-06. The 308 did as expected, since I used it to get my deer with last season. I had played with some other loads after season last year, so my zero was off, but it came back to it's normal 1.25" CTC with the Nosler 150gr Etips.
I did get some fantastic groups with near top level loads and the Barnes 130gr TTSX. I will explore those in greater detail after season. If todays results hold true, I will switch bullets for next year.
The '06 Did about the same with 1.25-1.5" groups using the Barnes 168gr TTSX. The '06 was a barrel swap and I THOUGHT I had gone over everything closely, but it wouldn't feed from the blind mag. It was a detachable mag before. I switched to blind mag to allow me to use it while working on finding a nice laminated hunting stock for it. I want to eventually get a magnum contour, fluted barrel to go with the nice stock, I think. In the meantime I need to figure out the feeding problem. seems all the rounds sit too low for the bolt to pick them up. Not sure yet if it's a lip adjustment or what.
Gun three was my 223 using the little 36gr non leads varmint bullets. I had about a 70% failure to eject. Real bummer there. After being so happy at almost never having that problem. Will have to explore that issue as well. It fed perfectly, so maybe swap bolts with the 30-06???? I know that doesn't work just kidding.
Overall it was a good day. Seems no matter how careful I am at home, when I go to the range, some issue shows up. Better there than in the field I guess.
I did get some fantastic groups with near top level loads and the Barnes 130gr TTSX. I will explore those in greater detail after season. If todays results hold true, I will switch bullets for next year.
The '06 Did about the same with 1.25-1.5" groups using the Barnes 168gr TTSX. The '06 was a barrel swap and I THOUGHT I had gone over everything closely, but it wouldn't feed from the blind mag. It was a detachable mag before. I switched to blind mag to allow me to use it while working on finding a nice laminated hunting stock for it. I want to eventually get a magnum contour, fluted barrel to go with the nice stock, I think. In the meantime I need to figure out the feeding problem. seems all the rounds sit too low for the bolt to pick them up. Not sure yet if it's a lip adjustment or what.
Gun three was my 223 using the little 36gr non leads varmint bullets. I had about a 70% failure to eject. Real bummer there. After being so happy at almost never having that problem. Will have to explore that issue as well. It fed perfectly, so maybe swap bolts with the 30-06???? I know that doesn't work just kidding.
Overall it was a good day. Seems no matter how careful I am at home, when I go to the range, some issue shows up. Better there than in the field I guess.