new 260 m12 LRP in the stable

Well my first Savage now graces my abode. A new m12 LRP in 260.

I've been a Remington guy for nearly 40 years and have been so disappointed with their QC over the last decade or so that I refused to buy new any longer.

Last year I decided to put together a 1000-1500 yard live Prairie dog rifle and possibly shoot some 1000 yard matches at our club. At first I was going with a Defiance Deviant action in 260AI with a good 1-8 twist barrel, jewel trigger, and HS precision stock (mainly cause I've already got it laying around). After researching the AI vs standard chambering, the lack of Wilson dies for it along with the expense of custom dies I decided to go with the standard 260. After all, this is for punching paper and light skinned varmints. Several of my "very anal type" fellow shooters have been praising Savage for a while now. I've always known them to be good to great shooters, just been stuck in a Remington rut, so to speak.

I set it up with an EGW 20 MOS base & 8.5-25 Leupold with a varmint reticle. Now that I've got the rifle I can start doing some ladder testing with RE15, RE17, H4350. 140 and 123 Amax's, along with Berger 140's in Forster benchrest dies. I processed 200 rds Of Lapua 260 brass this winter so that's all ready to go. Then it's just the time at the range in good conditions to decide on the final recipe.

Any suggestions for combinations that are working? I figure there's no reason to reinvent the wheel when unnecessary.

Al

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I think if you do the search here you will find a lot of guy's are having very good results with H-4350 & RL-17 powder's. Myself I run
Nosler Brass
140gr Berger Hybrid's seated .0150 off land's,
Federal large rifle match primers
IMR-4451 powder.

Good luck & congrad's on the purchase of the LRP they are tack driver's.

I shoot a 6.5 CM but a lot of guys I know that shoot a .260 are around 42-43 grains of H4350 under 139 scenar, 140 amax or 142 SMK, some have great luck with the bergers, others not so much. I think the 139 scenar is the most popular. As always work up your own load.

Once fired 308 LC Brass necked down to 260.
41.5 gr IMR 4350 .020 from the lands. 140gr mhpbt hornady
5 shot group pattern@100 yds.
Model 12 LRP IN 260. Bone stock.

http://i182.photobucket.com/albums/x...pszfesdmdc.jpg

My other load (same rifle )
130gr Berger Vld 40.5gr imr 4350 .002 from the lands. Nosler brass.
This load has given me the same results as what's pictured.
I just haven't got around to taking the pic.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by benchrest

I think if you do the search here you will find a lot of guy's are having very good results with H-4350 & RL-17 powder's. Myself I run
Nosler Brass
140gr Berger Hybrid's seated .0150 off land's,
Federal large rifle match primers
IMR-4451 powder.

Good luck & congrad's on the purchase of the LRP they are tack driver's.

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How do you like the 4451? Hows it compare to H4350,IMR4350? Have you done any testing in cold and heat?

LongRange, I have no first hand experience but for info purposes IMR lists it right between IMR4350 and H4350.

http://www.imrpowder.com/PDF/Burn%20...02014-2015.pdf

If you get a chance try the 139gr Lapua Scenars. These this will hammer at 1k.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by LongRange

How do you like the 4451? Hows it compare to H4350,IMR4350? Have you done any testing in cold and heat?

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so far my testing as been done in higher temp's of the spring & summer. But so far so good, I was able to push the charge's up 4gr's over suggested max load to 43gr's ,velocity @ 2825fps with a very low ES of 10fps. Will know more as the summer heat decline's & our northern weather set's in around Nov.. I settled on a charge weight of 40.5gr velocity of just over 2700fps & ES of 7fps. I never had a chance to compare to H-4350 due to powder shortage's up here in Canada. But with IMR-4350 I was getting great accuracy but very poor velocity and with pushing the envelope with max & over max charge's I was seeing pressure's sign's & horrible ES.

Cheer's

Quote:

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Originally Posted by benchrest

so far my testing as been done in higher temp's of the spring & summer. But so far so good, I was able to push the charge's up 4gr's over suggested max load to 43gr's ,velocity @ 2825fps with a very low ES of 10fps. Will know more as the summer heat decline's & our northern weather set's in around Nov.. I settled on a charge weight of 40.5gr velocity of just over 2700fps & ES of 7fps. I never had a chance to compare to H-4350 due to powder shortage's up here in Canada. But with IMR-4350 I was getting great accuracy but very poor velocity and with pushing the envelope with max & over max charge's I was seeing pressure's sign's & horrible ES.

Cheer's

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Intersting
my 130gr vld bergers are going 2750 with 40.5grs of imr 4350 .002 from the lands. 3/8" groupings
hornady mhpbt in 140gr with 41.5gr imr 4350 .020 from the lands are going almost the same speed 2748.
altitude is at 3800ft with 80-90dg temps
It took some time to get the hornady,s evaluated and working for me. The bergers were nice and tight with just a few test rds.
IMR 4350 for me has worked. I was a little worried at 1st. I was being judgmental on the propellant even before I started load development.
H4350 was no where to be found in my area. at least not in 8lbs.