This is a followup on my posting in the optics section ( http://savageshooters.com/SavageForu...c,44636.0.html )
This post concentrates more on load development than on optics:

Back on 19 September, I tried a 100 yard ladder test. Although I discussed the results in the other thread, here they are in "thousand word" format:



When I tagged each hole with the powder charge, it didn't help. As far as I could tell, the holes were reasonably randomly distributed.
Thus, I concluded that my ladder test to find nodes was an utter failure.

So I decided to go another route: I looked at some ballistic tables and figured out that I needed about 2250 FPS over my chronograph in order to have 1000 pounds of energy (arbitrary ethical kill energy) remaining at 250 yards. At that speed, I could be about 4" high at 100 yards, dead on at 200 and about 5.5-6" low at 250 yards. (I don't plan to shoot at 250 yards, but when buck fever hits me I may not be able to accurately range between 100 and 250, so I thought I'd better be safer as far as killing power goes. ::)

Factory Wolf and Bernaul 154Grain SoftPoints chrono at about 2220 so I figured there was probably a way to work up to a safe load at the speed I wanted.

Lee and Hodgdon Load data indicates that with H4895, and 150 grain jacketed bullet, 28 grains is max. I tried two different brasses (S&B, Winchester) and was not seeing any pressure signs at 28 so I carefully crept up in .2grain increments. Eventually the Winchester brass started showing flattened primers so I stopped using it (range brass, no idea how many or what type of loads had been in it before.) The S&B Brass stayed good and didn't show any signs of overpressure, so I kept on going higher.

Standard warnings apply: Don't use my loadings in your rifle. They are over the published max. Start with 10% less than published max and work up using your own rifle, brass, and other components. As I mentioned, this was too high a pressure for Winchester brass, but worked in my S&B brass. I don't know what will work in your rifle. I am also using .308 bullets as I have a .308 bore, NOT a .311 bore. It all makes a difference. So Be safe.

So...here's what I ended up with today:
Today's first target with an honest group of 2.239" ctc. Loading data and chrono data are on the target, but if you can't read, I used S&B brass (Once fired and neck sized), 28.8 g of H4895 with a Combinecd Technology Partition Moly Free that I moly-coated, COAL approximately 1.853.



Than I shot 5 shots, identical loading data except 29.0 grains of H4895. Chrono speeds were 2252, 2246, 2223, 2256, 2239. It looked like this:



I am getting no pressure signs in either the 28.8g or the 29.0g loads.

My thoughts now run in the direction of loading up a lot of the 28.8 loads and going with that.

Why the 4895? I have it on hand and R7 and AA1680 seem to be hard to find here.

Why am I using the partitions? I have a lot of them. Got them on sale from Midway when CT stopped making them.

Why moly? I figured I could get the most out of my powder load that way and minimize the pressure as much as possible since these are somewhat over the top loads.

This is a walking around the woods rifle. Don't plan on shooting anything over 200 yards.

Any thoughts and comments would be appreciated?