Everything seemed to go especially well today. - It had been windy all day, but about an hour before dusk, the wind just quit. Quickly, I loaded up my shooting stuff and my favorite rifle into the van.
The rifle was ordered from the Savage Custom Shop. - I asked for a stainless barreled action in a laminated thumb-hole stock, in .243 Winchester with a 24" barrel. Once I got it home, I glass-bedded it, broke in the barrel carefully and refinished the stock so that it had a bit of gloss. I also polished and refinished the bolt handle, baffle and trigger guard to match the action's finish.
I had loaded up some rounds just before my recent move, and now I'd finally get a chance to see how they would do, at the new club.
When I got there, I had the place to myself.
Here's the Savage. It has what Savage calls a "magnum weight" barrel, not really a bull barrel but still fairly thick. The gun weighs ten pounds with the Nikon Monarch 4-16x42 scope.Code:.243 Winchester Custom Savage 24” barrel All loads use Federal Brass, Winchester WLR primers 95 grn Nosler Ballistic Tip 40 grn H4350 @ 2850 fps 70 grn Nosler Ballistic Tip 47 grn H4350 @ 3450 fps 58 grn Hornady V-Max 43 grn VARGET @ 3700 fps
After a few fouling shots, and an adjustment to the scope, it shot all three bullet weights to more or less the same spot.
I put up a reactive target, and tried to hold my mouth just right while I shot a final group with the 70 grn loads before packing up for the day.
What a day at the range. I guess I've found the loads I need for that rifle, the load development process is done as far as I'm concerned.
Now all I have to do is try to get in some more practice, shooting the thing. I'm thinking that with the 70 grain loads, it ought to shine as a long-range varminter/pig gun. A lot of the shots in west Texas are long ones, so I've got to be ready for that.
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