Alright, I got the Savage Striker all put together in 338/375 Ruger. Today I finally got a chance to shoot it and the results?.................

Initially, dissapointment. There just wasn't enough recoil. ;D Honestly, I love it. I had to fight off the other guys at the range because everybody wanted to shoot it! The Muscle Brake kept the recoil down to the level of a 357 Mag in a heavy revolver. My 10" Contender in 7mm TCU has more recoil. Just don't stand to the side of the person shooting it! That sucker will ring your ears like you wouldn't believe.

I took a few different loads out with me on this trip. The first load was a 250gr Hornady Interlock over 75.0gr of H4831sc. I used this load to zero the scope (it only took 3 shots to be dead on at 100yds). These were grouping around .75" while I was breaking in the barrel.

From there I started working with the 225gr Accubond. I started at 78.0gr H4831sc and worked up to 82.0gr in 1gr increments. At 82gr, there were still no pressure signs, and the primers look just as good as the 78gr loads. The brass came out of the chamber perfectly clean with no carbon build up. The only problem was that the groups were very erratic. I decided check the tracking on the scope (Burris 3-12x handgun scope) to see what happens. Sure enough, I could move the scope 4" to the right and it wouldn't move. Then I'd fire a second shot, and the POI would jump 3" to the right. Dead scope means the end of load development for today. > I'd like to try and re-shoot some of the loads that I tried today. I know that they'll shoot well once the new scope is on there.

I also have some 225gr TTSX bullets loaded up to test. Those will also have to wait until next time.

The good news is that I got a new scope today. I'm going to try a Leupold VX-3L 3.5-10 on there now. If nothing else this scope has a lifetime warranty. I might need it.

I'll give some updates when I get out with the chronograph. I'd like to see just how fast the 225 are actually moving.

Andrew