Thought I'd post my first range report on Savage Shooters with my newly rechambered 300 PRC. It started life as a 300 Win Mag FCP HS Precision. It's got a Vortex HST on top, but as soon as I have time to level my new PST Gen II, it's going on. I've had the stock modified by installing a KMW Loggerhead cheek riser, and took off the crappy stock HS Precision recoil pad and replaced it with a Decelerator. The new barrel is a Bartlein 28" with an APA Lil Bastard brake on the front.



I posted this on a 300 PRC thread elsewhere, with a few changes that are more important to this forum:

I went up to the 750 yard range today and a great time - again, 70 and bright blue skies. There was about a 10 mph coming in at about 30 degrees front right. My purpose(s) of the trip:


1) Load test Retumbo
2) Test my rifle's new trigger (Timney)
3) Put my new attempt at a portable steel target holder to the test - one that can take being on a hill and absorb a 225 gr bullet hitting it at 2000 fps.


Load Test Retumbo
I started the ladder at 77.5 gr, which I thought would get me close to the equivalent of 76 or so of H1000. I was wrong. The muzzle velocity of the first load averaged 2891 fps, with an ES of 14 and a SD of 5.9 - nice! The group? Not so nice. It was all over the place. Okay, so not a good (or even decent) group, move up to the next load. It was worse than the first. The best group I got was 1.7" at 200 yards = ouch. It was so bad that I thought my scope might be loose, or that mucking with the trigger screwed up the joining of the action to the stock. I stopped my development and switched ammo over to my 76.2 gr H1000 load. I averaged 2853 fps and shot a .73" (.365 MOA) 5-shot group. I'm not ready to give up on Retumbo, but clearly the upper end of the spectrum isn't working for me.


New Trigger
I installed a Timney Accutrigger replacement earlier this week. I went to the nearby 100 yard range to test it Wednesday, and it didn't work out so well. While I was installing it, I found that when the middle screw on the bottom metal was fully torqued, the trigger would fail to cock. Loosen it - it worked. I filed some of it off, and was able to torque the screw down appropriately, but when it heated up at the range after 10 or so shots, it failed to cock again. I ground down the screw by a couple threads, and today was my test day for it. Works great - very happy - far superior to the Accutrigger, imo.


Portable Steel Target Holder
Another not so great result. It sets up easy, - put it up at 750 yards - but cant' take the beating from the PRC shooting 225s. I got four rounds into it before it fell most of the way over. Then it took about another 6-8 before it went all the way down. Back to the drawing board here. Below is a video of the first shot - it's not the greatest quality because I had my phone set up incorrectly, but it's cool because you can see the bullet flying in.



I ended up switching over to the range's steel (also at 750). Look at what the 225s do to steel that's not AR500 - and not just the edge shot. It put gouges in the middle :)



My target stand didn't hold up, but at least my steel did :)