So... been wanting one of these toys for a while, and decided the last time some OT came my way that it was time.

Now I have one, and after making a mess of getting the first strain gauge on (and then removing it, and putting a fresh one on) I managed to get it to the range this weekend. Everything seems to be working (a miracle!) and I'm pretty tickled with it.

The problem is... apparently Savage barrel nuts kind of interfere with the optimal placement of the strain gauges on the barrel, specifically with shorter cartridges. According to the manual in a perfect world the gauge should be mounted over the center of the chamber, and there are several required measurements such as chamber diameter at that location, and the case wall thickness at that point. In my world with barrel nuts on almost all my Savage rifles... that ain't happening.

The manual goes on to state that 'satisfactory results' can be obtained by mounting the gauge over the case mouth (not really specific on what 'satisfactory' means...)... but by my estimation with a .308 Win the case mouth is probably just shy of the front end of the barrel nut, meaning that the closest the strain gauge can be mounted with leaving some room for rotation is approx. 1/4 from the case mouth. I already adjusted the numbers a bit because I know the neck dimensions of this particular barrel pretty well (the reamer is sitting in a drawer downstairs), which got the pressure from the mid 20k to the low 40k range. I probably need to adjust it some more - if the sensor really is that far out in front of the case mouth, then I would need to just use the bore diameter (which one, freebore, land or groove?) and then '0' for the case wall thickness? The load I was using today (B185 OTM over 44.0gn N150 in a Lapua Palma case, CCI 450 primers running ~2670fps) is sort of mild as far as competitive loads go, but I would imagine its still running more than 42-43k psi.

I don't expect it to be dead-nuts-exact; even with a 'reference' load there's going to be some +/-. But I'd at least like it closer than it is now. For even shorter cartridges such as .30 BR, 6 Dasher, .223 Rem, 6.5 Creedmoor, etc. I'm not going to be out in the freebore/throat, but clear out in the lands! Anybody else out there with a Savage and a PTII unit care to share how they deal with this?

Thanks,

Monte