A little range time with the 6.8SPC and 30-30 AI

[J A XSP]

I've been pretty busy and the weather, up until this past week, has been unseasonably warm and so I haven't even tried to schedule any deer hunting. Now we're into the last week for bucks and the last 3 weeks for does so I figured I better get my main hunting rifles double-checked and ready to go.

The Bullberry 30-30 AI has been pretty consistent at the range but I've been wanting to extend my Varget max load and see what I come up with. My standard load of 38 grains of Varget under either a 125 BT or 125gr Pro Hunter has been accurate and effective:

Accuracy stays Sub-MOA and I haven't bothered any further development. I started doing some work with the P-Max ballistic prediction software (free online) and saw that there's probably still plenty of room to push the envelope. I like the Pro Hunters and finally found a few hundred rounds. My brother found an 8lb jug of Varget online after months of both of us searching fruitlessly so now I have well over 4 lbs to work with. Feeling flush and willing to use up some components, I put together a few quick rounds to check the viability of some hotter rounds. I didn't bother with too much development and just loaded a few each of 38.5 and 38.8 grains. Seen below, the results of the 38.5 grains were pretty good. Then the 38.8 grain load really made an impression...first 2 shots touching and then what I knew was a pulled shot on my part. I put another shot into the group just to see if it would hang with the first two:


The 6.8 MGM barrel has been consistently easy to please in terms of sub-MOA loads. With the exception of some factory copper bullet loads, it seems to put everything into small groups. The Hornady Black ammo with 110 VMax bullets hangs around MOA and has plenty of velocity so even if I don't work up loads, I'm pretty set. I've been working with some Varget lately, even though the case capacity doesn't really allow for efficient pressure or particularly good velocity. With 110 VMax, the Varget has been very accurate but quite slow and I've got a decent supply of other powders that will make that bullet perform. I've loaded some 130 grain SPs and have seen plenty of 1/2 MOA groups with reasonable velocity with compressed loads of Varget. I decided to see what 90 grain TNT bullets would do with Varget and got the groups below...velocity is is probably a lot less than I can get with other powders but I'm willing to bet that they'd still expand and they tend to shoot quite accurately:


Between the two rigs, I'm plenty prepared to pick up and go and I think I can feel confident in putting a shot where it needs to go.