Another Range Day...and Why You Should Handload

[Flatbush Harry]

It was a wonderful fall day in CO, so I went to the range to finish sighting in my Rem 700 SPS-V since I put a new scope on it Saturday (I had used its former scope, a 3-9x40 Zeiss Conquest, on my Rem 700 XCR II .375 H&H).

I had stopped this sight-in a bit early Saturday as the 40 rounds I put through the .375 H&H wore me out a bit. As the attached target pic shows, today's session went well; this was my second target, a five-shot group at 100 yards. I measured this at 0.426" ctr-to-ctr or just over 0.4 MOA. One click up, two clicks right and done.



So far, Reloder 15 has given me best results in both .308 Win and .375 H&H with better than 0.5 MOA groups. I'll be trying to find best loads with RL15 in a few other calibers...so my question is: "What won't it do?"



Harry

 

[batex]

Very nice. I hope to have a rifle and the skill to do that some day.

Right now, my hunting rig is a 1970's Rem 700 270 Win which gives me about 2" groups at 100 yards with Rem CoreLoks. However the factory trigger on this particular gun is very heavy.. I'm planning on replacing it with a Timeny...

 

[MCgunner]

Right now, my hunting rig is a 1970's Rem 700 270 Win which gives me about 2" groups at 100 yards with Rem CoreLoks. However the factory trigger on this particular gun is very heavy.. I'm planning on replacing it with a Timeny...

I have a 50s Remington M722 in .257 Roberts. I've done absolutely NOTHING to this rifle, but set the trigger to a crisp 3 lbs (very easy to do without spending any money, youtube tutorials will tell you how) and tailor a handload for it. My load shoots a compressed load of H4831 under a Sierra 100 grain Game King. It shoots 1/2 MOA which is accurate enough for anything I'll do with it. It's also powerful, clocks 3150 fps and has a very low standard deviation (is very consistent).

Actually, I prefer the older guns. I do have a nice shooting .308 M7 Remington from the 90s, though. M700 triggers need no replacement unless you're a bench rest competitor or something. You just need to set it, or have a smith do it for you.

 

[Flatbush Harry]

I wrapped up my range work with this load and this rifle. I gave it the up 1 click, right 2 clicks and fired for effect. This 5-shot group was the result:



This is a nice result for an unmodified Rem 700 SPS-V save for a B&C Medaist A5 stock (0.514" or 0.491 MOA).

Now to try some distance.

FH

 

[GSSP]

Oh! I like show and tell. A few weeks back, just before I went to Montana on an Elk/Mule Deer hunt, I needed to adjust my zero. Rifle is a custom 6.5x47 Lapua on a Pierce SA, Broughton #3 barrel in a McMillan Rem Sporter Edge filled stock topped with a NF 2.5-10x32mm scope shooting the new Barnes 127 gr LRX @ 2830 fps.



I adjusted two 1/4 min clicks up and this is what I got; I locked it down and shot a 3x4 Mulie @ 500 yds 10 days later.



Oh, and these were at 200 yds!

 

[Flatbush Harry]

Nice work!

FH

 

[Kachok]

If you shoot for one hole accuracy handloading is the only way to shoot! I have my Tikka and one of my Savages dialed in to one hole rifles, mind you that much accuracy is a but of an overkill for normal hunting but it sure is fun