Good day Gents
Its been a while since I posted, so please be gentle. As some of you may know, I have had some issues with my Marlin XL7 30-06. But even with all crap I have had, I did not quit trying to sort it out.She is my first new rifle. So over the years i have tried and tried, tested and tested. Approximately 2000 rounds have gone through this baby after they properly fixed the extractor, ( found out this week that i was not the only who had the extractor break.)
Unfortunately down here in Namibia( north of South Africa, south of Angola and west of Zimbabwe for those that do not know), we don't have a lot of options when it comes to gunpowder and primers. The variety of the latter only recently increased. Bullets I have tried are 150gr PMP, 180gr PMP( if you ever find some one who tells you these are great, slap him HARD!!. PMP's nickname directly translated is FART ME FLAT.). I did Sierra Gameking and Prohunter with average results, which was a 1" group at 100m( +- 140yards), which most people will say is good.
Then switched over to Nosler Ballistic tips 168gr, which during load development would constanly give me .75" groups at the same distance.
My basic recipe was Highlander Bass( Privi Partizan), CCI 250 magnum primers, and a S365 Powder which is supposedly equivalent to IMR4350. This however was not enough for me, because a .75 group on 100m turns into a 2'' group at 200m and so on and so forth. So the tests continued.
Changed powder to S355 which is supposed to be equivalant to IMR4320. Did not change my brass, or primers( primers due to availabilty issues and brass, because I have a lot of it) and the result was outstanding. If i could sort out the one bloody flier i have every time, then it will be a constant grouping of .25 and less. The usual result is two shot in one,where you can barely see the outline of the second hole and then there is is the one that is 1 to 3 cm off. If the flier went to the same side every time, it would likely mean that I pulled the shot, but it goes left, right, up and down. Also, there is no pattern. It would be 1,2, flyer, then say flier,1,2 or 1,flier,2.
The only item in my recipe that has stayed the same over the past two years, is the brass, which I will be tossing away TODAY. This due to 15 shots loaded, and 5 not being able to fit the rifle becuase of the should being bent.
I fully understand that a .25 group at 100m ( and .25 at 150m which i shot today) is good, but i need to eliminate the flier.
Could it be the Brass that is bent or old. The reason i want to sort this out is because the shots we take are between 50m and 600m, thus if you take a 600meter shot and its a flier, you have a long way to walk if you would the animal.
Help, advise and Critism will be highly appreciated.
rgds
The Neck