OP
OP
Crowman
Member
Well Coltdriver,
Interesting point; however, not sure about headspace issues. I do not have a set of Go, No-Go, or Field gauges to verify gun chamber with. Having said that......
We cooked up up three different hand-loads for him using virgin Remington 7mm-08 brass that had been inspected, sorted, measured and trimmed to SAAMI minimum as listed in our reloading manuals. We have Sierra, Speer, Barnes, Nosler, Hornady, Alliant, IMR, Hodgdons and Lyman on hand as references. We are using RCBS X-Dies to control case growth. Large rifle primers were CCI #34 (mil-spec for 7.62x51 NATO class cartridges), and we experimented with several powders and charges to find loads that would group close enough to each other so that my friend could cherry-pick bullets for the task and would be assured of killing a deer in the vitals, and still have a bullet that would hold together in a black bear. All-in all, the different handloads grouped then about 1" - 1-1/4" of each other at 100 yards. We loaded 139 grain Hornady SST's, Combined Technologies coated 140 grain soft points and finally 140 grain Nosler Partitions. COL was held to SAAMI specs as well. We chose good mid-range loads rather than hot-rodding stuff (did that 30+ years ago, learned better; no longer young, dumb and stupid.)
Fired cases showed no over pressure problems, flowing primers, etc., either. Also, X-Dies work. No appreciable case growth after measuring fired cases. The last time we shot his rifle, it was cool, and dead calm with no cross wind.
Again, all was rosy and happy until we sent his rifle back to get the rust issue fixed, then things went to hades in a handbasket once the rifle came back.
Will keep folks posted as to what Ruger does. He's shipping it back this coming Friday. Not the first time over the years that either of us have returned a firearm back to the factory to correct problems. Last time, they kept his rifle several months.
Interesting point; however, not sure about headspace issues. I do not have a set of Go, No-Go, or Field gauges to verify gun chamber with. Having said that......
We cooked up up three different hand-loads for him using virgin Remington 7mm-08 brass that had been inspected, sorted, measured and trimmed to SAAMI minimum as listed in our reloading manuals. We have Sierra, Speer, Barnes, Nosler, Hornady, Alliant, IMR, Hodgdons and Lyman on hand as references. We are using RCBS X-Dies to control case growth. Large rifle primers were CCI #34 (mil-spec for 7.62x51 NATO class cartridges), and we experimented with several powders and charges to find loads that would group close enough to each other so that my friend could cherry-pick bullets for the task and would be assured of killing a deer in the vitals, and still have a bullet that would hold together in a black bear. All-in all, the different handloads grouped then about 1" - 1-1/4" of each other at 100 yards. We loaded 139 grain Hornady SST's, Combined Technologies coated 140 grain soft points and finally 140 grain Nosler Partitions. COL was held to SAAMI specs as well. We chose good mid-range loads rather than hot-rodding stuff (did that 30+ years ago, learned better; no longer young, dumb and stupid.)
Fired cases showed no over pressure problems, flowing primers, etc., either. Also, X-Dies work. No appreciable case growth after measuring fired cases. The last time we shot his rifle, it was cool, and dead calm with no cross wind.
Again, all was rosy and happy until we sent his rifle back to get the rust issue fixed, then things went to hades in a handbasket once the rifle came back.
Will keep folks posted as to what Ruger does. He's shipping it back this coming Friday. Not the first time over the years that either of us have returned a firearm back to the factory to correct problems. Last time, they kept his rifle several months.
