Savage 12 F/TR handloads

In a 30"-barreled target rifle such as yours:

- any good brass (e.g. Winchester, Lapua, Norma, etc)
- any good primer (e.g. Fed 210M, Winchester WLR, CCI regular or BR)
- Varget to give 2950-3025fps (tune for accuracy, and minimize velocity SD or ES)

There are actually two Sierra 155 HPBTs these days. The older #2155 (formerly known as the Palma bullet), and the newer #2156 (now known as the Palma bullet - confusing!)

The #2155 Sierra is the original 155 grain target bullet. It is very straightforward to get this bullet to shoot well. Simply loading it to magazine length (2.800") works surprisingly well in most target rifles. Or if you wish, you can find where your lands are and tune the OAL relative to that, a good place to start might be with 15-20 thou of jump, then try more and try less.

The #2156 Sierra is longer and pointier (in order to get lower drag and less wind drift). Usually the changes that are made to reduce bullet drag also tend to make the bullet fussier, but apparently the #2156 is pretty straightforward. I haven't shot them yet so I have no personal experience with them. I have done some measurements of them, I'll likely start testing them with a C.O.A.L. that is about 80 thou longer (2.880"), which should be just a bit of jump in my rifle (7 thou in a new JGS 308 Obermayer chamber, but probably more like 15-20 in mine with 3000+ rounds through it).
 
sunray said:
You have to work up the load for your rifle. No two will shoot the same ammo the same way.
Click to expand...

"Yes, but..." in this case, he is going over very well-trodden ground. Simply by cloning "the standard Varget/S155" load, there's actually a pretty good chance his rifle will shoot well enough to win national-level TR competitions. There is probably room for improvement beyond that (which would be necessary to pursue for national-level F-Class competition), but it is nice just how much accuracy can be gotten pretty much out of the gate with a good .308 target rifle before any load development is done.
 
45gr. varget, 155 sierra #2155, lapua brass, fed. gm210m primer.
In my F/TR I get 2965fps and 5 shot groups that measure 1/2"
10 shots 3/4". The groups would be tighter but there is a problem with the nut behind the trigger.:):):):):)
 
Thanks for the tips guys. I know that I have to tune the load for my gun, this isnt my first time handloading. I just find its always good to get some hints from people that already own the rifle.
The bullets I have a quantity of the are the 2156, the newer Palma bullet.
 
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