Just thought I'd share some good news with everyone. Partially because I'm so excited and feel like telling the world, hahah.
Spent all night Saturday night with a friend unboxing all of our reloading gear. Went off of a Lyman Manual, Youtube, CGN, Google and a little common sense. It would have been invaluable to have a reloading veteran with us but it wasn't going to happen.
Rifles were as follows, with load data as well.
Remington 700 XCR Long Range Tactical, 26" 1:10 .300 Win - No modifications, Vortex Viper 6.5-20x50
Berger 185 grain VLD's, 77.1 grains of Hodgdon H1000, CCI BR2 Primers, Federal and Nosler once fired brass.
None of my cases were the same length. They all differed by about .040. Puzzled by this I just figured I'd make sure they weren't over maximum and leave them be. I neck sized them all because they were once fired from my rifle. The COAL was my maximum magazine length. On my dummy seating rounds I colored a bullet entirely with black sharpy. I kept seating lower until I could see scuffing on the bullet. Once this was apparent I figured I was just jamming into the lands and I was good to go. I knew this would create some more pressure but seeing as I was 1.9 grains Below max load I figured this would be fine.
H&K SL8 - 18.5" 1:8 .223 - Bushnell Elite 4200 Tactical 6-24x50
77 grain Sierra Match Kings, 25 grains of Varget, CCI BR Small Rifle, Remington, Federal and American Eagle assorted once fired brass.
Loaded this one up to maximum magazine length. Had some issues priming, then we realized we were repriming brass that had crimped primers. Decided to keep the ones we already did but continue with non crimped federal brass only. 25 grains of Varget was said to be the max load in the Lyman manual for a 77 grain SMK. However the pressure listed is 5000 CUP below any of the other 9 powders listed. Varget also had the lowest CUP overall.
Rushed to the spot around 4PM. Set up shop on a huge mound of peat moss. Someone had dumped about 5 yards at the place we go shoot. Basically shooting conditions were terrible but we made the best out of what we had.
My first shot at 100 was 1" high and 1" right of bullseye. I was happy I wasn't dead, and I'm pretty damn sure I flinched hard and closed my eyes before letting her fly, LOL. A part of my was praying that Lee does some serious QA on their scales. Waited 5 minutes, dumped my next one and she was .25" away! The SL8 took some tinkering with the scope as it had been previously shooting FMJ 55 grain stuff. No pressure signs were apparent AT ALL.
Running out of light we started to work the gong @ approx 220 yards. We removed our sunshades and went till it was acceptable.
We both punched the same hole once each, and our 4 shot group (all we had time for, couldn't see well enough anymore) was 1.5"
Not bad for 2 loading rookies who taught themselves I think! We'd like to make it to some proper tables with rests to see what these loads will really do, I'm confident they'll be Sub-Moa. I'll be sure to have pictures from our next outing.
Also thanks to all the great posters in this forum, would have been clueless if it wasn't for the months of reading I've been doing on here. If anyone has any comments or advice feel free, I'll soak it up like a sponge.
Spent all night Saturday night with a friend unboxing all of our reloading gear. Went off of a Lyman Manual, Youtube, CGN, Google and a little common sense. It would have been invaluable to have a reloading veteran with us but it wasn't going to happen.
Rifles were as follows, with load data as well.
Remington 700 XCR Long Range Tactical, 26" 1:10 .300 Win - No modifications, Vortex Viper 6.5-20x50
Berger 185 grain VLD's, 77.1 grains of Hodgdon H1000, CCI BR2 Primers, Federal and Nosler once fired brass.
None of my cases were the same length. They all differed by about .040. Puzzled by this I just figured I'd make sure they weren't over maximum and leave them be. I neck sized them all because they were once fired from my rifle. The COAL was my maximum magazine length. On my dummy seating rounds I colored a bullet entirely with black sharpy. I kept seating lower until I could see scuffing on the bullet. Once this was apparent I figured I was just jamming into the lands and I was good to go. I knew this would create some more pressure but seeing as I was 1.9 grains Below max load I figured this would be fine.
H&K SL8 - 18.5" 1:8 .223 - Bushnell Elite 4200 Tactical 6-24x50
77 grain Sierra Match Kings, 25 grains of Varget, CCI BR Small Rifle, Remington, Federal and American Eagle assorted once fired brass.
Loaded this one up to maximum magazine length. Had some issues priming, then we realized we were repriming brass that had crimped primers. Decided to keep the ones we already did but continue with non crimped federal brass only. 25 grains of Varget was said to be the max load in the Lyman manual for a 77 grain SMK. However the pressure listed is 5000 CUP below any of the other 9 powders listed. Varget also had the lowest CUP overall.
Rushed to the spot around 4PM. Set up shop on a huge mound of peat moss. Someone had dumped about 5 yards at the place we go shoot. Basically shooting conditions were terrible but we made the best out of what we had.
My first shot at 100 was 1" high and 1" right of bullseye. I was happy I wasn't dead, and I'm pretty damn sure I flinched hard and closed my eyes before letting her fly, LOL. A part of my was praying that Lee does some serious QA on their scales. Waited 5 minutes, dumped my next one and she was .25" away! The SL8 took some tinkering with the scope as it had been previously shooting FMJ 55 grain stuff. No pressure signs were apparent AT ALL.
Running out of light we started to work the gong @ approx 220 yards. We removed our sunshades and went till it was acceptable.
We both punched the same hole once each, and our 4 shot group (all we had time for, couldn't see well enough anymore) was 1.5"
Not bad for 2 loading rookies who taught themselves I think! We'd like to make it to some proper tables with rests to see what these loads will really do, I'm confident they'll be Sub-Moa. I'll be sure to have pictures from our next outing.
Also thanks to all the great posters in this forum, would have been clueless if it wasn't for the months of reading I've been doing on here. If anyone has any comments or advice feel free, I'll soak it up like a sponge.
