Wife bought me a Browning A-bolt Target (.308 Win.) for our 10th anniversary.
We found it in WSS in Calgary and I picked up a couple boxes of Fed. GMM ammo. $34.95 a box!!!!
A little rich for me, so I decided that I'd try to duplicate the load myself. I did buy the factory ammo anyway.
I have a lot of Fed brass, so I weighed a bunch and found 20 that were within 1 grain in weight (after trimming)
I de-burred the flash-holes and outside-turned the necks very lightly.
Some browsing on the "net" and I decided that I'd try 42 grains of IMR 4895
Fed GMM primers, some 168 grain Sierra BTSP match bullets that I picked up at the swap meet last spring ($20 for 400 of them).
Seated the bullets to 2.810" COAL
Off to the range 3 days ago:
Remember this is a brand-new rifle, so barrel isn't broken in yet.
5 rounds at 50 meters with Winchester 150 grain hunting ammo to get close on paper, then out to 100 meters to try. I cleaned the barrel down to bare metal every 5 rounds.
The factory GMM did just under 1" , 5 round groups. The reloads that I built gave equal results.
No chrono at the range that day, so I don't know how fast they were moving.
So, my reloads that cost me $0.26 per round did as well at 100 meters as the factory stuff that cost $1.75 per round.
Just for giggles, I tried some rounds that I loaded for the Norinco M-14 (46.0 gr WW748 and Prvi Partizan 150 gr. FMJ, IVI brass, WLR primers) at the 500 meter gong. I gave the scope 10MOA up in windage and hit the gong 5 for 5 off the bags.
Like this rifle already!
We found it in WSS in Calgary and I picked up a couple boxes of Fed. GMM ammo. $34.95 a box!!!!
A little rich for me, so I decided that I'd try to duplicate the load myself. I did buy the factory ammo anyway.
I have a lot of Fed brass, so I weighed a bunch and found 20 that were within 1 grain in weight (after trimming)
I de-burred the flash-holes and outside-turned the necks very lightly.
Some browsing on the "net" and I decided that I'd try 42 grains of IMR 4895
Fed GMM primers, some 168 grain Sierra BTSP match bullets that I picked up at the swap meet last spring ($20 for 400 of them).
Seated the bullets to 2.810" COAL
Off to the range 3 days ago:
Remember this is a brand-new rifle, so barrel isn't broken in yet.
5 rounds at 50 meters with Winchester 150 grain hunting ammo to get close on paper, then out to 100 meters to try. I cleaned the barrel down to bare metal every 5 rounds.
The factory GMM did just under 1" , 5 round groups. The reloads that I built gave equal results.
No chrono at the range that day, so I don't know how fast they were moving.
So, my reloads that cost me $0.26 per round did as well at 100 meters as the factory stuff that cost $1.75 per round.
Just for giggles, I tried some rounds that I loaded for the Norinco M-14 (46.0 gr WW748 and Prvi Partizan 150 gr. FMJ, IVI brass, WLR primers) at the 500 meter gong. I gave the scope 10MOA up in windage and hit the gong 5 for 5 off the bags.
Like this rifle already!
