Found the Load---Finally!!

Eagleye

Eagleye

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Been playing with a "new to me" Parker Hale 308 Norma Magnum. This is my 4th one of these. All the others shot well with the 180 Partition and either H4831 or Norma MRP. This one did not work well with either. [nor with Vihtavuori N165, WXR, XMR3100, H4350, IMR 4350, IMR 7828, Reloder 22 or 19] I was getting a bit frustrated with groups no smaller than 2" at 100. Huntable, but not where I like to be. On a lark, I tossed together some loads with very slow burners and the 180 Partition. I tried RL25, Vihtavuori N170, H1000, & Retumbo. They all did better than the ones mentioned first, but this rig really came alive with RL25 and particularly H1000. The first group I shot with 79.0 grains of H1000 at 100, 3 shots went into a ragged hole. :eek::D
Shot another group, and it was a repeat of group #1. Decided this was looking pretty good, so moved out to 200 meters and fired a group....exactly 1", center to center. Now this gets my attention!! I let the rifle cool right down to ambient temperature and fired one more group at 200. This one measures 5/8", c-to-c. I have not chrony'd it yet, but I shot it out to 300, [group there was just under 2"] and by the point of impact, it has to be close to 3100. I will verify tomorrow afternoon. Guess those Elk better watch out now! This is an example of how fussy a rifle can be, but also how well they will shoot if you find the load they do like. Regards, Eagleye.
 
That should work.:)

I've been toying with the idea of building a .308 Norma in a stainless, but its so damn close to a .300WM, I don't know if I should bother...:confused:
 
Finding the perfect load, is the holy grail of reloaders. It can take some serious time, effort, and $,
I'm sure Eagleye is well aware of that, as most long time reloaders are.
For the newbie, just don't give up. Keep trying new powders, bullets, primers, and techniques, until you have what you want.
Reloading is not a cure-all for a bad rifle of course, but the difference it can make can be astonishing.
 
blargon said:
That should work.:)

I've been toying with the idea of building a .308 Norma in a stainless, but its so damn close to a .300WM, I don't know if I should bother...:confused:
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It's true that the 308 Norma and the 300 Win Mag are basically ballistic twins, but I have always preferred the design of the Norma case for a standard long action rifle, since the neck is slightly longer and the overall length makes it possible to seat a bullet out a bit more, usually. As far as superiority of one over the other in the field....it doesn't exist, except in the mind of some egotist! I make my brass from 300 Winchester Mag brass. One pass through a FL die, trim, chamfer, load and shoot away! I have always found that the big 30's [any of them] pack a bit more authority and shoot a bit flatter for those shots on the far side of 400 yards, thus my 308 Norma or my 30-338 are favored for Elk. Regards, Eagleye.
 
Congrats on finding a 'recipe' that really works for you and great choice of calibre:). It's my favorite 30 calibre magnum. You're ahead of me though. I'm only on my 2nd one. My 1st was a Parker Hale but a few years back I latched on to a Schultz & Larsen.:D
It took me a lot of 'testing' before I found the 'sweet' load and that ended up being a combination of IMR 4350 and the 200gr Sierra B.T. 'Playing' with the C.O.A.L. made a significant difference. I got a 5 shot group @ 100yds measuring 1.061" and minus one as a flyer;), the 4 shot group measures 0.722". Don't know if you're interested but I have a scan of the target with reload info/particulars. If you are, PM me your e-mail address and I'll send it to you. There's a number of Moose that have come to hate it.:D
 
Some guns can be absolute nightmares. A dealer friend of mine had a 22-250 Rem 700 heavy barrel, it was sold new, returned, as with every factory load the guy tried, it was patterning around 2-3 " at 100. Having access to lots of different powders & bullets, buddy spent the better part of a year playing with different loads. Just about ready to rip the barrel off and try again, a new powder came on the market, decided to give it a shot, and bingo! 1/2 " group, but with only one bullet. The rest were around 1-2". But with the magic load, this thing would shoot those 1/2 inchers all day long. Very wierd for a factory Remmy, sad part is without having access to all the bullets & powder, this thing would have been a barn door prop.
 
In the mid 1960s I played around with brand new Schultz and Larson rifles. Took them out of the box, put a scope on them and sighted them in for a customer, as well as tutoring them on reloading. One weekend I took five 7x61 rifles home with me. Both the 7x61 and the 308 Norma Magnum were exceedingly accurate right out of the box, and they were all the same.
I have often pointed out on these threads the importance of having the rifle well bedded. The Schultz and Larson's always came well bedded, but that was the only brand you could count on. I did preliminary shooting with several other brands and calibres of rifles and it was very common for a new rifle to walk the bullets on a five shot group, as the barrel warmed up. If such a rifle was for a special customer, I would take it home and work on the bedding until it was satisfactory. For a customer just getting it to hunt with, I would just tell him to make sure he got his animal with no more than three shots!
I also found factory ammo, at least Norma and CIL Dominion, capable of making five shot groups of an inch, or very little more, once the rifle was bedded.
The Norma factory ammo was also very potent! I have seen a 308 Magnum bolt so locked up that it took help from a piece of 2x4 to break it loose. We blamed it on the chamber not being shiny clean, as it turned out OK. And no, it was normal clean to start with and not covered in anything like grease.
We loaded them with Norma 205 and used the Norma bullets, a semi-boattail 180 grain in the 308 and a 160 in the 7x61. The jackets on the bullets were a grey, metalic colour.
I once took a S&L 308 Norma Magnum to a turkey shoot, where some of the competition was off hand at 100 yards.
 
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It certainly can be frustrating trying to find the "right" load all right - infinite variables and then you get told to start seating 50 thou out for a TSX when everything you thought about crowding the rifling made sense. I'm still determined that my .45-70 XLR can shoot subMOA @ 100, but not yet! Trying a 300 gr Barnes now in odd powders - the standards aren't doing it. Wish to hell somebody around this part of the country would stock Vihtavuori powders - all of them.
But hey, half the fun is finding out what you thought HAD to work simply doesn't and out comes the bullet puller!
 
sbtennex said:
It certainly can be frustrating trying to find the "right" load all right - infinite variables and then you get told to start seating 50 thou out for a TSX when everything you thought about crowding the rifling made sense. I'm still determined that my .45-70 XLR can shoot subMOA @ 100, but not yet! Trying a 300 gr Barnes now in odd powders - the standards aren't doing it. Wish to hell somebody around this part of the country would stock Vihtavuori powders - all of them.
But hey, half the fun is finding out what you thought HAD to work simply doesn't and out comes the bullet puller!
Click to expand...
In my 45-70 Marlin 1895GS what seems to work well for me is IMR 4198 & IMR 3031 behind either the 405gr Remington FN or the 400gr Speer FN. For cast bullets, there's a 420gr GC and a 405gr BB that perform well, especially in some of the lower velocity ranges.
 
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