Kimber Adirondack load development

Any chance you can get your hands on some Reloader 15? FWIW I started doing my ladder tests the same as Mystic Precision after reading an article on his site. It has saved me a lot of bullets and frustration in the long run. Not quite in your rifle's class but my early 90s Rem Mtn rifle is best when I shoot 2 shots then cool. If I shoot three it starts to take much longer to cool. Aside from fusions try some silver box Win 150s. My 30-06 used to group like a hot damn with them, my 30-30 also does best with win silvertips(compared fusions, blue box, leverlution, remington, and silvertips).

I did almost the same process with my Ruger as you are now. I was working every angle at the same time, but eventually I found the key ingredients and it's been good times ever since. Keep at it, I'm sure your tweaking and persistence will pay off.

crazey_davey...can you give some specific tips for the "magic" hold?

Willy
 
I don't have any reloader 15 on hand, but have been offered some. I'm going to try the fusions just because that's what I tried before bedding, so it's really just to keep things consistent. Also, the h4895 and the vv n150 looked like the most promising ladders, so I started there. If the bedding helps to shrink the groups, I'll tune the trigger down a bit to see if I get further improvement.
 
All my kimbers have the triggers down to 2 1/4 lbs. Certainly made a difference for me. I've had the same walking issue with all my pencil thin barrels - kimbers, rem ti's etc. The first couple of shots were almost always nearly touching, and then things went to hell. But we always seem to have difficulty remembering that in a hunting situation, that's just fine. We shouldn't be taking third and 4th shots at animals - all that shows me is that something went wrong with the first one or two...

Anyway, I've found with my 270 MA that if I took the first shot from every group and made a "group" out of those, I'd end up with right near 1/2 MOA accuracy... To the OP - looks like you're on track with figuring out your Adirondack. Good luck!

Cleo
 
cleo said:
All my kimbers have the triggers down to 2 1/4 lbs. Certainly made a difference for me. I've had the same walking issue with all my pencil thin barrels - kimbers, rem ti's etc. The first couple of shots were almost always nearly touching, and then things went to hell. But we always seem to have difficulty remembering that in a hunting situation, that's just fine. We shouldn't be taking third and 4th shots at animals - all that shows me is that something went wrong with the first one or two...
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I agree completely. It's not a target rifle, it's a hunting rifle. The problem has been that it's not always the first 2 being close. Sometimes the first 2 are 2 inches apart. However, the bedding seems to have helped, and I just finished adjusting the trigger down to 2.5 lbs, so I'll have another go at it. In all honesty, this rifle is already 'good enough' for hunting with, but I would like to try to get the most out of it.
 
Riverboy said:
I agree completely. It's not a target rifle, it's a hunting rifle. The problem has been that it's not always the first 2 being close. Sometimes the first 2 are 2 inches apart. However, the bedding seems to have helped, and I just finished adjusting the trigger down to 2.5 lbs, so I'll have another go at it. In all honesty, this rifle is already 'good enough' for hunting with, but I would like to try to get the most out of it.
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There's a good internet article on kimber blind magazines I read a couple of years back. It talks about how the internal mag box pinches between the stock and the action, and how if you dremel down the high points just a bit it can relieve some stress in there that can lead to stringing shots... I'm not expert on this stuff but you could look it up for yourself and see if that's an issue with yours...

C.
 
So I had another go at it, here's the results. I went with H4895, Varget, and bL2-C with the 150 partition. I have also loaded 180 gn Hornady SST's with rl-17, just for chits and giggles. I only got to shoot one group with the 180's, because the weather was atrocious. I'm not very impressed so far.




All the above are with 150 gn Nosler Partitions, except the last, which are with 180 Hornady SST's. Shot at 100 yards. Maybe this thing just doesn't like 150 gn bullets. I think I will try 165's next. I still have the 180's to shoot, as I didn't get through them all due to uncomfortable weather. Apparently, neither the bedding or the trigger made any kind of a difference at all.
 
bearkilr said:
Nothing wrong with most of those. How long did you wait between shots for the 5 round group, and more importantly, why 5 shots? If you're expecting a 5 shot cloverleaf with a sub 5 lb 308W, you're going to burn up a lot of ammo.
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The routine so far has been to shoot 3, them wait for the barrel to cool. 5 shots is mostly because I don't trust 3, and since I'm waiting so long between shots it shouldn't really matter anyway.
 
Riverboy said:
The problem has been that it's not always the first 2 being close. Sometimes the first 2 are 2 inches apart.
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Your targets aren't making much sense to me, it would be nice if you could number the bullet holes as was mentioned earlier. So sometimes the first two are two inches apart and then they close up tighter? The main reason I ask is there doesn't seem to be any consistency in what is happening on paper but that would be easier to tell if you could tell us which hole was first and so on.

Have you tried any 150g or 168g TSX's yet?

You mentioned trying a few different ways of holding the rifle, when are you doing this? The reason why I ask is consistency. If you are trying different things between each group you shoot that we are seeing? When and how are you cleaning the barrel?

I am trying to get a better understanding of what is happening, but after a quick read through the thread again, there are many things happening so it is hard to get consistency.
 
I will number the holes next time I am out. Yes, sometimes the first is one inch to the right, the second is one inch to the left, the third is somewhere in the middle, the fourth might be back where the second one is, then the fifth might be touching the third. Other times the first 2 might be touching, then everything goes to crap from there. There does not appear, to me anyway, to be any rhyme or reason to it.

I haven't tried TSX's yet, mostly because the velocities out of this 18.5 inch barrel don't seem to be high enough.

The different holds are something that was suggested back in the beginning of this thread. I am not changing holds in the middle of a group. The 'off hand on top of the scope hold', and the 'off hand gripping the rear bag' holds are the 2 that I have been using, but I usually pick one, and stick with it all day. So far, one has not been better than the other, although the 'off hand on top of the scope' hold has the bonus of controlling muzzle jump better.

I have only cleaned the barrel a few times since the first range day, and I am using wipeout, then some g96, then dry patches. Using a bore guide, then mopping the chamber afterwards.
 
I have never had much luck with nosler partitions as far as tack driving accuracy goes. I'm not saying they aren't accurate, they just never performed for me. I have had success with hornady btsp and sierra match king, which both would be fine for 308 win velocity's. I would try both those bullets in 150 gr. IMR 4064 is another good powder for 308.
 
If I were you I'd buy a box for Federal Gold Match loads with the 168gr SMK. That should give you a good baseline to figure out if it's you, the rifle or your reloads.
 
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