Last week I thought I had it figured out. I had a grouping of 3/4" with the 130 gr. TSX (50. 0 gr. of Varget) but I wanted to test it again and compare it to a grouping shot with another 0.5 grains of Varget. Both groupings showed a slight sign of pressure which was surprising but only at the bolt which was slightly sticky,,,,, the brass was fine and there was no flattening of any of the primers.
As I said, I found the slightly sticky bolt surprising because there was zero stickiness of the bolt last week,,,,BUT it was warmer last weekend than the previous weekend. BTW, both of these powder charges were still less than the suggest max. charge of 52.0 suggested by Barnes but on a side note,,,,all the charges are at or slightly above 100% for the loading data. Frankly, I don't even see how it would be possible to seat a bullet at max. because it would be so compressed when the brass is trimmed at the suggested length of 2.005".
Hhere's the data:
http://www.barnesbullets.com/files/2014/11/308WinWeb.pdf
The 50.5 gr. ammo had the better grouping (1 1/16" MOA) but I forgot to get a chrono reading on it. The 50.0 grain charge had a reading of 2976 but the group was twice the size as last week's. WTF?? I didn't think there were any shooting errors but I don't know with absolute certainty that there weren't,,,,everything seemed Ok with each pull of the trigger.
So here's a question regarding this minor stickiness at the bolt. Is this something to be avoided altogether or ??? Once again,,,,any advice would be appreciated.
In any event, I was super glad to be out testing that day because it poured like crazy during the night, right up to a half hour before I decided to give it a go. I thought for sure it might start up again but the weather held,,,,conditions were near perfect I thought (5 degrees C).
As I said, I found the slightly sticky bolt surprising because there was zero stickiness of the bolt last week,,,,BUT it was warmer last weekend than the previous weekend. BTW, both of these powder charges were still less than the suggest max. charge of 52.0 suggested by Barnes but on a side note,,,,all the charges are at or slightly above 100% for the loading data. Frankly, I don't even see how it would be possible to seat a bullet at max. because it would be so compressed when the brass is trimmed at the suggested length of 2.005".
Hhere's the data:
http://www.barnesbullets.com/files/2014/11/308WinWeb.pdf
The 50.5 gr. ammo had the better grouping (1 1/16" MOA) but I forgot to get a chrono reading on it. The 50.0 grain charge had a reading of 2976 but the group was twice the size as last week's. WTF?? I didn't think there were any shooting errors but I don't know with absolute certainty that there weren't,,,,everything seemed Ok with each pull of the trigger.
So here's a question regarding this minor stickiness at the bolt. Is this something to be avoided altogether or ??? Once again,,,,any advice would be appreciated.
In any event, I was super glad to be out testing that day because it poured like crazy during the night, right up to a half hour before I decided to give it a go. I thought for sure it might start up again but the weather held,,,,conditions were near perfect I thought (5 degrees C).
