- Location
- In the middle of gopher country
where to start??
I have 3 rifles that are my go-to varmint shooters. These are a Sako 22-250 (1973 vintage) with a Smith barrel, a Savage Model 10 223 Rem, and a Tikka T-3 223.
So....I reloaded rounds for all 3 using Blue Dot for the Sako and IMR4198 for the other 2. The Savage and Sako reloads were topped with a Hornaday SP SX 55gn. bullets. The Tikka had 50gn PSP Rem's.
All of these reloads have been used for at least 4years now other than the Hornaday bullets.
Off to the killing ground I go.
All goes well until I put the Savage on the rest.
Fire a round at an unsuspecting prairie rat....yesSSS typical blowup.
Pick another victim...fire.....missed. Ooooops, crap happens. Fire a second round... missed. Now that is really strange.
Fire another, another miss.
OK, time out.
Put up a target board at 100 yds. Fire a round....no hole in the paper. WTF...
To shorten the story..... I finally had to move the target board to 15 yards...lo and behold... a hole in the paper,,,but it's keyholed. Try again, same result.
Fortunately, the Tikka and Savage use exactly the same load and the chambers are so close that the loads are interchangeable. So I fire some loads meant for the Tikka in the Savage. The Tikka loads have 50gn Rem PSP topping them. The paper tells me we are on course. Nothing wrong with barrel or the rifle.
Long story short. Pulled all 500 rounds of Savage SP SX and put them on top of the Sako loads. Changed bullets for the Savage to Hornady 55gn SP's and consequently the accuracy problem went away.
The Sako shoots the SX's just fine and the velocity of the bullet is higher than in the Savage.
Strange tale but true...velocity is not a factor but twist might be.
The Sako has a gain twist which I believe starts at 1-20 and ends at 1-14.
I have read about bullets coming apart but this satisfies my mind that it does happen.
I have 3 rifles that are my go-to varmint shooters. These are a Sako 22-250 (1973 vintage) with a Smith barrel, a Savage Model 10 223 Rem, and a Tikka T-3 223.
So....I reloaded rounds for all 3 using Blue Dot for the Sako and IMR4198 for the other 2. The Savage and Sako reloads were topped with a Hornaday SP SX 55gn. bullets. The Tikka had 50gn PSP Rem's.
All of these reloads have been used for at least 4years now other than the Hornaday bullets.
Off to the killing ground I go.
All goes well until I put the Savage on the rest.
Fire a round at an unsuspecting prairie rat....yesSSS typical blowup.
Pick another victim...fire.....missed. Ooooops, crap happens. Fire a second round... missed. Now that is really strange.
Fire another, another miss.
OK, time out.
Put up a target board at 100 yds. Fire a round....no hole in the paper. WTF...
To shorten the story..... I finally had to move the target board to 15 yards...lo and behold... a hole in the paper,,,but it's keyholed. Try again, same result.
Fortunately, the Tikka and Savage use exactly the same load and the chambers are so close that the loads are interchangeable. So I fire some loads meant for the Tikka in the Savage. The Tikka loads have 50gn Rem PSP topping them. The paper tells me we are on course. Nothing wrong with barrel or the rifle.
Long story short. Pulled all 500 rounds of Savage SP SX and put them on top of the Sako loads. Changed bullets for the Savage to Hornady 55gn SP's and consequently the accuracy problem went away.
The Sako shoots the SX's just fine and the velocity of the bullet is higher than in the Savage.
Strange tale but true...velocity is not a factor but twist might be.
The Sako has a gain twist which I believe starts at 1-20 and ends at 1-14.
I have read about bullets coming apart but this satisfies my mind that it does happen.
