Morning range time today

[CTom]

I hit the range this morning to shoot some 55 grain bullet loads I had worked up using two different powders for the Savage Axis 22-250. Vargert and H380 powders got the nod today with Sierra Game Kings [hollow points] and Speer TNT's. Basically I just wanted to see what potential was there with a few different changes using 5 shot groups and I found a couple likely candidates that will get tweaked in a few days. I'm pretty certain that I can draw these two loads up nice and tight.

I also had two 40 grain bullet loads, one using Varget and the other CFE223 powder. Both loads were pushing Hornady's V Max 40 grain pills. The CFE load , actually the powder itself, I have not shot while its been under 50 degrees so at 26 when I hit the bench it was a great opportunity to see how cold may affect the powder and shooting, but not to worry. Of all the shooting, the CFE load was the tightest with a group of about 1", maybe a hair larger, at 100 yards. I was absolutely impressed because the two loading charts I use suggest that the little 40 grain bullets in the gun with the twist rate it has will not stabilize. Wrongo. Beautiful little holes, nice and clean. The Varget load was only slightly larger than the group with the CFE. I have some 40 TNTs that I did shoot last fall when it was fairly warm yet and they were a very clean and tight grouping bullet but I ran out of them and didn't have any to try today with the CFE in the cold, but I am confident they'll be a winner along side that Vmax. The gun, incidently, is sighted about an inch low at 100 yards, pretty much dead on at 200.

The club is down in a valley and wind was going well on the flat land, but the range stayed quite quiet, until I fired off the last 40 grain round. Out of ammo, out of time, let it blow. On the road home when I hit the prairie flags were standing straight out and snapping. Down in the ditch it was blowing but not that bad. I'm darned happy with my little test run. Now to order some more of the 40 grain THT's and another couple 40 grain bullets to try. Nosler has one that I'm going to test out and there's another 40 hollow point that I want to try.

I had two stray factory rounds that supposedly push the 50 grain V Max at 4000 fps at the muzzle and for kicks I sent them to 300 yards at a 12" steel disc. One connected, the other? Who knows. Man this gun is fun.

This was copied from another site from this morning.

 

[Rifflelord]

I've shot CFE loads in freezing weather and saw even tighter groups than I thought I would. The charts said one thing, but the targets told a different story. That's why I test things out in real life instead of just trusting what the data says on paper.

 

[Mini me]

Cold weather’s thrown me curveballs too. Loads that didn’t seem impressive on paper ended up grouping tighter than I expected. For me, actual range time beats charts every time.

 

[Alan]

I hit the range this morning to shoot some 55 grain bullet loads I had worked up using two different powders for the Savage Axis 22-250. Vargert and H380 powders got the nod today with Sierra Game Kings [hollow points] and Speer TNT's. Basically I just wanted to see what potential was there with a few different changes using 5 shot groups and I found a couple likely candidates that will get tweaked in a few days. I'm pretty certain that I can draw these two loads up nice and tight.

I also had two 40 grain bullet loads, one using Varget and the other CFE223 powder. Both loads were pushing Hornady's V Max 40 grain pills. The CFE load , actually the powder itself, I have not shot while its been under 50 degrees so at 26 when I hit the bench it was a great opportunity to see how cold may affect the powder and shooting, but not to worry. Of all the shooting, the CFE load was the tightest with a group of about 1", maybe a hair larger, at 100 yards. I was absolutely impressed because the two loading charts I use suggest that the little 40 grain bullets in the gun with the twist rate it has will not stabilize. Wrongo. Beautiful little holes, nice and clean. The Varget load was only slightly larger than the group with the CFE. I have some 40 TNTs that I did shoot last fall when it was fairly warm yet and they were a very clean and tight grouping bullet but I ran out of them and didn't have any to try today with the CFE in the cold, but I am confident they'll be a winner along side that Vmax. The gun, incidently, is sighted about an inch low at 100 yards, pretty much dead on at 200.

The club is down in a valley and wind was going well on the flat land, but the range stayed quite quiet, until I fired off the last 40 grain round. Out of ammo, out of time, let it blow. On the road home when I hit the prairie flags were standing straight out and snapping. Down in the ditch it was blowing but not that bad. I'm darned happy with my little test run. Now to order some more of the 40 grain THT's and another couple 40 grain bullets to try. Nosler has one that I'm going to test out and there's another 40 hollow point that I want to try.

I had two stray factory rounds that supposedly push the 50 grain V Max at 4000 fps at the muzzle and for kicks I sent them to 300 yards at a 12" steel disc. One connected, the other? Who knows. Man this gun is fun.

This was copied from another site from this morning.

That’s the kind of range day you chase...data, tight groups and one load quietly stealing the spotlight.

 

[CTom]

I look at graphs, and charts and load data a lot, but nothing, period, speaks more truth than sitting down at the bench and finding out first hand.

I've got ten rounds each of .5 grains and 1.0 grain over the load I shot here using the little 40 grain TNT bullet. I need to put these on paper. The 1.0 grain over load is going to have me in the 4200-4300 fps realm and I want to see if the extra umph will tighten the groups up. If there is no appreciable improvement in the ten shot group, the loads will go back down to what I shot in this test.

Right now the 40 grain TNT bullet is a super nice shooter that has this gun crow, coyote, and woodchuck ready so to save on barrel wear it'll be used exclusively for that type of hunting but certainly not a high volume gun at a sitting.