Leeman

If you go 1-8 it should handle most things, although I'm not sure about the solids. I had a Dasher which had 1-7.5 and it stabilised the 110SMK which is quite a long bullet. As to gunsmiths, Neil Mckillop seems to be highly recommended, not used him myself, don't think he is that far away from you.

Can't really help other than with a 107 SMK/N160/CCI450 I started at 38.5gns and it was safe, so SHOULD be safe with a 75 grain bullet although possibly a bit slow burning. No-one can give you a maximum load as it depends on your own rifle/barrel/case/powder/primer/bullet combination

You can get an uprated spring which should give you a better release, also check the stock has enough clearance for the assembly. I think I got a Darrell Holland item from Brownells.

I've a Remington 40X I bought new in 2000 or so, must have fired well over 4000 rounds, many on NZ ranges, but not in the bush, bolt handle is fine and got the original extractor, never failed to pull a case out, even some on the very warm side. I couldn't get on with the trigger, in hindsight I should have ordered the 2 ounce factory unit so ended up with a Rifle Basix L3, but nothing wrong with the original trigger I just couldn't get it light enough for me.

I doubt they would specify a value. Anschutz used to supply a bent allen wrench with the target rifles which gave way when the 'correct' torque was applied to the action screws. I'd start at 3.5nm and go up in .5nm increments. Wouldn't go past 6nm. Would be interested to hear the results. I remember an article possibly in target sports years ago where one of the top Match/TR shooters experimented with torgue settings on a full bore rifle but to me you've got enough with charge weight/seating depth/neck tension to play with which you don't on a rimfire. I've never tried it on centrefires, just snug upto 6nm and leave them there.

I don't know what rifle you have and how it's bedded but if you've a torque screwdriver you should try altering the tension on the bedding bolts from say 3.5nm up to 6nm. Every rimfire I've had, I've tested in this way and each had a definite preference for a specific value. One in particular, an Anschutz 1411, shot all the four or five different types of ammo I tried best at 6nm. Another, a 1712 shot best at 5nm, 54MS, 5.5nm, Kimber 82, 5.5nm. These had all been pillar bedded, stress free, I guess it's down to the harmonics of the action/barrel. The other thing with rimfires, the expensive match ammo doesn't always shoot the best. I once found a Mexican made Aguila shot far better than the Lapua Polar Biathalon I had been using. I bought as much as the Aguila as I could find and sold the Lapua.

Colin, Well, even easier on the mill! Just need something to protect the finish on the stock, I've used a vice and top clamp's bolted to the milling bed, I'm always a bit paranoid about damaging the surface finish!

Colin, It doesn't take much effort with the right grade to get the channel wider, you just need to seal the wood with something like danish oil or tru-oil when satisfied. I've used sockets of various diameter and just last week opened one up a bit with a used cylinder from a paslode gas gun, matched the barrel perfectly.

Colin, it's not a big deal to open the channel up with sandpaper and the right sized dowel.

The other aspect is brass quality. Norma is historically softer than Lapua so even if the capacity is greater than 6.5 x 284, using Lapua brass, doesn't necessarily mean you can achieve higher velocities anyway.

Unless it's had the Neilson adaptor fitted, which screws onto the action and contains lug abutments, making barrel swapping conventional.

Don't forget the buyers premium if your bid is successful, an eye watering 22%!

Rangerunner, If you have the springs to take it down to 6ozs or so I'll take this please at £165.00. Thanks.

I use the standard K & M hand primer and Lee bench for the tougher jobs, like Russian LR primers into Lapua 6.5x284 brass

I would disagree with that statement, button rifling imparts serious stresses within the barrel steel, that's why most custom button rifled barrels are stress relieved two to three times.

I'd check your neck dimension, unlikely to be outside .262 - .272"

My take on that and it's only an opinion is that the roughness of the bore either starts to strip copper off the jacket leading to inconsistencies of flight, ie flyers, or that build up and roughness combined affects the dwell time in the barrel causing a previous tuned load to shoot erratically. I do notice a build up of copper as the round count gets beyond a certain level, I don't do enough testing at that stage to check whether the ES's have started to increase as well, meaning the groups are likely to open up. Once I notice the V count starting to drop in what was a previously good barrel and borescope inspection shows roughness, I just generally shrug my shoulders and get a new barrel fitted.

OK Pops, Thanks anyway.

Hi Pops, If you have used the 140 Hybrids (or any other 140 class bullet) how do these 144's compare to them in terms of seating depth/bearing surface in the case neck? The Berger website provides dimensions that would indicate base to ogive would be similar but would be good to get real world opinion before I try a box. Thanks, Richard

I don't think it matters, people were using standard seating stems with VLD bullets before VLD seating stems became available. I have Forster/Redding/Whidden seaters, couldn't tell you what the stems are, mixture of different bullets and haven't noticed any problem seating bullets, the BTO are very close when I can be bothered to check them. As long as the stem touches the ogive, not the bullet tip I don't think it matters. If it touches, drill the stem out a bit or use some bedding epoxy to form a better match and then drill out.

Did you have any wind flags out when you were testing, might just be prevailing conditions on the day. If not could just be down to different jump and barrel whip from using a different bullet and it's interaction with barrel harmonics, I don't think barrels just vibrate up and down. I generally test seating depths in 5 thou increments starting in the lands and moving out. I don't know anyone who crimps bullets and if it was me I would try that first, shoot crimped and uncrimped side by side and see what happens. That 50 thou recommendation to me is just a complete guess, every barrel/bullet combination is different and what works for one will be completely wrong for another. I suppose you could say it is a starting point but you have to test yourself with your own components in incremental series so can can see the difference each small change makes as you did with charge weight.

To me I would say that is a pressure sign clear as day, especially as you seem to have a corresponding mark at 1 o'clock presumably from the extractor. You could chamber a virgin case and see if the ejector is making any marks that may indicate it is not compressing fully into it's recess and marking the brass but I think that is unlikely as you would feel it on chambering a round. I've not used the powder you list but I've used the same case/bullet/primer combination with both N550 and N160 and didn't see ejector marks until I was running a fair bit faster (30" barrel) than you list. Maybe try a slower burning powder, but the ELD bullet is so long, unless the rifle is throated for it you will be loosing powder capacity especially if you're at mag length, having said that I wouldn't have a clue what mag length is for the Tikka but just checked and my loaded rounds with the 147 ELD were 3.054" OAL

Don't know anything about these rifles but there's nothing to go wrong with a pinned recoil lug, the barrel keeps everything in place, and the pin(s) are there to prevent lug rotation on re-barrelling so you don't have to re-bed, in a conventional stock set up anyway,

'It's always been mentioned before that shooters would have to supply markers for competitions, if there was a shortage of NRA markers, it's in the NRA Bible.' I don't believe that is the extent of the wording, that shooters have to supply markers. The intent is that shooters themselves do the marking if there is a shortage of paid markers, unless they have a disability that would prevent them from marking.

Is this something peculiar to the 223 sized cases as I've had a Remington 40X, just a single shot 700 since 2000 or so and never had a problem with the extractor, still the original one after probably 6000 or so rounds, but .308 sized bolt face. I clean out the bolt face every so often to remove the odd brass shaving but other than that it just seems to work fine, as good as the sliding extractors on other rifles I own.