Berger VLDs

[Foxshooter]

I recently rebarrelled my 300Winmag from its factory Rem700 Sendero barrel to a nice new Pacnor match barrel. I have previously shot a load of 70gr of N160 behind a 210gr VLD seating them fractionally off the lands. This load gave me approx 2825fps

 

Having seen this load wreck Lapua brass in a single firing in a friends semi custom rifle I thought I'd better back things off a bit and work back up, plus I was using a heap of new Weatherby brass.

 

A mate and I booked a couple of hours use of the underground 100m range at Kynamco in Mildenhall Suffolk and yesterday set off for a play.

 

Sadly I wasnt allowed to use their nice Oehler chrono without a technician present (extra cost I expect) and due to the naff fluorescent lighting my Gamma Master Chrony wasnt playing ball

 

Still we had paid for the range so I had to make the best of a what I had

 

I had loaded 5 rounds each of 65gr-70gr at a fixed seating depth of 40 thou off the lands and after reading an article on the Berger web site a few 66gr loads with differing seating depths. Jammed into the Lands, -40thou, -80 thou and -120 thou as according to the article jammed into the lands doesnt always guarantee best performance.

 

After a quick bore sighting and zero approximation I shot the increasing loads in groups of 3, resting every 6 shots to let the barrel cool (missing the muzzle brake already....)

 

Even at 70gr there was no obvious pressure signs on the brass which is good to know, I will see how the primers seat on their next loading to see how the primer pockets have held out. I got a better group with 69gr than I used to have with 70gr so this looks like a new favourite.

 

Next I played with the seating depth variables, shooting groups of three once again. There was a noticable improvement as predicted by Berger with 120 thou off being the best, 40 thou off coming second.

 

I wish I'd had a working chrony as that would have been the end of my load development, sadly I only have parts of the puzzle. 66gr is the most financially economical load but since I dont know how much slower it is than the 69gr load I have nothing for the ballistic PDA to work with. Equally I dont know the speed of the 69gr load to know how it compares to my old speed of 2825fps.

 

I will take a few pics of the targets so you can make your own judgements. Excuse the scribbles on them but when shooting against the clock time becomes a factor....

 

In an ideal world I dont really want to have to return to Kynamco too soon but the windless environment has to be an advantage as another variable is removed from the equation

 

Berger article

http://bulletin.accurateshooter.com/2009/03/berger-tips-for-loading-vld-bullets/

 

Target pictures

https://cid-769875086f898ba3.skydrive.live.com/redir.aspx?page=play&resid=769875086F898BA3!260&authkey=qhwYbSBO02Q%24

 

 

Is there anyone with a copy of Quickload that could run some data for me as the pressure increase using 69gr N160 and a 210gr VLD 120 thou off might get interesting....???

 

Mark

[Foxshooter]

Phew

 

Thought I'd broken the board then

 

Piccy link now added

 

Mark