Semisane

Saturday was a great day for shooting. Eighty degrees with an overcast sky and light breeze.

In my last range session with with the Rescued Remington back in January I was shooting 300 grain XTPs over 95 grains of T7 FFG. That load gave me an inch-and-a-half group at 100 yards.

For this session I wanted to shoot some Speer Deep Curls with GOEX.

I put the first target out at 50 yards and dumped 105 grains of GOEX FFFg down the bore, then topped it off with a 300 grain Deep Curl in a Harvester Long Black sabot. I took three shots and got this.



That was OK, so I put another target out at 75 yards and took three more shots.



Still looking OK. Time for five shots at 100 yards.



Well, that's not too bad - acceptable for hunting. But I was really hoping for less than two inches. Now I'm wondering if reducing the charge by ten grains, or increasing it by ten might tighten up the group. So I put another target out at 100 yards and shot three with 95 grains of powder, then two with 115 grains. This is what it looked like.



I was amazed at those two shots with 115 grains. I know my loading and shooting technique for those shots was good, and could not account for a five-inch lateral spread. I was scratching my bald head after that second shot and didn't even bother to take a third.

Well, I've got some .429 270 grain Deep Curls in the bag and Harvester 50/44 sabots. Maybe the gun will like them better. After putting another target out at 100 yards, I loaded those 270s over 105 grains and took five more shots.



WHAT THE HECK!!! A five and a half inch group. I get better than than with patched balls and iron sights out of the Hawkens. Somethings wrong, and I suspect my premium $20 WalMart Special Tasco 3x9 scope has loosened its guts. I checked the mounts and they are good and tight.

Oh well, just for the heck of it, lets try some 250 Deep Curls before quitting. One more five-shot 100 yard group with the 250s.\



Yep. Somethings rotten (and it ain't my shooting ). I have an extra 4X ProDiamond somewhere in the closet. So it looks like my next range session will be with the Remington again. I just have to see if it's really a scope problem.

cayugad

That is an interesting post. And it will be interesting to see what that Pro Diamond does. Actually that is pretty good shooting . More then enough for deer hunting.

Semisane

Well Cayugad, I agree with you 99% of the time. But not on this one. If I can't get it shooting better than those last two targets it will never see a hunt.

It's either the scope, or it doesn't like either GOEX or Deep Curls at all. But I'll bet it's the scope. This is what it did with XPTs and T7 back in January.

cayugad

I am not saying not to put a different scope on it. But I think there is a bullet out there that will shoot real well out of that rifle. Those Remingtons were kind of known for their accuracy from all I read.

Semisane

In just about all of my guns I get a tad better accuracy with XTPs than with Deep Curls. Not enough to matter for hunting, so I hunt with Deep Curls because I have total faith in their performance. But if I get inch and an half five shot groups with XTP's in a particular gun, I expect two-inch groups with Deep Curls. But I won't hunt with a gun that I can't get to shoot five shot 100 yard groups into three inches or less.

builder459

Before you mess with the scope,i would try some XTP's since they shot so well in the past. if they also shoot bad you have your answer. Ray

flounder33

Maybe that 115 grain load trashed the scope???? It sure seems like that's when things went bad. I was wondering also if the barrel got a chance to cool down before some of those last groups. Everything sure looked promising at the beginning.

Semisane

Yeah Builder, that's the way to go. I would have done that Saturday, but am out of XTPs. I wasn't planning on buying more because I have a half dozen boxes each of 300 and 250 grain Deep Curls. But maybe I should get some more XTPs for testing.

Semisane

That's kinda the way I see it Flounder. The barrel was pretty hot by the end of each 5-shot target. But I let it cool down between targets.

sabotloader

That saml difference might be because of the concave base in Deep Curl vs. the flat base of the XTP.

I am not a mathematician but because of the concave base I have found that the Deep Curl needs to driven faster to get the use of the dynamics of the shape of the base to it's full advantage.

Some sort of a dead airspace behind the bullet combined with the bullet passing through the air is suppose to produce a more stable bullet. I read all about it once and it made since - but I would have to go back to a 'Howard Johnson's' to be able to explain it.

I would say that my Remington shot them quite well with 110 grains of T7 and a HPH-24... what ever that relates to in GOEX.

I actually got the accuracy with a Sierra .452-260 grain Jacketed HP, but the Noslers were not far behind...