wabi

Well, had the CVA Wolf shooting a few times now and I'm still looking for that "sweet" load.
Had a couple setbacks along the way.
To start off I ordered a scope mount base and when I went to scope the rifle I couldn't find my steel Leupold Q/D rings. Had to order a set of new rings. Of course 3 days later I found the rings.

Last night my old Leupold M8-4X scope I had mounted went haywire. Picked up some 240gr XTPs to try. Went to the range and fired the first round after loading like I would for hunting with a clean barrel. (Swabbed w/dry patch, alcohol patch, then dry patch, then loaded.) First shot 1" high - 1" right @100 yards. Next shot right on in elevation but 1" right. Gave the scope a 1" adjustment left and the third bullet went 3" right & 2" low? Adjusted 2" left thinking I may have went the wrong way with the first adjustment and that shot went 8-10" left. I also noticed the old scope had picked up some parallax at 100 yards.
Came home and took the old Leupold off.

Put my Leupold 2-7X shotgun scope on the Wolf this morning and went back to the range. About a 2 1/2" group with the 240s at 100 yards, but one flier about 4" out of the group (could have been me as the ants that nested in the shooting bench were eating me up - but the ants are another story ).
Switched to a 250 gr bullet and the group tightened to about 1 1/2".

Haven't played with changing the powder charge yet (using 90gr ffg Goex), but I'm going to try a 285gr bullet (Barnes) next.
So far it seems like it may like heavier bullets, so if it likes the 285s I'll try 300gr in the near future.
I was looking for an easy recoiling load, as my 13yo son will be shooting it, too. He may just have to man-up & take some recoil.

BTW- called Leupold this morning about the old (made in 1975) M8-4X and they had me ship it back for inspection and repair after I explained the way it was acting.

Semisane

Well WABI, theire's no real complaint with 100 yard groups in the neighborhood of 1.5" and 250 grain bullets. Even if that's the best load you ever find you can hunt with confidence. And 90 grains FFg GOEX provides all the power needed for a clean kill.

cayugad

Sounds like your on the right path. And sooner or later you will hit the load. I would try a little more powder and see what happens. But you know what your doing. I am sure you will have that rifle tuned in soon. Good luck and have fun.

Nothing worse then bugs eating you when your trying to shoot. I have horseflies that love to land on your arm just about the time your concentrating to pull the trigger.

wabi

The range where I shoot is on the farm I hunt on 90% of the time. The landowner took a trackhoe & made a dirt backstop and he made a shooting bench frame from angle iron, with a plywood top & seat. Last year the 3/4" plywood top was getting weak so I put a new top on the bench made of 2 layers of 1/2" plywood. The layers have warped being out in the weather and there is enough space between the plywood sheets that the ants have moved in and built a nest. Today the thumping from the recoil must have upset the ants and after a few shots I had ants crawling up my arms if I took too long sighting. A few of them seemed to think I was attacking and needed bit!
I've got to remember to take a can of bug spray with me next trip.

BTW - Yesterday my son dug 3 of the 4 240gr XTPs out of the dirt backstop. The recovered bullets (after washing to remove most of the dirt) weighed 240gr, 238gr, & 241gr. We must have missed some dirt on the one that gained weight.

Gm54-120

If you mean the 285gr Barnes Spitre boat tail, those bullets like speed. At least they did for me every time i shot them. Low fps they would even tumble on rare occasion. They also don't expand well on game at low fps.

Im talking about the one with the little hollow point, not the one with the tip that is 290gr. The Barnes with the big HPs do the best at slower Pyro and Goex speeds as far as expansion. The 225gr XPB is especially good and easy on the shoulder.

wabi

I am meaning the Barnes, but just to see what that weight does. My buddy has some of them on hand and said I could try them. I don't plan on hunting with them, and he has gone back to the "expander" with the huge hollow point. He killed a couple deer with the 285 Barnes over 120 gr T-7, but in both cases the deer did go a short distance (50-60 yards) before dropping. With the expander the deer have always dropped on the spot for both him and me.
I use expanders or XTPs for hunting. Both have given me very good results.

nchawkeye

You'll have better luck starting with 80grs and moving up to 100 in 5 grain increments to find the best load...Pick a bullet and sabot combo that loads tight and then work from there...

Gm54-120

That is exactly what im talking about. I even shot one deer with a 285gr Spitfire that did not seem to expand at all but the Expander MZ and XPB line seem to never fail to please. You can pretty much interchange the XPB for most of the Expander MZs. They appear to be identical but the have a cannelure. The 225gr XPB running fast is a sight to see, explosive expansion and hydrostatic shock is intense.

This is at 2300 fps. I shot it so fast it did shed some petal material. 205gr retained http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mx2c1gRoiMg

The tipped versions TEZ are basically an Expander MZ with a tip and seem to expand nearly as reliably but ive never done a head to head comparison. That is entirely speculation on my part.

BTW if you are having a hard time finding a worthwhile 300gr bullet, try the Speer 300gr UCSP aka UniCor. Its the forerunner to the DC/GD but with a flat point. They are usually still in stock when all others are sold out. They penetrate great but expand a bit less than a 300gr DC. They also cost less.

falcon

The XPB is a really fine bullet. i've killed several big hogs using the 225 grain .430 XPB bullet.

DiscMan

You might try 80 grains of triple 7 with a 250 bloodline and a crush rib sabot. works well with my Little horn 50 cal