James B

I went out today and tested the factory loades 130 grain Federal Fusion loads. They tested them with a 24 inch barrel. My 22 inch Remington barrel didn't come up to that level. The five shot string averaged 2873 fps. The high shot was 2880 and the low shot was 2866. Pretty uniform load. This should deliever 2400 fps at the muzzle and 1260 @ 400 yards.

naconst

how do you tract the fps ?

ejpaul1

With a chronograph. Theyre about 150 samoliens. Real cool for developing loads for handloaders. EJ

Roskoe

That's the trouble with chronographs. One would be completely happy a lot of times until you blow a couple over the sky screens. Then you feel short changed. And if you are a handloader, you go home and start increasing the powder charge until the numbers read as high as what you "deserve" for a given caliber. Usually at a decrease in accuracy.

The worst "tool" of all for shooters is the Hawkeye Bore Scope. You look inside a perfectly good shooting barrel and see tool marks. Slight imperfections in the rifling. A micro burr on the crown. Can't sleep at night.

James B

I am on my third chronograph. The first ione had the old paper screens which got a little costy. The second was a shooting chrony and worked well if the light conditions were just right but was pretty fussy about sky conditions and such. This one is about ten years old and is the Pro Chrono. It works great every time regardless of conditions. I don't loose sleep over the readings but I like to know where I am even with factory loads. These loads may well reach 3050, which they claim in another rifle or in a test barrel, but a good 130 grain bullet @ 2873 is all it takes for most any NA big game animal. If I get a die set for it I would not really be concerned if I could only get 2800 or even 2700 fps. Good bullets at 2700 fps is darn good medicine for hunting. Many bullets IMO opinion and expierence perform about perfect at that speed. As long as they are uniform which these are, I think I have a good load.

Silver_Wolf

I looked at these also, was tempted but decieded to blow some cash and bought some of the Federal Vital-Shok in 130g Barnes Triple Shock-X Bullet. Going to be shooting a cow elk this year and will be interested to see how this barnes bullet does. Haven't used the triple shok ones before.

From Federal's Web site on the one I am using this year. 3060 FPS@ muzzle with 2703fp, this was from their 24" Test Barrel as well.


Incidently, I accidently blasted a chrono this year also while testing some loads for my .50 cal muzzleloader. [:@]

trailer

I have to agree. I was always under the illusion that what they print in the book is good but after this weekend with my new chrono I found out different. Now it’s back home and try to increase loads without pressure signs at the range.

James B

If your loads are working well then why bother to try to increase the load? My wife shots a 250 Savage. A couple years ago I bought some of the old silvertips. 100 Grain. I run a few over the screens and was shocked to see that they were only at 2605 FPS. My Barnes Bullet hand loads with the 100 grain were traveling at nearly 3100 fps. However she used factory loads as I didn't have time to load any more before season. She killed two mule deer with two shots. They were just as dead as they were with the 3100 FPS loads. A good load is a good load, I like the chronograph just so I know the velocity in case I need to re figure my trajectory. Many times the bullet companies use combo of barrel lenght and pressure barrel that are just not realistic. I work up a load that shoots good in my gun and zero it in and then as a last though, I run a few over the screens. This unless they fall way short of my expectations.

Ark City Larry

I think Fusions are loaded for accuracy instead of velocity.......good hunting perfomance.

trailer

I have no intentions of increasing velocity if accuracy decreases. They are shooting very well but I’m interested in seeing what would happen at faster speeds. If I don’t try, I’ll never know.