Range work ??
 

So as a vetran of the loading bench I shoulda known better .
1 I open up a brand new box of my favorite Hornady 3033 150 interloks and bugger if they aren't totaly differant than the last 10 in the 6 year old box .[:@][:@]
2 Matching brass , well the new stock just didn't work with the "old " load and the brass was of a small batch too ( I guess it would be too easy to buy 2-400 lots and cull to lots of 75 or so).[:o][&:]
3 In a compleatly uncalled for twist of oddness ...... the random last scraps of brass lots are loaded with some pulled NATO 140-152 gr FMJ'sand minimum charges of the fullest canjust to settle me into the shooting groove reaffirm stance posture breathing etc . The random "junk" just falls into about 4" . meanwhile my carefully plotted planed and executed "quality" ammo hovers around 3" with matched brass bullets and charges all weighed to tiny margines . Brass +- .5 charges +-.005 .
Oh well half the fun right .;);)

RE: Range work ??
 

Ok so now I've spent 2 evenings cleaning to get the slung and now I fear permanatly impacted lead out of the bbl.
My best guess here is that 1. At 2700 fps the open base NATO fmj's just won't keep their lead inside w/ a 1-9 twist 30-06'
2.My groups were blownby the lead fouling in the last 3" of the bbl
3. My work-upcan be pushed faster because the groups were small and the book says I'm only at 85% of max.

I'm still frustrated that ploting and planning can be trumped by random stuff tossed together at a moment .

RE: Range work ??
 

Start by speaking English. A 9 twist will stabilize a 150 grain 30 cal. bullet with absolutly no problems. You can't have a lead build up with a jacketed bullet. If your happy with a 3" group at a 100yards you need to spend some serious time at the range. At a 100 yards and a factory gun your wasting your time sorting anything, Spend a little time with load development. Buy the Sierra manual and go with the accuracy load. If that doesn't put you into the 1.5" to 2" range throw the gun in the dumpster and buy something new. I have plenty of factory guns that stay in the 1" to 1.5" range. a couple that will shoot consitantly under an inch.

You may have really bad Copper fouling and the only way to get it out is with some serious cleaning. I like Sweets for Copper. There are plenty of good copper cleaners out there. Anything with amonia will clean it out. Run a patch of Sweets through the barrel and wait 10 minutes or so then run another through. That patch will be the prettiest color blue you ever saw. The bad thing is Blue is the reaction copper has with amonia. run 'em through untill you see no blue. Don't use a bronse brush because it to will come out blue too becuase it will also react with amoniaJust a cotton patch will be the best bet. Make sure you have the carbon out as well. You could have a layer of copper then carbon. Sweets will not attack the carbon.

RE: Range work ??
 

All true points . I have and often consult Lyman , Hornady , Speer , Winchester , and several other manuals . The NATO "fmj's" have open bases . The 1-9 twist is in fact suitable for up to a 250 gr .308 that comes from a bbl manufacturer .

This rifle is picky at best . I had 125 rnds of LC-43 as new after shooting 30-35 rounds in a 3 different sets and seeing groups of 8-10 inches I opted to just shoot it all just to empty the brass and get the range time . At around 60 rounds looking at the target I found 3 separate groups of 4" and with scaled water volumes I found 3 very different case capacities . The groups were high right 6", left and low 8",and the same to the right . Those cases are now used up soI have to start over . Those loads were capable of 5 touching I added .3 gr the group moved out to 5 clean dia. separated holes .

I measured the targets center to center of the lead fouled groups are 1.6 and 1.78 .

I'm using Barnes cr 10 now I wet patched and dry patched brushed repeated . Aftera full day soak I got 1 blue patch and could clearly see the lead at the muzzle and was able to touch and "scrape" loose the fouling (dental pick little to no pressure).

I've been shooting and loading since 1978 and wanted to share this and see if some of the other members could use or offer some means that I or others might avoid this .

Various cases of same manufacture have weighed from 180 to 225 grs dry ,empty, clean and decapped . I even had cases from a single box vary that much, ok it was just 1 that was way light.

RE: Range work ??
 

The 1.6-1.78 groups were 50 yard groups.

I did alot more shooting and some trouble shooting, found that the scope had moved and was probably moving around shot to shot .

With the scope issue resolved I was able to turn in some groups around 2 inches even with the wind gusting as it was.

RE: Range work ??
 

Did some more shooting some more cleaningmore looking and found the last 1/2 inch of my bbl to be pitted ,actually quite badly and was goobered full of lead . With the lead ,copper , lube etc. and a now spotless bbl cut and recrowned
I have my relible ol' 30-06' back and am shooting the last of my fine tunning loads with groups now at a max of 2.25 out at a 100 with the "hottest" loads and around 1 with my slow loads .

My CHRONY tells me the 1" loads 10' from the muzzle are loafing along at 2650 +- 25 and my "hot" loads are at
a blistering 2780 +-10 .

I've settled on 51.5- 52.5 4350 in a T W 54 case CCI large rifle standard primer and the Hornady 3033 inter-loc
150 BTSP . I'm expecting that the 52.0 loadwill clock in at about 2700 and give me an honest 1"-1.2" center to center
group as did the 50.3 in the L C 42 at a blazing 2660 +- 30 based on shooting up the last 10 in the new crown .

As a footnote I started at 50 and went to 54 and the 1.2" LC 42 loads turned in a miserable 2.5" + group pre cut and a
tape measure 1" after .

RE: Range work ??
 

Well ,this am I went to the range with my "conformation" loads and the 52 grain loads didn't make the cut .
51.7 is the cutoff I forgot the CHRONY so I can't say what I'm really getting out of the loads except that the bullets are landing close together consistantly . They ought to be about 2740 . I was able to recover 1 bullet from the backstop appearently blowsand and lava shale are bad for bullets only got half of it sectioned from the base to the canuler . not sure which load that bullet is from but in this case 100 ft can't make that much differance .