bronko22000

Statjunk; What chambering is this? I've read that you are limited to your OAL because of your magazine. So that restricts you with playing with the length too much. If you are shooting the 30-06, I've had good luck with IMR4064 powder and 180 gr bullets. My '06 shoots the 180 Barnes TSX and Sierra Game Kings well with 49 gr of IMR4064. This is pushing max so back off some at first.
Personally, I've never had any luck getting Partitions to shoot well for me. Ballistic tips - definately. Same for Hornady SSTs. These shot like crap but the old Interlocks did well.
In my 300 Win Mag - I had good results with IMR4350 and 180 gr Accubonds.
But in my opinion, If you got a good shooting load with your Speers and Sierras, you don't need to mess with any others. These 2 will kill a bear provided you do your part

statjunk

This is for a 300 WM.

I'm going to check out the IMR 4350. That is next on the list but I'm kind of running out of time.

I called Speer to ask about bear hunting with the Spitzer Boattail and they claim it's only for medium sized deer. I also believe it will kill a black bear but how can I go into the woods with confidence when the company that makes them says they aren't for black bear?

Tom

Prairie Wolf

I've never hunted black bears, but from what I do know it usually isn't a long range activity.

I second Solitary Man. Try a TSX, and 2" accuracy ain't too bad.

statjunk

Discovered another issue last night with my set up.

Usually when I'm seating the bullets into the case I start big and turn the die down until the bullet measures 3.40 to 3.98. Something in that window. I then seat the rest of the bullets. Well I decided to measure the next bullet. It measured down to 3.93. After some trial and error I could not get the seater to seat the bullets to a uniform size. I'm using a Redding Bullet Seating die.

Another thing though I don't think it's that big of a deal but all my brass is trimmed to 2.605 instead of 2.61.

So how big of a deal are the two things above?

Some additional info is that I'm seating the bullets to fit in the magazine. So I'm way off the lands.

Thanks

Tom

Rifle Loony

Measuring off the tip of the bullet does no good, bullet tips vary, even from the same box.

Measure off the ogive of the bullet, at least that's a little more consistent...............

statjunk

The ogive is where a bullet goes straight?

How do you measure to that point?

How the heck can bullet tips be different? Shouldn't they measure the same if they're coming from the same machine?

How are bullets expected to hit the same place if the tips aren't the same?

Thanks

Tom

bigcountry

You want to measure off the ogive. I use the old stoney point Bullet comparitor. I think hornady bought them out however. Sinclair also makes one. A machinist can make one pretty easy out of a large nut. Or if you have a good drill press and vise. I made one out of a nut you use on a trail ball. And drilled and smoothed different sized holes for the different bullets.

statjunk

So how big of an issue is the slightly undersized brass and the non-uniform seating depth?

Also with the ogive measuring tool, do the reloading books give you OAL based on ogive?

Do you guys actually measure the ogive for every bullet?

Geeze-o-petes

Tom

Rifle Loony

Determine a COAL that fits you mag box contraints without hindering feed function.

Run with that on die setting and don't fret the rest.

Pay more attention to oversizing brass and making sureyou don't...............

bigcountry

Usually, once you determine the COAL that works for that gun, you want to keep that info for later reloadings. No reason to measure every one. But for bullet seating setup and then you verify the first few loads you seat a bullet. That way you can duplicate the load that worked well for you.