More on my Wildcat bullet testing.

[4ked Horn]

Thanks Kirby. We were all chomping at the bit to go riding by this time of the day. The wind was picking up and the kids were getting bored. I at least wanted to get two groups off but I agree, more groups will be better. Please watch for them.

The jackets are the same from what I understand.

I am only testing these bullets to get an indication of how my rifle likes Wildcats. I will be recieving very similar bullets with the .030" jackets if we get the desired results from these and I contact Richard with a "ship em" email. I hope he has seen these pictures. I should email him tomorrow evening.

That third shot is a gremlin for sure. I will check the float on the BBL AGAIN and tighten the screws good. You are right about losing the third shot and having a decent group. If I could squoonch the horizontal out of them the vertical would be outstanding.

Another quick question. My velocities at the muzzle are right around 2550. Abinok suggested using a 175 gr SMK instead of the 168 nosler J4s to keep things supersonic past 1000 yards. I would be doing just that right now if Richard hadn't arrived on the scene. Do you think the BC on these 169.5 ULD RBBT HPs will keep me supersonic or should I request that extra 5 grains when I order bullets?

[Fiftydriver]

On the receiver screws, remember that overtightening then can be as detrimental to accuracy as loose depending on the bedding system you have in the stock.

For pillar bedded rifles I like around 55 to 65 in/lbs but have seen many rifles shoot extremely well down to 40 in/lbs as well.

In a conventionally bedded rifle, I limit things to around 50 in/lbs to prevent stock crushing as much as possible.

To be honest, I seldom use a torque wrench unless I get a rifle that is giving the owner trouble with consistancy. In a qality bedding, I have found that as long as the bedding is stress free, torque setting really don't make all that much difference. In a conventional inletted stock this can cause extreme variations though.

Onto bullets, I would be suprised if the 169.5 gr ULD RBBT did not have at least as high of a BC as the 175 Sierra MK.

Remember its bullet length and meplat design mainly that contributes to BC value, bullet weight has nothing really to do with it except that generally a heavier bullet is a longer bullet.

Best advice I can give is that if you want to see if they stay super sonic at 1000 yards, shoot them at 1000 yards and see how consistant they are.

Running your velocity numbers through my Exbal, I just am not sure what Abinok is talking about concerning staying supersonic to 1000 yards.

At 2550 fps you could use a bullet with a BC of .450 and still have a retained velocity of +1100 fps at 3000 ft altitude in 20 degree temps. With a .550 BC bullet you would have right at 1300 fps retained velocity.

With a .600 BC bullet you would be just a bit shy of 1400 fps. In fact with a .600 BC bullet you would stay over 1100 fps out to 1300 yards so I guess this recommendation confuses me a bit. Its not a trick to stay super sonic out to 1000 yards with any of these bullets to be honest.

Now I am not going to get into the exact BC value of this bullet. IF you recall, we got into a huge pissing match over this several months ago so I will say nothing of the bullets true BC and let you guys figure it out.

I will tell you though, at your velocity, you will have no problem staying super sonic to 1000 yards.

Make some more groups and see what happens!!

Kirby Allen(50)

[4ked Horn]

10-4 on all that Kirby. Thanks.

Abinok suggested the 175 when I was asking around on going from a 168 SMK type bullet to something else. I had noticed during a casual range day that at around 800 yards things seemed to fall appart. I ran numbers and the 175 seemed like a suitable change to try for hitting at 1k and staying sonic. Then I found out about Wildcats and since then I have been dealing with 169.5 gr. This is more than acceptable to me if you have confidence in their discovered BC. I am also planning on going to BL-c2 for working up loads to get a few more fps out of this humble .308.

I suppose then, when the time comes, I will stick with the 169.5 weight and have confidence that if I can do my part the ULD RBBT will do it's part.

This is all actually gravy beyond 600 since the foremost task of this gun is deer and chucks come in a distant second. They are actually just practice and a confidence builder for the meat part of my hunting.

Thanks for all your valuable advice.