Well I have a chance to go Antelope hunting. There were a large of left over tags for an area close to me. Problem was I only had one gun sighted in and no ammo loaded for it as everything I had shot in it was factory loads and I couldn't find anymore overnight. Plus that gun weighs a ton and I use it mainly for targets. Its a Rem 700 VSF .308 with a H.S. Precision tactical stock with the adj comb and butt.
SO yesterday I assessed my reloading components to see what I had. Found I had a new box of 115 Berger's in .25 Cal. A can of Hodgdon Retumbo. 100 rounds of CCI LR primed .25-06 Ackley improved cases and everything else was just a hodgepodge of a little bit of this and a little bit of that. With there not being a hell of a lot of reloading info on the .25-06 AI in print and most of the info out there being from other reloaders which is not always reliable : so it took me about an hour of digging on the net and after looking at a ton of different web sites and info from other loaders on what the do I found two different posts using the components I had on hand. One said max loading and the other said nothing. and both were close.
I flipped a coin on what load to use with both my final choices just a bit below where the one that said MAX LOADING said he was at and loaded up 10 rounds. ;D Nothing like a gamble is there.
I then headed for the range about 15 miles away. Beautiful day, no wind, warm. NICEEE
After sitting up my Prairie Dog bench and putting up a target at 100 yds. ( This consists of putting up a sheet of cardboard about 4' square and placing a 1" adhesive dot on it at 100 yds) :
I settled down to shoot. Wouldn't you know it, the wind started to come up. Oh well, your here lets get it done.
1st shot was 16"s to the left. Adjust, 2nd shot was 4"s to the right and 5"s low. Adjust 3rd shot was 2"s high and 1" to the right. Adjust. 4th shot. HMM can't find it. Shoot again 5th shot can't find it. ??? 6th shot still can't find it. What the heck????
So I get up off my dead *** and walk down to the target to see if I can tell what happened. Got a bit of a surprise. I had a 3/8" group dead center in the 1" circle. Thought what the heck, went back and fired 4 more rounds and still all in the circle but one. Dang wind caught me. Looks good to me. Easiest load development I have ever had that worked. And I don't know what kind of rifle that guy was shooting but I have one with a custom match chamber in a Hart barrel and believe me, that load is no where near the max for it. If all is correct I should be getting about 3200 fps with the Berger but I think I can get up to 3300 with it with a bit more tweaking but that can wait. Got an Antelope to kill and no more time to work up loads. I didn't like the soot though that gathered around the neck on a fired case. Could be the Retumbo or too light of a load. I will have to experiment with that load later. It shoots good enough to hunt with for now though.
The rifle is a custom built Rem 700 .25-06 Ackley Improved with a 26" Hart barrel and McMillian stock with 6.5X20X40 LR Leupold with varmint reticule.
SO yesterday I assessed my reloading components to see what I had. Found I had a new box of 115 Berger's in .25 Cal. A can of Hodgdon Retumbo. 100 rounds of CCI LR primed .25-06 Ackley improved cases and everything else was just a hodgepodge of a little bit of this and a little bit of that. With there not being a hell of a lot of reloading info on the .25-06 AI in print and most of the info out there being from other reloaders which is not always reliable : so it took me about an hour of digging on the net and after looking at a ton of different web sites and info from other loaders on what the do I found two different posts using the components I had on hand. One said max loading and the other said nothing. and both were close.
I flipped a coin on what load to use with both my final choices just a bit below where the one that said MAX LOADING said he was at and loaded up 10 rounds. ;D Nothing like a gamble is there.
I then headed for the range about 15 miles away. Beautiful day, no wind, warm. NICEEE
After sitting up my Prairie Dog bench and putting up a target at 100 yds. ( This consists of putting up a sheet of cardboard about 4' square and placing a 1" adhesive dot on it at 100 yds) :
I settled down to shoot. Wouldn't you know it, the wind started to come up. Oh well, your here lets get it done.
1st shot was 16"s to the left. Adjust, 2nd shot was 4"s to the right and 5"s low. Adjust 3rd shot was 2"s high and 1" to the right. Adjust. 4th shot. HMM can't find it. Shoot again 5th shot can't find it. ??? 6th shot still can't find it. What the heck????
So I get up off my dead *** and walk down to the target to see if I can tell what happened. Got a bit of a surprise. I had a 3/8" group dead center in the 1" circle. Thought what the heck, went back and fired 4 more rounds and still all in the circle but one. Dang wind caught me. Looks good to me. Easiest load development I have ever had that worked. And I don't know what kind of rifle that guy was shooting but I have one with a custom match chamber in a Hart barrel and believe me, that load is no where near the max for it. If all is correct I should be getting about 3200 fps with the Berger but I think I can get up to 3300 with it with a bit more tweaking but that can wait. Got an Antelope to kill and no more time to work up loads. I didn't like the soot though that gathered around the neck on a fired case. Could be the Retumbo or too light of a load. I will have to experiment with that load later. It shoots good enough to hunt with for now though.
The rifle is a custom built Rem 700 .25-06 Ackley Improved with a 26" Hart barrel and McMillian stock with 6.5X20X40 LR Leupold with varmint reticule.