338 EDGE 285 gr ELD Match & RL33

[Swamplord]

Midway finally got around to sending me a box of the Hornady 338 caliber 285 gr ELD Match bullets, that box won't last long, got most of them loaded up with Reloder 33 from 96.0 gr to 103.0 gr (Fed No. 215 primers)

When working with a new bullet/powder combo, my typical load development consists of starting with a bullet jump around .020" to .040" or so with low start charges and work up to pressure in .5 gr increments in order to generate a known velocity table, once a max pressure level is established then I get to play with bullet coating, seating depth, bullet tension, primers and smaller incremental powder charges to chase down that desired and elusive accuracy node at the highest safe velocity possible, ah.... WTH am I rambling about, everybody here does that, right ? just checking

Anyway, moving on ......
I used a batch of once fired 300 RUM brass (97 gr RL 25 & 180 gr Accubond) that I necked up to 338, loaded with 92 gr H1000 & 300 gr Berger Elite and fired again, so....twice fired brass with max loads, I think this will be the last firing for this batch, ( keychains for the kids with Lapua FMJ bullets)
Knowing this brass was used twice in max loads, once I reached the higher charges I used new virgin 300 RUM brass (the darker ones in photo) run through a .338 cal tapered expander mandrel from PMA Tool, then a Redding FL 338 Edge die, sizing neck about 7/8 of the way down with .003" bullet tension , loaded a couple extra rounds at the estimated near max safe pressures for plugging water jugs at 50 & 100 yards
This batch of test loads was loaded for a .020" jump to rifling, COAL 3.885" and CBTO 3.090", my chamber was set up for the Seekins DBM with 3.9" magazines and the 285 gr ELD-X are an absolutely awesome match !

The trick now is finding the time to run away and do some shooting with Magnetospeed attached to record all velocities, ES & SD, while shooting for 3 shot groups so that means no coffee, energy drinks or soda on that day ......... gonna be a rough day

lots of work to do but the eventual results on target is a thrill and harvesting a big game animal makes all the work and effort well worth it

 

[KYpatriot]

Looks like a lot of fun.

In the past I have noticed that i have gotten away with more powder on virgin brass but see pressure on the same charge on the reload with the now once fired brass. I know you are just pressure finding at this point but any worries that mixing the brass like that will skew the results, or have you seen good consistency between virgin and once fired brass?

What kind of velocities do you expect out of the 285? I havent seen a bearing surface comparison to the 300 bergers.

Also, what do you consider "pressure." Slight ejector mark, heavy ejector, a velocity benchmark, primer indications? I shoot a lot of Nosler brass and it shows ejectors marks well before heavy bolt lift. I have thought about buying a pressure trace just to settle my curiosity on this, to correlate pressure levels to brass effects. I know you have done a lot of load development and I am curious what you have come up with for your technique. For instance, using Fed215m primers i have noticed that the spent primer has a slight "edge" to it at top, where it has started to flatten. But the primer pockets are so tight in this brass i actually slightly flatten them using a bench mounted seater...cant even seat them by hand below flush.

 

[Prieto9000]

Tagging in

 

[Swamplord]

After getting stuck for 3 hrs on a muddy trail I was pulled out by a friend but was not able to get to my 500 yard shooting area and ended up blasting all my 338 EDGE loads with the Hornady 285 gr ELD Match bullets and RL33 at 100 yards, was a good day anyway, to generate data if anything...... had a bit of time later in the day before rolling up to blast some water jugs at 50 yards also.........

All loads were fired with Magnetospeed attached to barrel in order to record velocities...... As usual I started at a very low powder charge and gradually worked up in order to establish data, keep track of velocity gains and any accuracy nodes that may be revealed, I do believe I have come across a **** good node at 101.5 to 102.0 gr of RL33.......
No pressures were present in any of these loads, bolt lift was pinkie light, no ejector/plunger marks, primers perfect, case expansion at the web/ .200 mark the same on all cases fired from 96.0 gr thru 103.0 gr but I imagine it's getting close to pressure , have 12 bullets left from box of 50 pcs, will load remaining bullets in .5 gr increments to look for pressure.....

Rem 700 in 338 EDGE
Jewell Trigger
30" 9.5 tw 5R Obermeyer barrel in Rem Varmint contour
McMillan HTG/M40A1 stock McMillan Green with black speckles
Foliage Green Cerakote on barrel /action
Nightforce 20 moa rail
Nightforce UltraLite 30mm rings
Bushnell Elite 6500 4-16X50 scope
Seekins 3.9" DBM with 5 rnd mag

Remington brass
Hornady 285 gr ELD Match bullets seated for a .020" jump
COAL 3.885" CBTO 3.090"
Alliant Reloder 33 powder in all loads

96.0 gr RL33
2801 fps
2801
2799

97.0 gr RL33
2852 fps
2824
2866

98.0 gr RL33
2895 fps
2895
2885

99.0 gr RL33
2949fps
2929
2956

99.5 gr RL33
2929 fps
2948
2934

100.0 gr RL33
2974 fps
2970
2960

100.5 gr RL33
3001 fps
2970
2992

101.0 gr RL33
3013 fps
3006
3035

101.5 gr RL33
3028 fps
3046
3035
3046 (shot water jugs at 50 yards later in the day, bullet exited 4th jug to the side and not recovered)

102.0 gr RL33
3037 fps
3039
3052
3054 (shot water jugs, bullet recovered in 5th jug and retained weight of bullet is 99.4 gr, see attached pics )

102.5 gr RL33
3026 fps
3067
3037
3050 (shot water jugs at 50 yards later in the day, bullet exited 4th jug to the side and not recovered)

103.0 gr RL33
3090 fps (shot water jugs, bullet recovered in 5th jug and retained weight of bullet is 101.3 gr, see attached pics )
3078 fps and outta ammo...........

 

[Swamplord]

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[BEEMAN]

Wow that is impressive. Retaining basically 100 gr of weight I think is good. Now if I could find some 285's in Canada that would help.

 

[snox801]

Just a question for you about your magneto speed. I do exactly the same load work up but I always shoots for accuracy and pressure signs. Then when I find the load I like I attach my speed and get my data. I notice a poi shift when attached. So do you seem to keep the same groups and just poi shift or does it effect the groups also. I'm always afraid I'll have an awsome group and tracked data then if I removed it and am the group opens up I wasted a lot of time so I've never done work ups with it on. What are your thoughts.

 

[Timber338]

Just a question for you about your magneto speed. I do exactly the same load work up but I always shoots for accuracy and pressure signs. Then when I find the load I like I attach my speed and get my data. I notice a poi shift when attached. So do you seem to keep the same groups and just poi shift or does it effect the groups also. I'm always afraid I'll have an awsome group and tracked data then if I removed it and am the group opens up I wasted a lot of time so I've never done work ups with it on. What are your thoughts.

Snox, I also shoot for accuracy and pressure signs and then chrono later. I've done it like Swamp as well, but I can get to my accurate load quicker by chrono'ing at the end. When I shoot my initial loads for pressure, I load in 1 grain increments for the big RUM case capacity and also treat the pressure test as a ladder test, where I look for bullets grouping point of impact across hopefully a few grains of powder. For my accurate rifles I have found this to be ~2 grains under where pressure signs start to show up.

Swamp, thanks for taking the time to post up your results. It's great to see what your rifle is able to do with the 285 ELD. Would you feel comfortable hunting with this 'M' labeled bullet? I think this bullet weight is nearly perfect for the RUM cartridge for hunting.

 

[Swamplord]

I only had one box of the 285 gr ELD Match bullets and wanted a complete known velocity table with RL33 in my rifle, and had no choice but to shoot with the Magnetospeed attached, as the bullets become more available I already have data to start with....... As it stands now I will load the remaining 12 bullets and continue up in .5 gr up to 105.0 gr, the nice groups were just icing on an already jelly filled donut , lol !

Point of impact will shift somewhat but groups will remain, at least that's what I have found in my rifles, couple clicks and shots puts me back on for hunting , never a bad reason to go shoot some more.....

I won't hesitate on using this bullet for moose and black bear at 3050 fps from 50-1000 yards, plenty accurate and will expand reliably, will be using this combo for my spring black bear hunt where shots are always beyond 400 yards on the South facing hillsides

 

[Jdscada]

Great stuff, can't wait to try this weekend

 

[robert l]

Have you used h1000 instead of the rl33.If so where the results close to the other? gun)

 

[Swamplord]

Have you used h1000 instead of the rl33.If so where the results close to the other? gun)

No sir, I haven't used H-1000 with the 285 gr ELD Match bullets , probably won't because RL33 offers more velocity and the accuracy is there as well, I did get to burn some IMR 7977 powder with the 285 gr A-Max on the 4th of July weekend, got a few boxes left of the AMAX and figured I'd use some up with a powder I haven't tried yet, underestimated the powder and stopped short in charge weights, just when velocity started climbing I ran out of ammo, accuracy was impressive, but then again the 285 gr Amax was always a good shootin bullet , IMR 7977 is definitely worth a really good load data workup in the 338 EDGE

 

[robert l]

can i ask you about the mag you used.i got two boxes from wytts and the borden action i have was cut for the extended ultra mag well but it only takes the 3.850. how much trouble was it to open your action up for the seekins 3.9 box? i put the the 4.0 box up against the bottum and it looks to me that there is not enough room for it to fit. it looks like you would have to cut a 1/4 inch for it to drop in there it is a borden timberline action. would you have any thoughts on which way to go? thanks Bob. gun)

 

[Swamplord]

can i ask you about the mag you used.i got two boxes from wytts and the borden action i have was cut for the extended ultra mag well but it only takes the 3.850. how much trouble was it to open your action up for the seekins 3.9 box? i put the the 4.0 box up against the bottum and it looks to me that there is not enough room for it to fit. it looks like you would have to cut a 1/4 inch for it to drop in there it is a borden timberline action. would you have any thoughts on which way to go? thanks Bob. gun)

Just measured the Seekins magazine and the internal dimension is 3.935", the max coal you can run reliably is 3.9" and preferably a bit shorter, bullet meplats get flattened from recoil, be they hp, exposed lead or plastic/polymer, the Heat Shield Hornady tip flattens just like the rest as well, one reason I load my long range loads single shot and 5 rounds in the mag with Swift A Frame strictly for brown bear defensive back up, the shorter coal of the A-frame loads remains unaffected

the Rem 700 long action did need a bit of clearance work to fit the Seekins DBM and so did the McMillan HTG stock that was inletted for a Rem700 BDL


in pic below....
2016 moose hunting loads, 300 gr Chinchaga and 275 gr Swift A-Frame backup