Badlands BD-2 load data

[Northkill]

Very, very nice shooting right there. Kirby makes some gorgeous rifles. I hope mine turns out to be a shooter like yours. I was just curious why you chose the 150gr over the 160gr? With the horse power you have I would thing you would have gone with the 160gr.

Twist. Didn't have the twist for the 160. Wish I could have, would have been awesome. Would have also been a mag length issue for that long of a case in my setup. Didn't know about the projo before planning the build so wasn't building around it. I'm just glad it took to the 150 so well. At long range impacts it's so fast to the target you can easily notice the difference while shooting side-by-side with other magnums.

 

[SheepShapeAK]

Shaen spinning up the new rig?

Once the reamer is done and the action gets here. They should arrive right around the same time.

 

[SheepShapeAK]

What velocities would you get with a 338 Norma with 250 grain Berger? Just curious!

I'm sure you could get 3100fps or better with a 26" barrel.

 

[SheepShapeAK]

what has everyone's experience been with specifically the 30 cal offerings such as the 205 grain? I have not had an opportunity yet to use it on game.

My barrel is too slow for the 205's. The 195's work very well though. Took four caribou and a moose this past season during our float trip out of my Bergara 300 PRC, with N570 behind the bullet.

Longest shot was only 675 yards. Closest was the moose at 310 yards or so. All rounds passed clean through the animals, to include the moose.

 

[jasent]

The 205's are awesome in my 300wm. Details on page one

 

[RULOJOE]

Attachments

Beautiful

 

[jasent]

My barrel is too slow for the 205's. The 195's work very well though. Took four caribou and a moose this past season during our float trip out of my Bergara 300 PRC, with N570 behind the bullet.

Longest shot was only 675 yards. Closest was the moose at 310 yards or so. All rounds passed clean through the animals, to include the moose.

That shot on the moose was impressive! That's how hunting bullets should work.

 

[SheepShapeAK]

That shot on the moose was impressive! That's how hunting bullets should work.

Thanks! A moose is a big target though, even at 310 yards or so.

I have completely switched all my hunting rounds to the bulldozers. After having an ELD-X explode in a sheep at 119 yards back in 2019, I stopped shooting jacketed bullets.

I've been more than impressed with the bullets. Turned my buddy onto them for his Fierce 300 PRC a year or so ago, and he had Fierce build him some loads in the 195's. He took his coastal brown bear with one shot at under 100 yards. I want to say the guys at Fierce are now loading a lot of their ammo with the bulldozers because they were impressed as well. At least that's what I recall him telling me.

Either way, I can't see myself switching to another bullet for hunting. They help keep my freezers nice and full.

 

[nralifer]

Lots of great info on this thread! Thank you SBruni for starting it, and Cody for your support. One thing that I have noticed is that a fairly tight clearance between the lead and the bullet may reduce the need for a short jump. Noticed this in a 6.8 Western where they advertise a 0.0004" clearance per side. Makes sense to me that with a tighter lead clearance the bullet stays better aligned to the rifling reducing the need for a short jump. Would appreciate other people's thoughts or data on this subject.

 

[BillLarson]

Correct...... LOTSA GREAT INFO...

 

[FEENIX]

Very, very nice shooting right there. Kirby makes some gorgeous rifles. I hope mine turns out to be a shooter like yours. I was just curious why you chose the 150gr over the 160gr? With the horse power you have I would thing you would have gone with the 160gr.

I am sure it'll be a shooter. I am 20 clicks away from Kirby and will happily do the barrel break-in for you. LL!

 

[Northkill]

While I reject the concept of projectiles grouping tighter at longer distances than closer, I love your attention to detail and enjoy your data.
if You want to document your observed change in moa over longer distance, just set up 3 or more shot markers out to near the end of the supersonic speed of the bullet.

It's always been that way with this combination. Have you played with a "hyper-magnum" like the 7 Allen? Kirby told me it's a thing. It did the same for him. He said he doesn't even waste time at 100 yds with his builds. He had a long scientific response about it when I questioned it, but I don't remember all the details. I've questioned him on stuff before and always ended up on the wrong side when I tested it, so I've come to respect his opinion & experience. It does defy logic or conventional thinking. From the little that I remember, there's a lot going on with that much blast when a bullet is pushed from the muzzle. No barrel is absolutely perfect - there's always margins of tolerance however small they be. Hyper magnums like this amplify those discrepancies. And it may be possible that long for caliber bullets also amplify this effect? He says it takes projos longer down-range till they fully stabilize - and possibly he was talking mainly about the mono effect too, I'm not sure... That's been my experience with this rifle, and it's very consistent that way. If it was shooting .3 at 100 one day and .6 another day, it would leave questions. But it just flat shoots .6 at 100 all the time. Extremely consistent rifle. I give him the credit. (my 10 yr old son blasted a small deer with it at 400+ yds in 1 shot he threaded through a tree-row this past year ) By the way the damage this thing does is pretty horrific terminally on deer... I think I've posted on that before.

 

[cbuck516]

Lots of great info on this thread! Thank you SBruni for starting it, and Cody for your support. One thing that I have noticed is that a fairly tight clearance between the lead and the bullet may reduce the need for a short jump. Noticed this in a 6.8 Western where they advertise a 0.0004" clearance per side. Makes sense to me that with a tighter lead clearance the bullet stays better aligned to the rifling reducing the need for a short jump. Would appreciate other people's thoughts or data on this subject.

I too believe that there is physics-based logic for tightly-toleranced leads resulting in better alignment and ultimately better potential accuracy over a range of seating depths.
The 300 PRC saami chambering includes 0.234" of freebore that is 0.3088". I am only about 300 rounds into my 300 PRC, but I have found it to be a more forgiving cartridge than my 270Win which has no freebore. This is a fairly limited anecdotal observation, but the logic makes sense to me. Given how much variance in behavior can be seen rifle-to-rifle, chamber-to-chamber, I'm not sure how you would set up an experiment to prove this point universally.
I haven't done enough seating depth testing (jump testing) to say any of this with extreme confidence, but I am certainly not an individual that likes to live close to the lands. I tend to push fairly hard on pressure so I like the forgiveness that I get being further from the lands. As long as I can keep the bullet's bearing surface out of the case donut, I usually start hunting loads at 0.050" jump and target loads (lower pressure in most of my loads) at 0.020" jump.
I found the following seating depth test from F-Class John pretty intriguing. I've never tried one exactly like he did, but it is an interesting approach.

 

[nralifer]

Loaded some of the 150 BD2's in my recently re-barreled 8 twist 24" 7 Max. Was hoping to get these up near 3200 fps, Unfortunately it seems like I have a slow barrel. Ejector marks start showing up about 2950 fps. Have tried H1000, RL23 and H4831sc. The H4831sc shows some promise. Bullets seated to 3.030 OAL (0.020 off).
Here's the H4831sc:

View attachment 373134
60 - 2795 fps
61 - 2879 fps
62 - 2936 fps
63 - 2962 fps
64 - 3016 fps
65 - 3058 fps
66 - 3108 fps
67 - 3108 fps - Ejector mark

Looks like there's a node between 60-61 and 62-63. Too bad I'm pressured out at 66-67. Thinking I may load from 62-65 in 0.3 grain increments to see if I can find a better node. Thoughts?

I know it a little late but have you tried RL26 or StaBall6.5