First project gun

[hick135]

I picked up a Savage 110 7mm Rem Mag for a good deal and decided to make it my project gun. I both piller bedded and glass bedded the action. Then refinished the stock. I am planning on loading 168gr Berger VLD Hunting bullets with H4831sc powder and Federal 215 primers. I know seating depth is an issue with these bullets and want to be able to feed from my mag. When i bedded the action i removed the factory pressure bump at the tip of the stock. My question I guess is where i should start with my load development. Do i get a load that seems to work ok, then mess with pressure bedding, or use factory ammo and play with pressure bedding then work up a good load?

 

[shootinfool]

Pressure bedding? If you have bedded both the pillars and the action, just free float the barrel and be done with it. Like you stated in your post you need to figure out what your max OAL can be in this gun. If seating the bullet to where it touches the lands and grooves in your barrel is too long to seat in the mag, then you need to determine what will fit and then go from there. I always look at what the book suggestion is and then back off a grain or two and start there. Then work up in either .2 gr. incriments or .5 gr incriments till you find the most accurate load. Once i have found the most accurate load I will then play around with the seating depth a little to find where it is most accurate. Some say that when shooting bergers they need a little more time to stabilize in flight so to test at them at longer ranges like 200 or 300 yards. I found that at 100 yards worked fine for me when testing them. There was no change in MOA from 100 on out with any of the loads I have developed. Good luck, load developement can be frustrating but very rewarding in the end. Hope this helps a little.

 

[hick135]

I'm happy to know that you had consistent results from 100 out. I do have access to testing them out to 600, so that should not be the issue though. My question about pressure bedding was because it is a light barrel. I know that with heavy barrels free floating is the way to go, but from most of the reading it seems light barrels like 8-10 pounds of upward pressure.

 

[shootinfool]

I have a few of the "light barrels" and they are excellent shooters with the barrel free floated. If you have had a smith custom fit the barrel to the action and have a good solid foundation (bedding of the action and pillars) free floating the barrel is the best way to go. If you have gone to all the trouble of creating a stress free, perfectly fitted environment for the rest of the gun why then introduce pressure and stresses anywhere else. The purpose of bedding the action and pillars is to releive stress and put the pressure points where they should be. Of course this is just my opinion though and you can take it for what it is worth.

 

[hick135]

Thats what i was hoping to find out. Guess i will just start working up a load and see how things go. I did the all the bedding, put am quite comfortable saying it is stress free. It was quite a project. But with the steps i went through, any stress points left from the first phase were removed for the second and same for the third.