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Rifles, Reloading, Optics, Equipment
Rifles, Bullets, Barrels & Ballistics
Introducing the Absolute Hammer
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<blockquote data-quote="RockyMtnMT" data-source="post: 1987536" data-attributes="member: 7999"><p>I finally got caught up enough to spend some time catching up on the thread.</p><p></p><p>So last weekend we did two days of loading and shooting the Absolutes. Had some great results and some that were a little puzzling.</p><p></p><p>What we are doing to figure out a load is start with a known powder for the bullet weight. Work that combo up as far as possible and glean from that data where to go next. Best to start with a combo that you can't get into trouble with.</p><p></p><p>1st rifle we worked with was a Ruger American 6.5 Creed. This rifle has always been slow, but shoots well. I think we figured out why it is slow. Appears that the chamber is big and rough. Previous load with the 124g HH was 40g Varget at 2920 fps. So we started there and went up to 43g and a vel of 3062 fps. This was showing stiff extraction and ejector mark. Again I think this is due to a poor chamber. I think we should see another 100 fps. We then tried 6.5 staball, blc2, tac, cfe223 and 8208xbr. They all got to basically the same place. This is when we started mic'ing the brass and seeing that it is all expanding more than it should. Also the fired brass is all rough from marks in the chamber. Felt like we kinda wasted our time on this one.</p><p></p><p>We then went to our 6.5-05 ai 28" barrel. This rifle is built on an old Ruger Mauser style action. Here we did what I tell everyone not to do and went straight to a powder that we thought would be good. We are using Peterson 270 win brass trimmed and fire formed. We went to H100V and started at 55g and a vel of 3422 fps worked up to 57g where we got an extractor mark and a cratered primer and a vel of 3573 fps. The primer pocket on the Peterson brass was still tight. I would consider this a very max load, brass good for about 3 firings.</p><p></p><p>Now we went to my 280ai 22" 8" twist Proof barrel. My previous load for this rifle was the 143g HH at 3126fps with rl23. We decided to start with H100v and work up. Started low at 56g, 1g under a max load from Hodgdon for a 130g bullet. We worked this load up in 1g increments with very nice 40 fps per g increases. We took it up to 64g and a vel of 3427 fps. At this mark the old Win model 70 big firing pin hole was giving too big of a crater. Backed it down to 63g and a comfortable 3387 fps shooting nearly one hole at 200y. Will be sending the bolt in to get it bushed next week after I fire the 140g AH at 1000y to check bc.</p><p></p><p>Now we took on the 30 cals with the 178g AH. 1st the 30-06 in a factory Rem Long Range 26" barrel. Loaded at 3.56" oal we started with H100v with this one too. Started with Win brass and wlrm primer and 54g. This is one g over the start load for 180g in the Hodgdon data. Took this up to 60g and a vel of 3036 with a slight leak around the primer. We then switched to Lapua brass with wlrm primer and went up to 62g with a pimer leak. Swithed to f215m primer and lost the leaky primer. Backed it down a g and went with 61g and a vel of 3080 and shooting 7/8" at 200y.</p><p></p><p>Went to the Browning Hell's Canyon 300 rum from here. Started with a known load for the 181g HH at 95g. I will add that the long nose of the 178g could not mag feed in the short magazine. We had to single feed at an oal of 3.790". Started with 95g rl26 and took it up to 97g and a vel of 3515 fps. This showed an extractor mark on the adg brass. Tried n565 and retumbo with basically the same result. So in the rum size cartirdge we did not see the need for faster powder but did see about 120 fps gain over the 181g HH. It seems at this point that the big capacity cartridges are not showing as much gain in vel as the normal and standard magnum cartridges. </p><p></p><p>Then ran a 262g .338 AH in my 338 Lap imp. We found this cartridge with 100g plus to finish out at the same vel as I had previously ran the 260g HH. More testing to be done here but right now looks like once we get into cartridges approaching 100g powder capacity that we may have reached the end of the vel advantage of the Absolute. More testing needs to be done here. The Absolute still has what it was originally designed for, no engraving on the nose of the bullet messing up the bc from rifle to rifle.</p><p></p><p>Hopefully we will have some time to shoot some more this weekend. Hope this is helpful. </p><p></p><p>I still want everyone to start with powders that are known for the weight of the bullet and start working from there. Always better to start with stuff that you can't get in trouble with than to jump into something that you think will be good on a whim. Collect data and determine where to go from there.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="RockyMtnMT, post: 1987536, member: 7999"] I finally got caught up enough to spend some time catching up on the thread. So last weekend we did two days of loading and shooting the Absolutes. Had some great results and some that were a little puzzling. What we are doing to figure out a load is start with a known powder for the bullet weight. Work that combo up as far as possible and glean from that data where to go next. Best to start with a combo that you can't get into trouble with. 1st rifle we worked with was a Ruger American 6.5 Creed. This rifle has always been slow, but shoots well. I think we figured out why it is slow. Appears that the chamber is big and rough. Previous load with the 124g HH was 40g Varget at 2920 fps. So we started there and went up to 43g and a vel of 3062 fps. This was showing stiff extraction and ejector mark. Again I think this is due to a poor chamber. I think we should see another 100 fps. We then tried 6.5 staball, blc2, tac, cfe223 and 8208xbr. They all got to basically the same place. This is when we started mic'ing the brass and seeing that it is all expanding more than it should. Also the fired brass is all rough from marks in the chamber. Felt like we kinda wasted our time on this one. We then went to our 6.5-05 ai 28" barrel. This rifle is built on an old Ruger Mauser style action. Here we did what I tell everyone not to do and went straight to a powder that we thought would be good. We are using Peterson 270 win brass trimmed and fire formed. We went to H100V and started at 55g and a vel of 3422 fps worked up to 57g where we got an extractor mark and a cratered primer and a vel of 3573 fps. The primer pocket on the Peterson brass was still tight. I would consider this a very max load, brass good for about 3 firings. Now we went to my 280ai 22" 8" twist Proof barrel. My previous load for this rifle was the 143g HH at 3126fps with rl23. We decided to start with H100v and work up. Started low at 56g, 1g under a max load from Hodgdon for a 130g bullet. We worked this load up in 1g increments with very nice 40 fps per g increases. We took it up to 64g and a vel of 3427 fps. At this mark the old Win model 70 big firing pin hole was giving too big of a crater. Backed it down to 63g and a comfortable 3387 fps shooting nearly one hole at 200y. Will be sending the bolt in to get it bushed next week after I fire the 140g AH at 1000y to check bc. Now we took on the 30 cals with the 178g AH. 1st the 30-06 in a factory Rem Long Range 26" barrel. Loaded at 3.56" oal we started with H100v with this one too. Started with Win brass and wlrm primer and 54g. This is one g over the start load for 180g in the Hodgdon data. Took this up to 60g and a vel of 3036 with a slight leak around the primer. We then switched to Lapua brass with wlrm primer and went up to 62g with a pimer leak. Swithed to f215m primer and lost the leaky primer. Backed it down a g and went with 61g and a vel of 3080 and shooting 7/8" at 200y. Went to the Browning Hell's Canyon 300 rum from here. Started with a known load for the 181g HH at 95g. I will add that the long nose of the 178g could not mag feed in the short magazine. We had to single feed at an oal of 3.790". Started with 95g rl26 and took it up to 97g and a vel of 3515 fps. This showed an extractor mark on the adg brass. Tried n565 and retumbo with basically the same result. So in the rum size cartirdge we did not see the need for faster powder but did see about 120 fps gain over the 181g HH. It seems at this point that the big capacity cartridges are not showing as much gain in vel as the normal and standard magnum cartridges. Then ran a 262g .338 AH in my 338 Lap imp. We found this cartridge with 100g plus to finish out at the same vel as I had previously ran the 260g HH. More testing to be done here but right now looks like once we get into cartridges approaching 100g powder capacity that we may have reached the end of the vel advantage of the Absolute. More testing needs to be done here. The Absolute still has what it was originally designed for, no engraving on the nose of the bullet messing up the bc from rifle to rifle. Hopefully we will have some time to shoot some more this weekend. Hope this is helpful. I still want everyone to start with powders that are known for the weight of the bullet and start working from there. Always better to start with stuff that you can't get in trouble with than to jump into something that you think will be good on a whim. Collect data and determine where to go from there. [/QUOTE]
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