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View Full Version : Interesting day at the range...


rnovi
November 5, 2005, 11:23 PM
well, I just spent a lovely day at the range testing some "light" loads for my .350 Rem-Mag. It's a brand new gun to me and I wanted something to use on deer, etc. Some interesting observations came out of this...

Lightest bullet available is a 180gr bullet...so light is relative...some IMR 4895 and some Speer 180's and some Hornady 180's.

(Note: all groups were fired "Round Robin" style, one gr-weight shot on each target before moving onto the second gr-weight shot)

Range conditions: very light, predictable 2mph breeze. 70 degrees. Not a cloud in the sky. 20% humidity (or less).

Load #1
Speer 180 gr loads.
IMR 4895
56gr Group: Long stringer, 5" length. Printed 4" low on target.
56.5 Group: Two shots touching, 3" overall group. Printed 3" low.
57 Group: Even spread, 3" group. Printed 1/2" low.
57.5 Group: Even spread, 3.5" group. Center Printed.
58 Group: Even spread, 1" group. Center Print.
58.5 Group: Even spread, 1.5" group. Center Print.
59 Group: Even spread, 2.5" group. Printed 1.5" high and left.
59.5 Group: Two touching, 2.75" overall group. Printed 1.5" high and left.
60 Group: Short striner, 4" length. Printed 2.5" high and left.

(Patched the bore and cleaned it out...one fouling shot)

Load #2:
Hornady 180 gr. spire point.
IMR 4895
56 Group: Overall group: 1.41" (two shots at 0.50"). 2" low, centered.
56.5 Group: Overall group: 0.81" clean. 1.5" low, centered.
57 Group: Overall group: 1.90" (two shots at 0.72"). 2" low, centered.
57.5 Group: Overall group: 1.50" (two shots at 0.45"). 2" low, centered.
58 Group: Overall group: 2.05" (two shots at 0.64"). 1.5" low, centered.
58.5 Group: Overall group: 0.80" clean. 1.25" low, centered.
59 Group: Overall group: 2.25". Clean. 0.75" low, centered.
59.5 Group: Overall group: 1.30" (two shots at 0.70"). 1" low, centered.
60 Group: Overall group: 2.80" (two shots at 1.14"). Dead centered.

General Velocities:
56gr - 2700fps.
58.5gr - 2825fps. (est. 3,133 foot pounds energy at muzzle)
60gr - 2900fps.



Some general observations:
1. The Speer 180's, I just couldn't seem to get an consistency of load. They printed on average a touch over 2.25" in general. More importantly, this was the first time I have witnessed groups showing evidence of "circling the bullseye". It was quite obvious that the groups were moving around the bull in a counter-clockwise fashion. Interesting to me.

2. The Hornady 180/4895 combo - it seemed it just couldn't do any wrong. The one 2.25" group - well, I KNOW I pulled at least one, if not both of those shots. It is quite likely that I pulled a touch on at least one of each of the groups to some degree. Two shots in general were always within 1" of each other and in most cases much less.

Further note: As noted above a round-robin method of shooting the groups was applied. One shot per grain-weight was used per target...9 targets... Then second shot per grain-weight was shot per target...9 targets... And then last shot per grain weight, per target. It is quite possible that I should have bore-swabbed every 9 shots instead of once every 27 rounds. That could explain how two shots were tight and the third (potentially the last shot) was a slight flier.

3. The Hornady 180's appeared to be very pressure insensitive and tended to print very consistently in the center...albeit a touch low (though climbing with velocity increases).

4. I think I can deal with 0.80" groups and 3,100fpe for deer hunting...


I started to test some Hornady 180's with BLC-2 powder. A bad primer (CCI Mag Primer) issue made an end to the day. It was darn strange: Literally it looked like about 25% of the powder had fused together without full burning...turning to a very odd semi-translucent yellowish tone. The bullet launched about 1" into the barrel. I counted off to 30, opened the action and was greated with a cascade of around 58 grains of unburned BLC-2 pouring from the top of the action and down through the mag-well.

I knocked the bullet out and called it a day. No sense pushing my luck!

Final note: damned if 60 rounds of .350 RM doesn't put a dent in the shoulder! That is a DAY!