Thanks very much for the heads-up on gas checks! I wouldn't have known that...
I ordered some 250-grain Woodleigh Weldcores from Midway yesterday, and some 200-grain Swift A-Frames from Graf & Sons. Plus some new Starline and Hornady brass from Midway. All to augment my stach of Hornady and Barnes bullets, Winchester brass, and factory-loaded Winchester Silvertips. Big buck$$$ once all was said and done.
Just checked my records; last time I fired it was in '87 when I was working on loads with the 200-grain Hornadys and 250-grain Barnes. Didn't do any chronographing. I guess I need to correct all that.
I would expect the original 200-grain Winchester Silvertips would be just fine for the tiny whitetail around here, about all I get out for -- some years -- these days. Maybe the 200-grain A-Frames for hogs, I guess. And the heavier bullets much be good for something...
Actually, I began thinking about some of this after reading through another campfire thread about loads for coastal brown bears. Happens I've got a .338 WM that I'd like to pass down to somebody in wifey's family... and I'm not real great running a bolt rifle anyway... which leaves the Model 71 as maybe what I guess I'd choose if I were on a bear watch up there. (Not actually hunting.) Which lead me to the 250-grain Weldcores as maybe viable. Not a lot of brown bears here on the coast of the Chesapeake, though...
-Chris
