"Comments or thoughts on my craziness?"
Well, I'd have kept the .280 and bought the 7x57 too.
Seriously, I curently have three rifle in 7x57 including the Winchester featherweight. One is a J.C. Higgins M50 FN Mauser rebarreled to 7x57, the next a Ruger #1A that I had to send back to Ruger because of a very bad barrel. They did fix it though.
Then there is the featherweight.
Well, the Ruger with the new barrel is one I haven't done much with other that test fire it. Accuracy was in the 1.25" ramge with Winchester 145 gr. Power Points. I reserve that ammo for testing a new rifle or for the mauser which is a .75" gun with that ammo. It's even better with my handloads, but since I got the Featherweight, well the other two seem to be in semi-retirement. There is something about that rifle that that is almost like a marriage between man and rifle. When I got it, it didn't shoot worth a damn regardles of what I ran through it. The barrel fouled badly which didn't help. After spending the money for a professional glass bedding and trigger job it still shot lousy. About the only thing I hadnt tried was changing the scope. After all, brand new scopes should work, right? Well, this one didn't as I found out after changing it to another. I sent it back to leupold and it was replaced within a week. Damn fine service.
Well, now with the test ammo, the 145 gr. Power points, groups ran right at one inch. That was more like it. I worked up a fairly stiff load with 140 gr. Nosler Ballistic Tips that consistantly shoot into .75" when I do my part. The long discontinued Sierra 170 gr. round nose bullets were the eal surprise. I was getting goups in the .375" to .50" range. I sure wish Sierra would at least make a few more. I'd buy at least 500 for myself.
I recently made a buy of 160 gr. Speer Grand Slams to try in the rifle but haven't gotten around to loading any yet. The only bullet that has not shot worth a damn in the Featherweight, or the other two rifles plus my .280 Rem. are some 150 gr. Winchester Power Point bulk bullets I bought. There is such a radical difference in weight from bullet to bullet that I can't see accuracy ever being decent with them. The variation is something like plus or minus 1.5 gr. from the nominal value.
So what do I think of the Featherweight? Well, I bought another one in .257 Roberts that is a decent shooter and I picked up a long action Featherweight stock that I mounted a 1968 era M70 in .243 Win. that gives that rifle a whole new feel. It shows promise but I do belive it's going to need a bit a bedding work before it shoots to it's full potential.
Now if I can find one in .280 Rem.????????????????
Paul B.
