Mark V .257 Wby. with 115 gr. Bergers, 71.2 gr. RL-25 with Fed GM 215 M using formed new Winchester 7 Rem Mag cases. They're a little shorter, once formed, than factory Wby. brass. At about 1/3 the cost, they are reportedly made of harder brass. This load chrono's at 3,300 fps. and has shot sub inch (.78") at 200 yds. COAL is 3.36", which is about max for the mag length Mark V box. I traded for the gun, a synthetic, sold the factory stock on Ebay for $99 and bought a B&C Medalist from Stocky's on line for $207. I glassed, free floated and torqued the action. It took a lot of research, loading and testing to come up with this load. TSX 100's and NAB 110's would group about .7" at 100. Only this load would do that at 200 yds. Tried 5 different recommended powders to discover that RL-25 was the most consistent in this gun.
Today, I mounted a Swaro Z5 3.5-18x44 BT and am going to zero at 200. That puts it only an inch or so high at 100 and with one turn of the turret, it should range out to around 800 yds. Not that I plan to shoot it that far, but it will be nice to verify each yardage before ordering a custom scribed turret from Outdoorsmans, in AZ. Then all one has to do is range, crank the turret and shoot. After that, it's a function of a steady position, proper trigger technique, mirage, wind and who knows what else. I will be practicing, using my Harris bipod from sitting position before my next Pronghorn hunt in N.E. NM. I would probably need my bench for those mega long shots... And, of course, for the wind to stop blowing for half a minute... I think I'll be comfortable taking a crack at a speed goat up to 450-500 yds. I'd prefer shooting one at 100 yds. I just want to be prepared...
DF
