I am finally through tweaking the Woodleigh 400 grain .411 bullet load combinations and am ready for practice shooting at Cape Buffalo targets before leaving for RSA May 27!
Yesterday afternoon at the Krodle Kountry Range, Joe and Ricky helped me chronograph and accuracy test what were to be the last two load combinations whose only difference was standard and large Federal Match rifle primers. Serendiptity! The mag primer load is in-the- zone in velocity and accuracy.
The last four mag primer rounds were recorded at ERROR (bullet path too low between screens), 2068, 2069, and 2068 fps with the chrony 10 feet from the muzzle. With or without correction, this is just over the 450/400 velocities claimed by Hornady(
http://www.hornady.com/store/450-400-Nitro-Express-3/ ) for their factory loads. With correction from screens to muzzle, it is equal to the reference loads(corrected to 2076) from the Wolfe Load data site.
These loads are also accurate; with the front bead covering the 8" bull at 100 yards, they are all in the black. So with no physical sight adjustments, the 400 grain sight picture of bead-on-target and the 300 grain picture of 6 o'clock (factory and handloads print an inch above top of bead at 100 yards) allow me to use either load as appropriate without physically adjusting the sights. More serendipity.
I then fired two series of three fast shots from a tripod at 50 yards and they were all in the eight inch black bull. Now I can just go shooting with this load and practice, practice, practice, to be ready to pop a buffalo in RSA.
