Home Forums Reloading Varmint Rifles Off Season Practice?

anyone else spend a lot of time at the range during the off season..

Try to make it once a week at least...

run thru 50 to 100 rounds...

thank Goodness for 223s, and 22.250s

bulk bullets....

downloaded cartridges...

stretches out the powder supply.... slows down wearing out the barrel...

allows one to experiment, with different ideas they might have... if they do that kind of stuff..

Main obstacle we have to deal with here is RAIN...and the byproduct.. MUD...

My plan is to spend at least one day per week at the range and focus on one rifle at a time. So far, the execution of my plan sucks...

What I may do.......have a Salvage target 6.5x55 set up....may run some rds out at LR steel.........

its been sleepin' in the safe for a while......then pull it down & switch barrels.....have a heavy 9T 223 AI

that needs to be put back into service.......my doggin' hardware has been covered by my 20 cals.......

they are hard to leave at home on dog days.....now during off season.....I find myself out plinking steel

with one of the Marlin 357...44 & 45 Colts.......cheap entertainment...4-6 grs of powder & cast boolits......

Rain ? whats that ? dry & mild here in Podunk....for the time being......pic is Salvage Swede & 6500 Bushy......

scanning for early morning 'yotes

What's Rain? Oregon Liquid Sunshine...

Seafire: John I have three Rifles waiting to be sighted in - none are mine though!
Once the wind calms down I will get them sighted in for the owners and out of my hair.
Calibers are:
270 WSM
243 Winchester
223 Remington
The 223 Remington I am really anxious to see how it shoots/groups (with 223 Hornady factory ammo) as I had a hand in suggesting the owner buy both the Rifle (Ruger 77 V/T stainless) and the scope (Leupold 4x12 with A/O).
Then I mounted the scope for the owner and bore sighted it.
Anyway I Hunt Deer on this Rifles owners ranch and I am praying that this rig I worked up for him will be accurate enough for his Varmint shooting on his ranch (he doesn't Hunt big game).
Gunshow coming up starting tomorrow so it may be Monday before I get another chance to shoot these Rifles.
I enjoy shooting in the winter as barrels don't heat up and the low in the south winter sun is at my back at the two ranges (one public and one private) where I shoot.
If you consider winter as the "off season" then yes I do MUCH range "work" (practice) in winter.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

We have WINTER here. Sometimes we'll get "almost a chinook" just below freezing (above, the hill to the range is darn slick) and I'll grab a handful of rifles. There's also a club here with a 100 yard tube, but I don't crave that too much, as the ventilation runs a bad mirage. It beats nothing at all, but that's about all.
So, my practice is with a little Izhmash 60 pellet rifle, very unforgiving but very accurate, in the shop at 10 meters. I'll shoot about 8 targets a session, it's good for breath and trigger control.

We practice on damn pigs







[IMG]http://a66.tinypic.com/hv5s3t.jpg[/IMG

Wow, lots of pork there.. Rosie O’ Donnel and her family!!!

watch what you say............or you may be in the news.............

yea man.......that is alot of pork.............

its illegal to shoot democRATS here....

sage RATs no problem... democRATS... NO can SHOOT...

both do nothing but destroy everything they are around..

but the bigger RAT is sacred evidently...

Seafire, I had a buddy pick up 2lbs of blue dot on his last trip through town. Been looking through your posted data and we are pumped. Gonna load for some .223, .243, 7-08, .308, and maybe a 300win mag or 7 rem mag.

Might be looking for some data if you are willing to share.

Bluedot is the boss in 223 reduced loads........thx Seafire.........

I run 12 grs in mine w/53 V max.......quiet & accurate.......

300 BLK ? 9 grs & 110 Nozler or Horny......

Bought a few jugs of AL-8 and IMR 7383 from Bartlett a while back. The AL-8 I run like Blue Dot in everything from the 222 up to the 30-06. I'm been comparing it to your BD data for the last 6 years and it is very similar. The IMR 7383 is another creature, I have some clean burning loads for a few calibers that are <1MOA and velocity is pretty good. Problem with that is the jugs I got are different lots so I'll have to work the data all over again when it runs out...but that's what makes it fun right?

Be happy to Hank....

Let me know what you need, as you need it...

Start with the smaller calibers and then work up to the bigger ones as you learn the parameters
of working with Blue Dot...it differs from regular powder patterns...

Key thing is to charge a case, and then seat the bullet, before going onto the next one..
OR, If you have to leave the bench...dump any powder within a case back into the container..

Practice to eliminate a double charge possibility..

That is hard to get use to, for a rifle handloader...

but is SOP for a pistol handloader...

Awesome, thank you!

One at a time is how I load anyways so no worries there.

Pm me on what you are interested in, when ever you are ready to go..

I spent time at the range with my deer rifles, all spring and summer developing loads for the .257 Roberts, .30-06 and .35 Whelen. I usually took two rifles per session and shot 40-50 rounds from each. I was in new territory loading for the .257 and .30-06, the Whelen was an old friend. Interesting thing was that after trying several new loads for the Whelen the load that I had developed for it more than 25yrs. ago still shot the best. IMR 4064 under a Sierra 225gr. was the accuracy champ and surprisingly a Speer 180gr. FP load shot to the same POI as the 225 Sierra.

I have a 300 yrd range next to the house, so can and do shoot most every day...cycle through all my rifles to keep the dust out of the barrels. Ofcourse I load for everything.

I shoot reduced loads more than anything else.

They are usually more accurate in my rifles and such.

That being said, I spend some time at the range behind a bolt action of some sort about every 2 weeks or so. If not rifle then a 9mm G17...always.


My 2 favorites are always with me..

hunting loads....

.243 Winchester--- loaded with a Hornady 100 grain BTSP on top of 37 grains of IMR 4350....loafs along at 2,700 fps... OR 20 grains of bluedot and the same bullet.

Now I will be working on a load for the 1,600.....95 grain tipped factory seconds I bought.....they are SST / ACCUTIPS... should be fun!!


.223 Rem.---- loaded with my favored bullet......midsouth varmint nightmare....55 grain cannuler softpoints.

or even better....... the 36 grain hollowpoints from midsouth also. Both .223 loads are filled with 25 grains of H335. OR.......12 grains of BLUEDOT or.....8 grains of Unique.


I am about to start my new adventure with the .22-250...never owned one before and I am looking forward to developing some loads for that hot rod.

The new to me (pawn shop find) .22-250 is a Savage model 12....26" barrel....... blah. blah. blah. blah......



AND we have at feral hogs all the time here too. I live in DEEP south Texas.
Pigs are fun.....the crop damage is not fun.


Best..

Heavy

I hope to Trap-kill some this weekend!!!