Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles Loads that work... that really shouldnt...

Have you ever got frustrated trying to find a load for a certain bullet and tried something off the wall that worked exceptionally well? A few that come to mind for me is IMR4831 and Reloder 23 with 154 SP Hornady in a 7mm-08. My favorite though is Lever revolution with 170 gr fn Hornady in a 300 Savage. These loads all go half inch or less all day every day. Shouldnt surprise me tho... R23 and IMR4831 seem to work in everything. What are some that you folks have stumbled onto?

Had a contrary 243 that refused to comply will the recommended powders. On a whim, I took some 4320 off the shelf and tried it with 100 gr Nosler Solid Bases. Bingo: consistentl 3/4” or better groups.

And the Nosler discontinued the bullet...

I think I have a couple of boxes of them...

Guy

Funny you had that experience.

Years ago while doing some load development for on of my .280s, I decided to burn some 4320 for fouling shots since I had about a sixth of a pound someone had given me. I don't recall which bullet I was working with but I chose an arbitrary charge in the middle of the recommended range. I think velocity was supposed to have been about 2500 fps, which didn't matter at all for my purposes. I'll be damned if the load didn't print three in about one fourth of an inch. Quarter inch groups don't normally irritate me, but it did that day.

The one I had before that was a bit unusual in that it is a fast burning powder was RL 15 with a whole pile of different 165 gr bullets in a 300 WSM I had. They all shot very well at around 3050 fps or so.

My 260 shot 120 gr Nosler ballistic tips ok with the usual suspects. On a whim I tried Benchmark and the groups got much tighter.

Here we go again with this "1/2" all day long every day" bs.... I don't have a "1/2" all day long gun, but some are close. My AR load works equally well in my bolt action. It's loaded short to fit in the AR mags. Probably running around .090" off the lands on the bolt gun, but it still works great. Not a "developed" load for this rifle, but it works:

My sympathies... Perhaps put the keyboard down and go to the bench or range occasionally and things may get better for you.

Been quite a few years now, about 1981 or82 as I recall. Saw and ad in the paper where someone was selling a Ruger M77 RSI in .308 Win. at a damn low price. I'd been wanting one for some time so I called the guy and he said he hadn't sold it. Well, long story short he was selling it because it was the most inaccurate rifle he's ever owned. I even got the price reduced another $50 but it did come home with me. It took a bit over two years trying to find a load that was at least acceptable for hunting. I set the standard at 1.5" or less on a consistent basis. Ended up with a hot load using W760 and the 165 gr. Speer Hot Core. Switch to a Sierra or Hornady bullet of the same weight and things turn to crap again. Did a little tinkering with the metal nose cap on the stock with a Dremel tool and cratex tip and groups now run closer to 1.25" most of the time.

I saw two more Ruger M77 RSIs for sale over then next few years, all in .308 that wouldn't group for their owners and got into them cheap. The "magic load" worked just fine in both guns. The load only did about 2550 FPS according to the chronograph from them and 2610 FPS from a 22" barrel but I did take deer from about 35 feet to one shot as a lasered 250 yards. Guess I've taken about 16 deer with that first rifle and it is a keeper. I'd keep one of the others as well as it was my late wife's rifle that she used when she hunted with me.
Paul B.

POPCORN!!!

Shidt just got real.

What kind of velocity are you getting from the RL23, How much are you getting in the case. I used a 150gr Sierra BT with RL26 53gr very compressed in my 7mm-08
I got 2828 fps. Also I,m slowly working on a superformance load for same 7mm-08. I wondered about leverevolution, did not try it.

All my groups are eleventeen.


All day.










P

Sounds like you need to prove you have a real 1/2 moa rifle. I know just the thread in the ar and tactical rifle forum. Look it up, its called "the moa all day long" challenge . In other words, "put up or shut up".

My 7mm Mag would only go up to 68.6gr of RL26 but I got 3101 fps using 160grTrophy Bonded Tipped. Some days I got a little more.
If I could get that extra .5 gr RL26 in my 7mm-08 I might get 2875 with 150gr Partitions. I can get a little over 2900 with RL17 and PP2000mr
using 140gr bullets. Your accuracy is better than mine though. Must be my age.

I used H870 once in a .223 on accident. It shot .6 on avr. for that box I loaded. Dirty stuff so I never bothered loading more.

Ok,

That funny.

Someone telling the guy posting targets of his 10 shot groups that he needs to go shoot more???

BSA,

Since when did you become a keyboard commando who doesn't shoot enough?

In response to the OP,

BLc(2) behind a 200gr NBT in the .338 Win Mag.

260 and H1000