Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles New S20, good enough or develop a load?

Took new Sako S20 to range first time yesterday 270W, Leica Amplus 6 2.5-15 x 50 glass. Weather a bit warm 90F and a bit windy, 10G15 from 10 o clock. Range is only 100 yards

First string, two, clean and cool for 5 while I wasted some 5.7x28, then 2 clean and wait 5, rinse repeat 2 more times. Ammunition was Winchester factory 130G Power point bought to burn up for this purpose. Pic 1, 8 shots. First 2 furthest left, second 2 furthest left and low, last 4 all in the red, I think the pair touching was last pair but did not note. Need to work on elevation but pretty good for cheap ammo shot quickly.

Second string, 4 shots with Federal premium with Berger 140G hybrid hunter factory load. Curious shot to almost same point of aim as W PP. Again 2, clean/cool, shoot last 2. Left 2 are one pair, right 2 a second pair. Wind was a little tough with the gusts but I think I may have no need to try to develop any special load.

I have some other factory ammunition, some Hornady 130 copper bullet loads and some Barnes TTSX. I will try to find a less windy day and run all 4 over a chronogrpah and see what we get. Pretty pumped that is hoots this well out of box with factory ammo.

RAS

PS, how the heck do I drop pics inline with text?

Plenty good for hunting..

It appears you think it's good enough, so why ask the question? Generally guys that are fn around with factory ammo, or are happy with it, are not much into handloading anyways.

Hi RAS.

Not sure what your typical shooting distances are or how you hunt, but for stand hunting under 250 yards I think you would be good.

For sure the S20 can do better with handloads, but I wouldn't stress over it for now.

I'd probably try the Barnes TTSX, then take the best of the bunch and go hunting.


For the pics, this is how I do it:
Upload the pic to the Image Gallery (on 24HCF)
Go to the image and right click on it - select copy image address
(using the Full Editor to post) click on the mountains (insert image link) icon
in the dialog box that opens, right click in the address line and select paste
Click ok

The HTML code to insert your pic will be inserted in your post

Looks good enough to hunt the family farm, but a rifle looney wouldn't be satisfied.

How do you like your Leica Amplus scope?

Shinbone:
Like the Leica a good bit. Not yet in love with the reticle but that may be a function of shooting with my contacts in. I am not quite a rifle looney (my wife might disagree) but I was simply surprised that a drop the scope on w/o any special effort to boresight in any way gets me 2 shot groups that good with factory ammo. I do not really need super dooper accurate, rarely have a shot more than 200 yds in the woods I hunt but nice to know the rifle is capable.

WhelenAway:
Yep, almost always <250 yds and from a stand. Definitely gonna see what the Ttsx will do before I start loading - and probably after also.

BSA:
Happy you know all about folks who "fn" with factory ammo and do not load. Me I have been rolling my own for >35 years. As I said above, I am happy and surprised that new rifle/new scope/factory ammo could do that well out of the box. Maybe state of the factory art has gotten better. Or maybe Sako is just that good, this is my first new Sako ever. Whatever, I know I have a load that if I cannot find time to develop my own will do the job this fall.

RAS

When I was a kid, it didn't hardly count if I didn't shoot it with a reload. Now, 60 years later, I accept that factory loads do just fine. Enjoy your hunt. GD

I'm still a subscriber to that tendency. I'm only just now coming around to the commercial ammo.....sometimes.

I'm very OCD about my ammo and accuracy. I bought my 6.5 PRC S20 last Spring, readied the 130 AB's and 139 Scenars, rounded up some brass, got them all whipped into shape including annealing, trimming, etc. I came across a killer deal on some 143gr Norma Match ammo and some 143gr Norma Bondstrike for cheap, bore sighted an Arken EP4 6-24x50 and proceeded to shoot multiple 5 shot, 1/2" groups at 100 and 300 yds with the factory ammo. The Bondstrike is kickasss so far on hogs, and seems to kill about like accubonds, which is a high compliment. Only whacked about 20 so far with them though. The 6.5 PRC reloading session has been put on hold for a while.

Work up a load.

x2. That group would satisfy me.

The rifle will certainly do better... That will certainly kill a deer with no problems shooting like that where you hunt. Do not worry about what anyone says... Just make sure you are having fun.. I have the s20 in 6.5 creed and it is amazingly accurate