Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles What was the hardest load development you ever did?

Finding a single load in 300 Savage that worked well in a 99F, a 99E, and a 760 ran me around in circles for a long time. All of the typical loads worked well in two of the three rifles. .308" Sierra SPT/38.5 gr. IMR4895/WLR primers/Remcesteral cases is a load that all three will shoot. I didn't want to stock two or three loads, but it may come down to that because the above load is kind of slow. It works for now, but I'm burnt out on that project for a while.

An old Ruger tang safety 243 Varmint with a 12 twist. Needed a factory class varmint rig that could put 20 shots into an inch @ 300 yrds in 30 minutes plus sighters. Ended up getting it done with 37.5grs H-4895, Sierra 70 gr MK. or Hornady 75gr HP. Rem brass, and CCI primer. Worked 22 years ago, and still works now.

Pic of said rifle



200 yrd target from said rifle



Swifty

Weatherby UL in 7-08 punched to 284... 3 powder manufacturers, Bazillion bullets, hours of my life... sold it before I snapped... Best group was 2" plus.... Hated that gun...

Remington LH 700 with a factory Take Off in 7-08 to 284 Win never got a load to shoot well in probably 100 plus loads tried. Rebedded rifle 3 or 4 times, sold it with another Take off barrel in 7-08, with full disclosure. Wish I would have kept action but was sour on it.

HaYen: The longest I have ever worked on a "difficult" Rifle has been my ongoing trials with a Ruger #1-B in 22 Hornet!
After many years of off and on load testing I finally have it shooting just at and just under 1" for 5 shots at 100 yards in dead calm conditions.
If this Rifle was not so beautiful and fun to pull the trigger on it would have been down the road many years ago.
My loading log shows I added this then new Rifle to my arsenal back in 1997.
I consider my efforts with this Rifle to be "considerable" and "difficult".
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

Woof - how did it shoot as a 7/08?

Paul- better practice more if you need 5 shots in that single shot rifle Seriously, if you get the first shot out of a cold bbl, consistent POI, I'd not worry more than a 2nd or 3rd 'just in case' but I bet it shoots as good as you can away from bags now.

No doubt I have heard of 7x57s w/LONG throats.

[quote=Swifty52]
Needed a factory class varmint rig that could put 20 shots into an inch @ 300 yards in 30 minutes plus sighters. Ended up getting it done with 37.5grs H-4895, Sierra 70 gr MK. or Hornady 75gr HP. Rem brass, and CCI primer. Worked 22 years ago, and still works now.

200 yrd target from said rifle

/quote]

Very Nice Swifty

65BR brings a good point. One of the first statements make when training someone new is "the first shot out of a cold barrel is your money shot, the rest are just practice". And the 6.5x55 has been killing Mice to Moose :-)

"What was the hardest load development you ever did?"

Converting .303 Brit cases into long .44 mag handgun cases to form a sort of bottle neck shot shell and then finding a lethal snake load with a decent pattern.

boomtube, what did the load consist of? What did you use for wad(s)?

Two,338-06 and a 264,both are without much solid data.So I started from a velocity point,2650 with a 225 and 3200 with a 140.Ranshot powders were the answers.

Regulating a 577 Nitro Express to shoot to the sights, I broke the front trigger hanging on to that shoulder pounding beast, just got it back from JJ in Enid a couple weeks ago.

All is good w/ the TSX and banded solids, with around 100 rounds loaded up.

Gunner

http://i1140.photobucket.com/albums/n564/dave-t1/257R-April232011jpg.jpg?t=1303917441


I shot this .223" group with 43.5 grn h100v and 115grn ballistic tip out of my Roberts.

I never shot within 1.5" of that group again at that charge weight and burned a pound of that powder trying to work it out.

Ditched the whole recipe and went with RL19.

Shooting that group lead to about about 6+ weeks of wasted effort. For a while I thought I was good! Turned out to be a complete fluke.

A 280 rem that i have finally pulled the barrel for now.
The action will be something else this winter.

Getting my 1894CL Marlin in .25-20 to shoot under 1.5 inches at 50 yds. Finally tried magnum small pistol primers and 8 grs. of H110 over an 86 gr. Remington SP. Shoots about .5 inches, or one MOA. Later I found that the 60 gr. Hdy will do almost as well with 13 grs. of WW680 and the magnum primer. The Speer 75 gr. FP's were the worst of all. But did finally find one load that was close. In that case, the magnum primers were the answer. This took over 10 yearsa of on and off effort BTW.
Didn't have much trouble with the Hornady 154 Interbond in my .280. But it only comes close to MOA with either 52 grs. of H4350 or 57 grs. of H4831. The Swift A-Frame was much harder to work with. Only 52 grs. of H4350 is any where near MOA.
Never had any problems with H4895. I especially like it for reduced loads and in the .308.
I've come to the conclusion that bullet choice makes a difference, sometimes a big one. I've had my worst performance in cup and core bullets from Speer's Hot Cores when it comes to the best accuracy. But even those are often acceptably accurate.
I'll not be buying any more Swift-A-Frames. I found them to be very expensive and not very consistant. Nosler Partitions are my choice for those premium bullet applications now. Much easier to find accurate loads for, cheaper and they work fine. No more Hornady Interbonds either. They don't penetrate nearly as well as the NP's do.
I've sort of lost my enthusiasum for the Barnes bullet as well. They shoot fine, but that 3% failure to open rate bothers me. E

"boomtube, what did the load consist of? What did you use for wad(s)?"

Oh goodness...it's all in my shop and it's raining. I'll get back to you with the details.

I had a Ruger M77 in .257 RBTS that wouldn't shoot good with anything I tried (all the recommended powders and C&C bullets from 100 grains to 120 grains). Finally I read one of Mule Deers articles in his quarterly newsletter that recommended Ramshot Hunter powder and the Barnes 100 TSX - I was dubious, but damn if I didn't finally get MOA groups after tinkering with loads for over a year.

Much of what passes for "load development" is a Wag the Dog exercise where the shooter spends excrutiating time and money trying to sync a load to a freaky vibrating, poorly assemnled rifle IMHO.

I have spent far too much time and components trying to get poorly assembled rifles to shoot...barrels,bedding,triggers,squared actions,solid scopes and mounts,and straight ammo in no particular order,are all important,and getting a poorly assembled rifle to shoot through extensive load development is like trying to build a house on a crooked foundation...

It can be done....but I have found that load development is easy when the foundation is "right",so the rifle is the first order of business,and if you have to run to the range with 4 different powders and 6 different bullets looking for something that shoots( I refuse to do it anymore),more than likely, you got a rifle issue and not a load issue.

Good rifles shoot most things well,and some things really well,so I would rather put the energy and money into tune up if a rifle is not producing.Once you have a good foundation, tweaking loads is not tough.....JMHO

Had a 270 Wby that was custom or semi- so on a Rem 700, and well put together as far as I could tell. I don't think it was any of the smith's fault--he had a good rep. I had dictated the long Wby throat and went through two pages of load development/loads, none awful, but none stellar either. Bought into the snake oil cryogenic treatment way back and it was no better afterward. It was a 1.5" rifle and not consistently better. It frustrated me to no end. That said I made venison with it at some extended ranges but it never had my confidence.

George a pal had a 280 made of top components (try, like,a Krieger that wouldn't shoot(?)....for 12 years he tried everything,here and there,even some stuff I advised,but nothing worked.

Finally, tired of hearing the complaints, I told him, take it to our smith, tear it down,and have him rebuild it....which he did,with the exact same components.First group was 4 140 TSX's in the same ragged hole.

Another pal 3 years ago with a 700AWR in 300 RUM,stock custom shop....shot aces with 180's....at 3050.But load it like a 300 RUM to 3300 or so, and it scattered everything into patterns.

He sent it to Score High and they provided a laundry list of issues....did the work and the rifle drove tacks at real RUM velocities.

These and other little experiences make me a skeptic when it comes to finding "magic loads".

Make the rifle right and there are no tough load developments.