I did get a chance to spend the afternoon yesterday at the range. Spring has sprung. It was 40+ degrees. I had the place mostly to myself while I was there, except for the father and son who were there for about an hour, wrestling with a Remington rifle in .223. He was having lots of trouble getting his ammo to chamber and extract. I thought perhaps it was a dirty chamber issue. It wasn’t until I was on my way home that the thought occurred to me that I think it was a .223 vs 5.issue. Some of his ammo I looked at was head stamped Lake City. If it was a tight chamber and he was trying to use 5.56, that could have been the culprit, right?
So on to the range report. I had two 6.5X55 loads and three 41 Mag loads I wanted to run over the chrony. I have been trying Varget in a couple of different calibers. Meters well, easy to work with, good versatility. I have noticed that it hasn’t given me great statistics, but some of the accuracy results have been encouraging.
’96 Oberndurf Mauser – I had to put the chrony out to 17 feat due to shade from the roof of the range. Velocities are not corrected to muzzle.
140 grain Hornady SP, 33 grain Varget, Winchester primers, Privi brass.
Average = 2155, ES = 58, SD = 19.9
Not great numbers but decent accuracy.
When I bumped it up to 34 grains it really improved accuracy, though the numbers got much worse.
Average = 2255, ES = 120, SD = 43.4
Nothing to write home about in numbers, except that it gave me great accuracy. Here is the best group of the day at 50 yards:
In 41, the first load is the Trailboss loading gleamed from the favorite handloads thread on another board. Chrony is now at 12 feet from muzzle.
215 grain TVB SWC, 6.5 grains of Trailboss, CCI standard primer, Mixed brass.
Ruger Blackhawk 4 5/8 barrel
Average = 819.8, ES = 52, SD 14.8
Accuracy was acceptable at just over 2 inches at 10 yards. Very light recoiling round. A cream puff in the Ruger.
The next two loads are using some “off brand” lead bullets I found real cheap. I am saving the rest of my TVB’s for the good stuff. The one’s I have are of the 410549 mold variety. They are top heavy, or “cab forward” as I like to call them. There is less inside the case than the TVB design. Load data for these next two loads were found in the Lyman 47 manual.
220 grain LSWC, 10.0 grains Unique, PMC brass, CCI standard primers
Average = 1158, ES = 34, SD = 15.5
Good accuracy. Very stiff recoil. Definitely not like the Trailboss load. I like this load but I only have another 100 of these bullets and don’t plan on going looking for more. I will load the rest of them with this load.
Lastly is the 2400 load. Very stiff recoil and accuracy was not as good as the Unique load.
220 grain LSWC, 18 grains 2400, Midway brass, CCI standard primer.
Average = 1235.8, ES = 129, SD = 45.2
This load might tighten up with magnum primers but it is pretty heavy to begin with. I am not going to put any more effort in to this load. I need to start with the good TV bullets I have on hand.
It was fun to play with the Ruger, shooting at 100 yards with the Unique load. Using a shot up milk jug, I was able to push it around the backstop a bit. Not every shot but it was encouraging to see I could hit it. I am really going to have fun with this gun.
