Your Elk Gun

 dakotasin,  Thanks for your interest in my 375. Just started working up a load for it this week. Started with the Hornaday 270 sp,and IMR 4350 ,fed 215 caps.Havent chronographed it yet,but the starting load put 3 into 1 &1/16 " at 100 yds. Looks promising. Will try somemore tomarrow. I realy like the 375, Recoil is not as bad as I would have thought. The rifle weighs about 10 lbs,with the 1.5 x 5 leupold on it. Will keep you up to date as I work on it!  Good Hunting!!!

I would figure the 220 grain loads in the .30/06 to be good elk medicine; slow but very reliable. I've heard that you can push them to around 2600 FPS though if you use Reloader 22. I'd be more inclined to go with something from 180 to 200 grains though. I've looked at some plain Jane 180 Hi-Shocks that were recovered from an elk and they looked and behaved just fine. I think the 180 in a .30/06 is so refined and tested, that it's hard to go wrong with about any of them at .30/06 speeds. Expansion and penetration might vary a bit, but I'd bet all would fall within the "zone" of adequate for elk.AW

Wall now, it's live or die by the 348 Win for me.  I decided to start reloading my ownself, 'stead of making Muleskinner rush to load some wait-til-the -last-minute ammo for me.  He done me a good job and I hope I can duplicate his exparteece.

I got me some Barnes Org 250 gr to try out with RL 19.  I fixed me up a few baby loads like yer 'sposed to do, but I was still nervous I might blow myself up so I thought I'd better wear a welding mask or someting.  Then I got so anxious to shoot and the sun was settin' on the west hills so I grabbed the M71 and my handloads and headed out without my mask.  On the first shot I think I closed my eyes and turned my head but danged if that 250 Barnes didn't meet its mark.  I said to myself, " 'nuff of these baby loads... let's load 'em up fer bear"!  Shoot, I just wanted to do some more crankin' on that press... it's purty fun!  I figger I need to get every fps I can out of that 20" barrel since I sometimes hunt in ultra magnum country, so I think I'm going to get me a chrony so's I knowed what these loads is givin' me.  I think I'll experiment with that Barnes XFN in 220 gr too.  Who knows, I might just stay with that Hornady 200 gr, I think it's an underrated bullet.  I don't think it really matters which bullet, we'll be hangin' meat with any of 'em.

Thanks to BCBoy for giving me some good 348 load data.

Lane,

Watch them primers.  If they start backin' out or puckerin' yer too hot.  Hate to see you ruin them good looks with a M71 bolt in yer bean.

The ol' lady's runnin' in a Marathon in Pocatello next Saturday.  You anywhar's near thet country?

Selway,

 Try popping just a primed case some time and see if there is much difference in the protrusion. There will be some back out I'm sure. The big indicator of too much pressure on primers is flattenting, cratering, and severe imprinting of the tool marks or irregularities in the bolt face around the firing pin hole. Of course sticky extraction may happen before the primer signs change significantly. About the only way to eliminate primer backout in Winchesters is loading zero headspace cartridges. That means shoulder contact and bolt face shell head contact with no "breathing" room. Not practical for anything except target rounds.

I found out the hard way that my full length resized .348 brass needs to either be retired after 4 loads or else something in procedure is going to have to change. I cracked a few cases on an old batch and ended up extracting a head only on my last trip to the range. No bueno! I probably should get two new sizer dies; neck only and full length. The dies I have are old CH brand and I'm not t-totally sure they are as dimensionally perfect as they could be. Something else I've found that is critical in my rifle is overall case length. My rifle has a very short throat, and you can get a round too long to chamber pretty easy. I've seen new unprimed brass that was on the edge of too long right out of the box. I'm still on the W760 for powder and the 200 grain Hornady bullets. I doubt that I'll be trying any other bullets or powder anytime soon, since I figure the 200 grain is plenty of bullet for most purposes and the 760 has been written up as ideal until some of the "Reloader" numbers came about. I had some 3 shot groups crowding 1.5" with those two components last time I seriously tried. I'm currently dabbling with mag primers in an effort to see if there really is any difference when using ball powder in that huge case. Inconclusive so far. I've got a lot of range work to do once things begin to cool off a bit.AW 

 

Thanks for the info Adobe.  I tried popping a primer and was surprised how violently they explode.  A lot more bang than a percussion cap.  It backed out some and had the same markings (though a little less pronounced than loaded rounds), but the primers weren't flattened like the loaded rounds.  I can't tell a difference in the primer flattening between my reloads and the factory loads though.  I've used a batch of brass three times now with what I think are hot loads and have seen no signs of case head seperation or cracks, but the brass is lighter in color from the case head up... I assume this is a sign of a hot load but is it a sign of too hot?  Mule's R19 loads also did this and the factory loads a little as well.  My shells have all extracted easily though.  I don't plan on pushing it any hotter, but let me know if it sounds like I'm in the danger zone.  Any information from you old hands is appreciated.

I chronied 70 348 rounds over two days and have the bruise to prove it!  I chronied Mule's 58.5 gr W760 200 gr Horn loads, Mule's 65 gr RL19 Horn 200 gr loads, factory 200 gr silvertip loads, and my various RL19 250 gr barnes loads.  The RL19 loads were easily the most consistent.  The W760 load was all over the chart, as was the Browning Comm. factory load.  I chronied a box of regular factory silvertips and they were more consistent and much faster than the Browning Comm. factories loads.  The velocities out of my 20' carbine barrel of the  RL19 200 gr Horn load, though very consistent, was disappointingly low (~2350 fps).  The velocities of the RL19 250 gr Barnes load was just as consistent, but much closer to 24" barrel numbers (~2270 fps)... haven't figured the standard deviation, but the difference between the high and low over 10 rounds tested was only 30 fps.  Don't ask me how these all grouped... BCBoy is going to like this one...  the Boone scope couldn't withstand the wrath of the 348.  I started missing paper and discovered the scope mount was slightly loose.  It only has two screws so I applied plenty of glue.  Might need to drill and tap a third hole.

I did shoot several of the 61 gr RL19 250 Barnes loads before my chrony came and they were grouping good, so that is my hunting load for now.  And it hits hard.  There's one other powder that's got my attention I'd like to try sometime - H4350.  Looks like it's a slightly faster burning powder than RL19 but still fills up the case and the velocity numbers look impressive, plus it's temperature insensitive.  Might experiment with mag primers too (I understand I'd need to reduce the charge some).    

 

.358 Win, 237 gr. FNGC