Any Savage 12 F T/R .308 using 175SMK?

[NoahbodyImportant]

Using the Hornady OAL gauge and 175SMK touching the lands, I get 2.250.

Do you seat jammed to the lands, -.010, -.020, -.0.30, more or less?

 

[gatorman]

I use them in my Remington with success,,But I seat as the book says...I think the SMK's like to jump into the rifleing.....

 

[jonbearman]

I set them up for a .030 thou jump in savage barrels and it seems to work.Try different jumps and a light jam and see what your gun likes.They are all different.

 

[its only light]

I've got this exact gun and use these bullets with federal brass. I use 43.5gr of varget and jump .015 to the lands and get great accuracy at 2800fps. You will have to chrono your loads tho because this same 43.5gr of varget in Winchester brass was giving me 2650fps. I've noticed that case capacities vary quite a bit as it is a compressed load in the fed and not in the win brass. 6mmbr.com 308 win page has some good info on it. .015 jump seems to be somewhat of a norm for the 175smk. At least a good place to start!

 

[NoahbodyImportant]

Using the Hornady OAL gauge and 175gr SMK touching the lands, I get a ogive measurement of 2.250. Does this sound right?

Do you seat jammed to the lands, .010, .020, .0.30, more or less?

I have tried and still trying different seating depths using 43gr of Varget and LC brass. Im looking for that last bit of accuracy.

Using the ogive measurement of 2.250 and jumping .045 gives me an ogive measurement of 2.205 and an approximate OAL of 2.805. (had a few primers not go off, not sure if bad primers--overall not too bad)

Using the ogive measurement of 2.250 and jumping .035 gives me an ogive measurement of 2.215 and an approximate OAL of 2.815. (had a few primers not go off, not sure if bad primers--overall not too bad)

Using the ogive measurement of 2.250 and jumping .050 gives me an ogive measurement of 2.200 and an approximate OAL of 2.800. (is this too much of a jump? -- how important is staying close to 2.800 if not using a magazine?)

Using the ogive measurement of 2.250 and jumping .020 gives me an ogive measurement of 2.230 and an approximate OAL of 2.830. (my next load to test)

Thought or suggestions?

Thank you

 

[NoahbodyImportant]

I had somebody else use my tools and came up with a consistent ogive measurement. I must have not used constant pressure or something. My actual ogive measurement is 2.250.

I have been shooting F-Open at 600 yards this season. Out of 3 of the last 4 matches, I have shot master classification scores. I have had some unexplained 9s and trying to figure it out.

This weekend I seated some rounds touching the lands at 2.250 using 43.0gr of Varget. 43g of Varget has been my solid powder load this year. This worked out fairly well.

Yesterday, I worked up some loads, increasing by .2, from 43.0 to 44.0. My best result at 600 yards was with 43.8g of Varget, seated to the lands of 2.250, OAL at 2.850. The 5 shot group was 2 1/2 inches. I will try this load at the next match.

 

[its only light]

Awesome. I think I'm going to try seating to the lands once with this load after hearing that. Which tool do you use to measure ogive length? I don't have oneso settled for measuring oal. My OAL to the lands was 2.807. Yours must have a little longer throat than mine which would be kind of nice in my opinion.

 

[Leaddog]

I wouldn't worry too much about throat for 600 yards. One of my tight bore F/TR rifles with 3000 rounds through it stll shoots lights out with a COAL of 2.775. That's .005 off the lands for this rifle. Load is 42.5 grs. of Varget at 2686 fps with the 175 SMK although I switched to the Berger 185 LRBT a couple of years ago. I have a 10 twist Spencer barrel.

Target results is what it is about. Find the minimum vertical on paper and you are there.