Soot on Shoulders

[Scooby-93]

@Henryrifle did you get to the bottom of this issue?

 

[Henryrifle]

Sadly, no. All of this occurred at about the same time Alex published his 7PRC-W specification. I had big plans to go to the nationals that year but ran out of time. A lot of great folks in the sport tried to help but I didn't listen.

Rather than working with what I had I switched to the 7PRC-W which is an amazing cartridge that I use very effectively today. With only a few weeks before nationals and a poorly timed switch to the new cartridge, there was just not enough time to learn what the cartridge likes in terms of powder, primers and brass prep or to know what speeds the barrels liked and figure out the differences in rifle handling.

It was a frustrating year in the sport and I was never able to get the Shehane to shoot except at the very high end of the speed range--2950 FPS+. It would shoot great for 50 or so shots and then I'd get some seemingly random stuff to go with my destroyed brass.

There are lots of morals to this story for me but the biggest one is this: If I don't have a reamer that I am confident in, stop wasting time and components trying to get happy with it. Maybe that reamer shot fine and the soot is irrelevant but I was unable to get past that. Said a different way, I've developed a clearer approach now—confidence in my tools and equipment first, rather than pushing through with uncertainty.

This mystery won't be solved by me as I've moved on...

Hank