I hoped to start in on this two weeks ago but was delayed by two weekends of deer sausage making and my gunsmith buddy Butch Hongisto being down with migraines and a painful foot ailment. Oh well, we all know about delays, I'm not complaining.
When I got set up for loading at the range, I realized that I didn't have my Sinclair OAL gauge in either of my two range boxes. Ugggggg, I lent it to Milton 2 weeks ago and now he is gone all this week snow goose hunting.
Since I was only fireforming, I didn't bother taking my RCBS Chargemaster along. Instead, I used my Harrell's powder measure and 10/10 scale to drop 32 grains of Varget over Remington 7 1/2 primers and 95 grain Berger VLD's. Killshot used this load, with 105 or 108 Berger VLD's for his forming, so I did also. I thought about bumping the powder up a touch but Quick Load had it right below max pressure for 6 BR with the 95's and listed it as over pressure with the bigger Berger's. Caution prevailed.
I had to feel my way into a jam length since I didn't have my OAL gauge; starting long and going a touch shorter until I could get the bolt handle to lock down with reasonably hard resistance. Then I added .015 to the Forster micro seating die and used that as my length. It gave nice engraving on the bullets.
OK, one loaded round and off to the firing line to see what would happen. The fired case looked nice to me but I had another 6 Dasher guy inspect it for his opinion. He said the neck was great, that the corners were good, and that they would sharpen up the rest of the way on the next firing. The case measured 1.539. He told me to leave my powder alone for now, I was close enough.
That was the first shot out of the Broughton 8 twist barrel, so I cleaned it as, I always do with a new barrel. I was really surprised to see the amount of blue on the patch. I had never seen that much on any of my Broughton barrels. Normally, it is only a faint trace of color. So, I kept up the one shot....clean.....regiment. Second shot was no where near as blue. Third shot left next to nothing. Not enough to say nothing, but close. I kept at it until I had 5 shots down the tube. By the fourth, it was nothing.
Those first 5, clean bore shots resulted in a round .965 group at 100 yards. Next, I fired a 5 shot group at .663. Cleaned the barrel again and had absolutely no copper fouling. That was followed by a 15 shot group that measured .609. Again, no copper fouling. I had 20 more rounds loaded and split them into two 10 shot groups, cleaning in between. They measured .495 and .352, respectively. That last group only had .186 of vertical, wind was causing the horizontal spread. It was windy and I hadn't even considered using windflags; it's only a fireforming day afterall.
I did lose one case out of the 40 to a split neck. All of the fired cases ranged between 1.537 to 1.540. I'm wishing they were longer and maybe they will be after sizing and another firing or two. What was really amazing to me is how this barrel seemed to shoot in throughout the afternoon. Every group was tighter than the previous one. I spent the rest of the afternoon loading the remaining 60 fireforming loads and can't wait to get back to the range and finish the "drudgery" stage, so I can begin load development with the 105 Hybrids. It is apparent that this baby wants to shoot.
One thing I did notice and I'm hoping for some feedback from you guys. This is in a standard length Remington 700 action, that also wears a Broughton 6.5 x 284 barrel. When I eject a spent case right after firing, it will sometimes have a flattened edge on the case mouth. If I pause for a moment, or just pull the bolt back a half inch or so, to give the case time to cool down some, I don't get the flat spot. Is that normal, a result of the long Remington action, Remington actions in general, or what? I have never experienced this with any Lapua brass in any other cartridge. Maybe because of such a radical shape change and the soft brass from the annealing? I don't know.
Thanks for reading,
When I got set up for loading at the range, I realized that I didn't have my Sinclair OAL gauge in either of my two range boxes. Ugggggg, I lent it to Milton 2 weeks ago and now he is gone all this week snow goose hunting.
Since I was only fireforming, I didn't bother taking my RCBS Chargemaster along. Instead, I used my Harrell's powder measure and 10/10 scale to drop 32 grains of Varget over Remington 7 1/2 primers and 95 grain Berger VLD's. Killshot used this load, with 105 or 108 Berger VLD's for his forming, so I did also. I thought about bumping the powder up a touch but Quick Load had it right below max pressure for 6 BR with the 95's and listed it as over pressure with the bigger Berger's. Caution prevailed.
I had to feel my way into a jam length since I didn't have my OAL gauge; starting long and going a touch shorter until I could get the bolt handle to lock down with reasonably hard resistance. Then I added .015 to the Forster micro seating die and used that as my length. It gave nice engraving on the bullets.
OK, one loaded round and off to the firing line to see what would happen. The fired case looked nice to me but I had another 6 Dasher guy inspect it for his opinion. He said the neck was great, that the corners were good, and that they would sharpen up the rest of the way on the next firing. The case measured 1.539. He told me to leave my powder alone for now, I was close enough.
That was the first shot out of the Broughton 8 twist barrel, so I cleaned it as, I always do with a new barrel. I was really surprised to see the amount of blue on the patch. I had never seen that much on any of my Broughton barrels. Normally, it is only a faint trace of color. So, I kept up the one shot....clean.....regiment. Second shot was no where near as blue. Third shot left next to nothing. Not enough to say nothing, but close. I kept at it until I had 5 shots down the tube. By the fourth, it was nothing.
Those first 5, clean bore shots resulted in a round .965 group at 100 yards. Next, I fired a 5 shot group at .663. Cleaned the barrel again and had absolutely no copper fouling. That was followed by a 15 shot group that measured .609. Again, no copper fouling. I had 20 more rounds loaded and split them into two 10 shot groups, cleaning in between. They measured .495 and .352, respectively. That last group only had .186 of vertical, wind was causing the horizontal spread. It was windy and I hadn't even considered using windflags; it's only a fireforming day afterall.
I did lose one case out of the 40 to a split neck. All of the fired cases ranged between 1.537 to 1.540. I'm wishing they were longer and maybe they will be after sizing and another firing or two. What was really amazing to me is how this barrel seemed to shoot in throughout the afternoon. Every group was tighter than the previous one. I spent the rest of the afternoon loading the remaining 60 fireforming loads and can't wait to get back to the range and finish the "drudgery" stage, so I can begin load development with the 105 Hybrids. It is apparent that this baby wants to shoot.
One thing I did notice and I'm hoping for some feedback from you guys. This is in a standard length Remington 700 action, that also wears a Broughton 6.5 x 284 barrel. When I eject a spent case right after firing, it will sometimes have a flattened edge on the case mouth. If I pause for a moment, or just pull the bolt back a half inch or so, to give the case time to cool down some, I don't get the flat spot. Is that normal, a result of the long Remington action, Remington actions in general, or what? I have never experienced this with any Lapua brass in any other cartridge. Maybe because of such a radical shape change and the soft brass from the annealing? I don't know.
Thanks for reading,
