What are you shooting 225 from?
Danny
I don't quite understand your question. I smoked this groundhog from sitting on a light bentwood chair resting on top of one of those Charter Cable co. pylons, waiting for the chuckster to come out from under an old woodpile. I thinned them out hard the previous year, so this was the only one that had moved back into the area. Longest shot possible could have been 200 yards. But all were between 40 and 100.
I have a nice bench I built at my sisters farm with a dirt backstop at 100 yards.
My gun is a 1964 Winchester M70, and the barrel is basically junk. Barrel is free floating (sporting) and no bedding in the factory wooden stock. My best 5 shot groups I can get a quarter to cover at 100, but it is rare. Usually a flier ruins that. A Leupold rifleman 3x9 with bdc dots, lol, not ideal at all but it's what I started with years ago.
I bought this rifle at an auction years ago not knowing what I was really getting into. My last bid just happened to be the winner! If I had to guess the life of this rifle, I would say a pdog hunter used it and had a smith work on the factory trigger, it's sweet. After accuracy fell off the gun made it's way east where a farmer kept it in his farm truck for relatively close whistle pigs. Never borescoped it, but after a thorough cleaning the naked eye can see it is well worn and was neglected. I would expect firecracking and worn throat for sure.
Learning to handload was good for me because back then I had quit drinking, so acquiring the tools (and the expensive brass) over time filled that void. This economy has me so strapped right now, I've been in hover mode so long, not able to afford a new barrel and better optics, and I'm not loading and shooting hardly any this year to save my components.
Even though I haven't been on this site hardly any the last few years, it has been a pleasure being a fly on the wall, reading the conversations you professional bench rest and long range shooters provide. I learned early not to ask stupid questions, as this is a forum for the advanced! I have made a few purchases, and even sold a couple of items on here.
One day, with a better job, a better economy (that's a dream) I would love to get a new barrel with a litttle bit faster twist, say a 1:10, and much better magnification with a fine reticle, so I can use the longer, sleeker projectiles such as a 62gr hpbtm. I have enough brass stashed. Some of it has 7 firings on it. Here's a generalization of my process. Starting from 1xfired brass.
-deprime
-inside neck ream
-anneal with torch in a dull room
- f/l size, no expander ball, die body only
- Lyman Mdie to expand necks with mandrel
- prime with my vintage lee primer, one at a time
- lee powder scoop onto digital scale, then trickle up.(i check with beam scale to make sure it's calibrated) mild loads to save pp's.
- seat bullet and measure cbto.
on fired brass i will stick a bullet into the neck. Any that feel looser than the others I will group together.
Of course I use my Wilson trimmer, if needed, which is rare. And every cas goes into the Wilson case guage after sizing.
My most recent tests were with, oddly enough, the 55gr. spire point, which the factory ammo was made. Here's a 100yd group from this old banged up worn out tube.
Sorry to have rambled from answering a simple question, and forgive my spelling, these fingertips on this phone. I'd be all day correcting!
