20 degrees yesterday, but kind of nice out so I headed for the range to test a couple of bullets/sabots/loads in my Remington Genisis. All shooting at 100 yards.
First off, I'm giving up on the Hornady FFB's. Not worth the trouble trying to load them.
Next, I had bought some Knight bullets labled as Barnes PBT "NEW" EZ Load sabots.
I thought these were the standard Barnes EZ load ones, but they are boat tail instead of flat base??? (my first question)
Anyways, I measured them at .501, they load easy
90 gr BH209 they shot 2 into one hole, 1 more 2" away
100 gr BH209 they shot a nice 1 1/2" group
110 gr BH209 they shot 2 into one hole, 1 more 1 1/2" away.
This is very promising since I'm not the most steady off the bench and I only have a cheapy 6X scope on the rifle right now.
Next I wanted to try the .458 Nozler 300 gr partition with the MMP orange sabot. I heard about this on here and have always been a real fan of the partition bullet.
They measured .5035 for me and I had some reservations about their loading but they loaded fairly easily.
90 gr BH209 was a 4" group This very well might have been me.
100 gr BH209 went into a nice 1 1/2" group.
Now this is weird - I didn't get any pictures, but when I went looking for the orange MMP sabots I couldn't find one that had more than 1 petal still attached to the base. There were loose petals lying all over the snow.
This is an indication of a severe overload, isn't it???? (my next question) I wouldn't think that would be the case with those loads.
Nosler on the left, Barnes on the right
Now, my last question. the last time I was at the range I was using the Remington STS 209 primer and shot over 40 times with no issues lighting off Blackhorn 209 powder.
This time, using the same primer and powder, I started experiencing some delayed ignitions after about 20 shots. Returning home, I discovered the primer channel in the breech plug was extreemely crudded up, requiring a bunch of effort to drill out with a 1/8" drill.
Could it have been a differance in humidity or something? Anyone have a guess?
Thanks for everything I've been learning on here.
Carl
First off, I'm giving up on the Hornady FFB's. Not worth the trouble trying to load them.
Next, I had bought some Knight bullets labled as Barnes PBT "NEW" EZ Load sabots.
I thought these were the standard Barnes EZ load ones, but they are boat tail instead of flat base??? (my first question)
Anyways, I measured them at .501, they load easy
90 gr BH209 they shot 2 into one hole, 1 more 2" away
100 gr BH209 they shot a nice 1 1/2" group
110 gr BH209 they shot 2 into one hole, 1 more 1 1/2" away.
This is very promising since I'm not the most steady off the bench and I only have a cheapy 6X scope on the rifle right now.
Next I wanted to try the .458 Nozler 300 gr partition with the MMP orange sabot. I heard about this on here and have always been a real fan of the partition bullet.
They measured .5035 for me and I had some reservations about their loading but they loaded fairly easily.
90 gr BH209 was a 4" group This very well might have been me.
100 gr BH209 went into a nice 1 1/2" group.
Now this is weird - I didn't get any pictures, but when I went looking for the orange MMP sabots I couldn't find one that had more than 1 petal still attached to the base. There were loose petals lying all over the snow.
This is an indication of a severe overload, isn't it???? (my next question) I wouldn't think that would be the case with those loads.
Nosler on the left, Barnes on the right
Now, my last question. the last time I was at the range I was using the Remington STS 209 primer and shot over 40 times with no issues lighting off Blackhorn 209 powder.
This time, using the same primer and powder, I started experiencing some delayed ignitions after about 20 shots. Returning home, I discovered the primer channel in the breech plug was extreemely crudded up, requiring a bunch of effort to drill out with a 1/8" drill.
Could it have been a differance in humidity or something? Anyone have a guess?
Thanks for everything I've been learning on here.
Carl