Preseason precision

Now time to get guns, ammo right

The writer shot this tight group Thursday with his Savage Model 10 in .22-250 Remington. The two holes above the digital readout are the first two shots from his Ruger M77 in a 6.5x55 Swedish.
The writer shot this tight group Thursday with his Savage Model 10 in .22-250 Remington. The two holes above the digital readout are the first two shots from his Ruger M77 in a 6.5x55 Swedish.

Some of my neighbors celebrated the Fourth of July by shooting off fireworks.

Mine weren’t as pretty, but they were louder.

Although it’s midsummer, this is when I start preparing for hunting seasons. I visited the backyard range Thursday to put the finishing touches on various deer, hog and varmint loads I’ve been developing. I was very happy with the outcome.

HANDGUN

Since 2009, I have tinkered with the .41 Remington Magnum.

Mine is a fifth-generation Smith & Wesson 657. Originally developed as a law enforcement cartridge, the .41 Mag. failed in that niche, but it attained a cult status in recreational circles as a counter-culture alternative among deer and hog hunters to the .44 Remington Magnum. Some back country hunters use it as a pack gun, usually in the Taurus Tracker or S&W Model 57 Mountain Gun.

The S&W 657-5, however, is a full-fledged hunting pistol. Made of stainless steel, it features a 7 ½ -inch, fully-lugged barrel and unfluted cylinder. Dovetail grooves machined into the frame allow you to mount a scope. This one wears a Nikon Encore 2.5-8x28 with a drop-compensating reticle.

Eyeing a pistol scope is like looking down a straw. It takes practice to acquire and hold a target, but it certainly helps a shooter to be more accurate.

I tested two loads at 45 yards, in direct sunlight in 92-degree heat.

I packed all my reloads into new Starline brass. My practice load featured 200-gr. Speer hollow points powered by 20 grains of Winchester 296 and Winchester Large Pistol primers. I didn’t have a chronograph, but the Speer Reloading Manual Edition 12 lists this load with a muzzle velocity of 1,302 feet per second from a 6-inch barrel. The first shots hit about 2 inches high. After a quick adjustment, they ventilated the target area satisfactorily.

My hunting load features Nosler 210-gr. jacketed hollow points powered by 19.5 grains of W296. It is accurate, but my last group was best. Three shots measured 1 inch, with two shots touching. A fourth shot hit low but still within 2 1/2 inches. I placed the fifth shot wide. It widened the group to about 3 inches.

That won’t win any trophies, but it’s still plenty tight for hunting.

RIFLES SAVAGE .22-250

Wringing the potential from my Savage Model 10 Predator Hunter in .22-250 Remington has been a battle of wills, but we have finally reached an understanding. All this rifle really wants is the right “food.”

The .22-250 is a .22-cal. centerfire round based on a 250 Savage case with the neck constricted to seat a .22-cal. bullet. It is very fast and, for some, very accurate. This particular rifle has all the components necessary to achieve great expectations, but I’ve had to earn it.

All of my reloading manuals say that H380 is the “go to” propellant for the .22-250. This rifle doesn’t like H380. It doesn’t like H414, either. Nor does it like IMR-4064, Winchester 748, W760 or Varget.

It also does not like the light bullets traditionally associated with the .22-250. That name, Predator Hunter, means something. It is meant to shoot heavier bullets at targets bigger than crows and groundhogs.

In my research to please this harpy of a rifle, IMR-8208XBR stood tall. Its black and-gold can bears the colors of my beloved Central High Tigers and New Orleans Saints, so it had to be good.

It is.

Last fall, I developed one load featuring 55-gr. Speer soft points powered by 36 grains of 8208XBR and CCI 200 primers. I put five shots into a cluster that measured .55 inch from edge to edge.However, you’re supposed to measure center to center, so the group was actually under half an inch.

For versatility, I like 50-gr. bullets. I went through the whole powder progression again, with the same shoddy results.

On Thursday, I got my best group yet. These loads feature 50-gr. Nosler Ballistic Tips, 35 grains of 8208XBR and CCI 200 primers. At 140 yards and a sharp downhill angle, I put three shots into a triangle measuring .369 inch. Two holes touched. The third shot was a bit high, or I might have gotten into the twenties.

For this gun, it’s 8208XBR only. Maybe that H380 will redeem itself in my .220 Swift.6.5X55 SWEDE

This rifle is like New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady. Just send in the play and score.

If I could have only one deer rifle, this Ruger M77 would be it. With 140-gr. Remington Core-Lokts, it shoots in the 20s at 100 yards, even with its awful factory Ruger trigger.

It wears an old Leupold VariX-II 3-9x40 scope a beautiful Ruger leather sling. It’s everything a rifle should be - functional but pretty, easy on the shoulder and dead-on accurate.

Unfortunately, American factory ammo for the 6.5x55 is mild so it won’t blow up old military Mauser actions. They are fine within limits, but at long range the tough Remington soft-point bullets slow down such that they don’t expand when they hit deer.

Fortunately, reloading can boost its performance dramatically. I reloaded once fired Remington brass with 140-gr. Sierra boat tail soft points, 44.5 grains of IMR-4831 and Remington 9 ½ primers. Holding on the center of the target, the first shot - at a sharp downhill angle at 140 yards - punched 1.5 inches above the center. The second shot almost touched.

I got greedy, though, and kept shooting. The thin, 22-inch barrel heated up fast, and each shot crept upward in a straight, vertical line.

That first shot is the only one that matters in the deer woods, and this rifle is the best cold-barrel shooter that I have ever seen.

Sports, Pages 28 on 07/07/2013

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