onondaga
posted this
09 March 2019
x101airborne,
I shouldn't have been so discouraging about your 2200 fps goal. It can be done well but needs precise technique. I got my grandsons Savage 11/111 in .308 shooting under 1.5 MOA with a Lee 170 gr FNGC at 2320 fps using H4895. It is a fine Deer load that has done well for him. here is what was needed:
1) Polish bore
2) Hone mold driving bands to over .3105", this gave a 2 pound chambering force to chamber rounds sized/checked at .3105"....A very noticeable 2 pound push to chamber rounds.
3) 45:45:10 tumble lube was used, once before size/check and twice after. Bullets and lube warmed before application.
4) Load workup in 1% increments to see how long accuracy would last by velocity. 4 - 5 shot groups at each increment with clean dry BoreSnake pulled once every 5 rounds.
I had a 1 MOA accuracy node at 2170 and wanted to stop but the boy has slight velocity disease so we kept going and found a sort of node at 2320 with 1.5 MOA accuracy that I did not expect. The next increment was 3 MOA so we went back to 2320 and stayed there.
Lyman #2 alloy was up to the pressure with the GC'd bullet at 2320 fps. The load has massacred 7 Deer for him with solid performance to 250 yards. All shots were broadside vital or quartering with pass through every time and good bleed out. He has never even tried factory ammo with his Savage and really likes cast bullet performance. The test results showed the rifle shooting better at 2200 than at 2320 but we deemed 1.5 MOA acceptable for the 10" vital on Deer. It took an entire summer to work up that l load. We each took 10 shots at every load increment and he had great determination to shoot better than me every time, he does shoot well.
His newest rifle has turned out to be a bad joke. Velocity disease drove him to get a package deal 6.5 Creedmore and it shoots all over the place with factory ammo everything!!!!!! I don't think he will hunt with that one. The Savage does better with cast.
Gary