Re: 308 Win. Medium Tac H. Van. . .
I thought I should report on how this rifle shoots. First target picture was shot at ~125ish yards, and the second shot roughly at 320-325 yards. Conditions: 46F, humidity 32%, baro 29.99, winds left to right 2-4mph. Wind was mainly behind me, once and while it would swoop left to right. Some info on my nomencature. Lapua-1 means once fired. so Lapua-2 would mean its second time. L.A.O is the mesurmeant at the ogdive(sp).
I have shot 325 rds since Chad finished it. So I spent most my time working on loads and chrono'ing them. Main bullets I have been using are 168gr BTHP, and 175gr SMKs. I do have some 150 FMJs, and plan on 155s as well. The barrel seems to like velocity. While working up my loads I was discouraged at my groups in the 2500-2600fps range. As I worked up into 2600-2660fps the groups got tight. The sweet spot hit around 2680-2710fps with the 175 SMKs just off the lands. So at 44.0 grains of Varget is where I'll stop. I get no pressure signs as of yet, primers still look good, bolt starts to be a little harder to open. I'll discuss further with Chad to see if I should try to get more velocity.
So the first target. This is my best group I shot off bipod with butt bag at ~125 yards. This was the best overall 3 shot group. 17 rds into the center made about a 3/4 inch whole.
This is the target overall at 320 yards. The two X's were just to see where I was on the paper. I made scope adjustments just after those two rounds. I was pretty happy hitting the paper using a print off from Hornady's website. Pretty good cheater to use if you know your bullets velocities. I always seem to read loads better at 300 yards than 100. I just hate all the walking up and down to change out targets. I started out on the bottom right, then to the top right. Next to the top left, and to the center, and finally finished in the bottom left. I tried five loads. I'll go into detail on the sub pictures on what bullets and powders.
Top Right:
This is the only one I took four shots at. It was actually the second load I put on the paper. You can refer to the overal picture to see loads. I wasnt happy with that 3 round dropping like that so I sent one more only to pull it to the right while a 3 mph gust hit. I told myself to live with it and move on.
Top Left:
I thought this was a good group. This load sits right around 2615-2650fps. After firing this load, I thought I would make a .25MOA adjustment up for the next group in the center target.
Bottom Right:
This is the first load I put on paper. This load averages 2500-2540fps. It was the slowest of the loads. Elevation is good if you ask me, I'm not sure if wind played a role in the spread or if it was me.
Bottom Left:
Best of the groups and it finished strong. Fastest of all the loads, around 2680-2710fps. I would say this is a good load to stick with for this round. I guess the faster speed would bring it back down even after the .25MOA adjustment.
Center:
After making the adjustment from the top left. The first round hits above the line. I thought it might being the round is slightly faster than the top left was. The wind was the calmest when I got to this point. No waiting around.
I'll leave you with some photos I've taken.
![url]](http://[url="http://i410.photobucket.com/albums/pp184/haroldvan/Bottommetal.jpg"]http://i410.photobucket.com/albums/pp184/haroldvan/Bottommetal.jpg[/url])
