I am using a Hornady product for the first time with my 37XC...
May the Reloading Gods Forgive Me...
- Thread starter Rocketmandb
- Start date
That's fine. Some of Hornady's bullets are mostly consistent. 
That's fine. Some of Hornady's bullets are mostly consistent.
I'm blaming Berger.
Release the 410s!
Tuesday.
These are just the second group of 30 down the barrel, and they're also all virgin brass. It's somewhat of a guess of a load of N570 with the A-Tips. Definitely a random seating depth. I'm hoping that I'm close enough to a decent load that I can make one more trip to the range to tune in the seating depth a bit before the 8th - that's when I'm heading out to the hills for some ELR fun and I wouldn't mind lobbing a few a long way down range.
Cleanest brake I've seen.
Stainless steel brake + ultrasonic cleaner + Bore Tech Case Clean
Stainless steel brake + ultrasonic cleaner + Bore Tech Case Clean
My first two suppressors arrived last month.
I picked up an ultrasonic cleaner to clean them.
My brakes have simply been getting some Q-tips dipped in BoreTech carbon remover then hitting them with a nylon brush.
I may pop 'em off and put then in the ultrasonic now.
Nothing wrong with A-tips. Have used them in a few different rifles and cartridges .. no problems.
They shot OK, but I hadn't really tuned them for depth. I took my arbor press out with me and tinkered and got decent results. 1:8 on the twist.
I will say that the trace is significantly better. The ground was a little damp and at ~1840 there wasn't a miss that I didn't see. By contrast, spotting misses with my 300 PRC was probably 75%. @Bmghunter was there with me shooting his 6.5 PRC and the ground just gobbled up his rounds without a trace.
I'm trying to remember if you have the Warner Tool 37xc die... do you use the same seater stem with A Tips and solids?
I'm wondering if a Wilson 33xc Arbor die could be opened up to fit 37xc or better to start with a blank.
Trace is better with copper jacked over solids?
Thanks again,
Scott
I'm using the same stem and it is working.
The standard Wilson arbors only go up to .338. The base design won't allow for larger bullets. They have a "Large Seater" for 375 and 408 CT, but nothing for the 37XC.
Significantly.
I called Wilson months ago, and they were saying no 37xc support, like you said.
Tubb has the one seating die, but it must be quite a bit longer to accommodate up to the 41xc bullets. That's why I was thinking of opening the neck area of a Wilson 33xc die, but apparently you can't set the top out far enough even for 375 A-Tips
It would be nice if Wilson could make the XC seaters with the Cheytac body blank and then they could probably do Arbor for 33, 37, and 41xc in one die with different seat stems, but maybe there are things I'm not considering that make that impossible.
With your Warner seater, could you possibly seat 33xc with a different seat stem?
Do you care to elaborate your thoughts on 37xc as I'm thinking of getting into it? I have a 338 Lapua built on a BAT CT being finished up soon, and pondering 37xc and 375CT.
I'm leaning toward 37xc due to the tenon on the CT being the minimum required.
I was going to build a 33xc but decided to go Lapua as I had a Bart. MOD BB blank, and heard that with big bore, there are mixed results, and some ELR shooters getting way fewer rounds out of a barrel, so I figured I'd do another 338 Lapua first.
Thanks again,
Scott
Tubb has the one seating die, but it must be quite a bit longer to accommodate up to the 41xc bullets. That's why I was thinking of opening the neck area of a Wilson 33xc die, but apparently you can't set the top out far enough even for 375 A-Tips
It would be nice if Wilson could make the XC seaters with the Cheytac body blank and then they could probably do Arbor for 33, 37, and 41xc in one die with different seat stems, but maybe there are things I'm not considering that make that impossible.
With your Warner seater, could you possibly seat 33xc with a different seat stem?
Do you care to elaborate your thoughts on 37xc as I'm thinking of getting into it? I have a 338 Lapua built on a BAT CT being finished up soon, and pondering 37xc and 375CT.
I'm leaning toward 37xc due to the tenon on the CT being the minimum required.
I was going to build a 33xc but decided to go Lapua as I had a Bart. MOD BB blank, and heard that with big bore, there are mixed results, and some ELR shooters getting way fewer rounds out of a barrel, so I figured I'd do another 338 Lapua first.
Thanks again,
Scott
You've hit on a few things in this post, but here are my issues:
- Everything for reloading is a pain in the ass to get - dies, projectiles, etc.
- Tubb went around to a bunch of die manufacturers and somehow got them to refuse to produce dies for the big XCs. This wouldn't be an issue if his dies were good, but they are not. This annoys me to no end. Now, Warner made me the arbor seater (and it's a work of art), but it was expensive and I've had to do some customization to it.
- No great brass for it. All you can get is Peterson, which is decent, but it's not Lapua.
- Limited bullet selection.
- Up to 338 is now mainstream, and you can get a lot of support for that and smaller. At 375, everything changes, and due to the length of the XC, it's even worse. Everything from ammo boxes to trimmers to neck lathes, etc. is just harder to come by.
I'm going to step "back" to the 338 Improved. I'll get similar velocities using the 300 Bergers to what I get with the A-Tips, but give up some BC and a quarter of the bullet's weight. Yes, that's a lot, but it will still perform well at extreme ranges, and I won't have to work so hard to get everything. And some of what I'll give up in BC/velocity, I'll get back in bullet and brass consistency.
Frankly, the 37XC is just too much of a pain to work with.
Dies and brass... probably the most important aspects, so if they aren't up to snuff, that's good reason to go with another cartridge.
I have a Warner arbor press die in 416 Barrett and it is beautiful and very functional, and same with their sizing die.
Thank you for your insights, and I look forward to you posting about your 338LM improved.
Scott
I have a Warner arbor press die in 416 Barrett and it is beautiful and very functional, and same with their sizing die.
Thank you for your insights, and I look forward to you posting about your 338LM improved.
Scott
