F T/R Competition Savage F/TR 308, Berger 155.5 fullbore and seating

[marzo2]

Hi all,

Starting to play with these bullet in my F/TR.
When I measure my distance to the rifling with my Hornady gauge, the bullet is almost all the way out of the brass collet. Is that something that you other F/TR owner have found ?

How much of the bullet must be in the collet ?


Also did some load, from 46 to 47.4 grains of Varget (0.2 increment), 0,02 jump and did not get pressure signs. Winchester brass and Federal gold match primer (210).


Just would like to have some input. Thanks

 

[memilanuk]

Re: Savage F/TR 308, Berger 155.5 fullbore and seating

Usually I jump B155.5BTs somewhere in the realm of 45-50 thou in a 12 F/TR barrel (others have 'recipes' that work equally well for them). Last batch I loaded up in my 'really good' barrel had just a skosh over 0.090" of bearing surface left in the neck. Still shot great, and I had room for a *lot* of powder - a little over 48gn was where I found the 'sweet' spot at (Winchester brass, 210M primer), with minimal pressure signs.

That particular barrel has a little under 3k rounds through it, and probably the longest throat of any of my factory barrels. Most of my other factory barrels (other 12 F/TR, BR, Palma) have throats that are 50-70 thou shorter - if not more (Palma). With a shorter throat, that same amount of powder could be unreasonably high.

 

[marzo2]

Re: Savage F/TR 308, Berger 155.5 fullbore and seating

Interesting...

Even with my 0,02 jump and 47.4 grains, I still had some room in the brass (collet) for some powder...

Will try more in the next batch...

What kind of velocity are you getting ?

 

[memilanuk]

Re: Savage F/TR 308, Berger 155.5 fullbore and seating

2990fps

 

[marzo2]

Re: Savage F/TR 308, Berger 155.5 fullbore and seating

Anybody else ?

 

[RStewart]

Re: Savage F/TR 308, Berger 155.5 fullbore and seating

I'm also shooting the B155.5 FB's in a Savage 12 FTR. I have found my rifle's sweet spot to be .080" off the lands. I'm using 44.6 grains of IMR 8208 XBR with Remington 9 1/2 primers. 3071 fps.
But, I would definitely take the advice of memilanuk or Darrel Buell on some of their loads. I hear they're pretty good shooters!

 

[scaxeman]

Re: Savage F/TR 308, Berger 155.5 fullbore and seating

Your chamber seems on the long side... I'm seating 155.5's to get a jump of ~.025". With this, in a factory Savage chamber, I'm seeing .185"+ of the bearing surface left in the case, which is plenty. Generally speaking, if you have over .150" of bullet bearing surface in the case, you will have loads that won't be *too* fragile. If you're getting down to .090" bearing surface... those will be pretty delicate!

As with Monte, I'm running a *raft-load* of Varget (47.5+ grains). I use a 4" drop tube to pour the powder into the cases, so I don't actually compress the charges with the bullet (BAD idea!).

Hope this helps,

Darrell

 

[Tactical]

Re: Savage F/TR 308, Berger 155.5 fullbore and seating

Before the 2009 Worlds we where given a ton of these for comp. I had to come up with quick way to make them shoot. That was easy just dont jam hese into lands and they will ferakin shoot great. Stan, Darrel, Monte and I did great with these and the US Team won the whole enchalada with these. Jeff ran 185s and did as well as anyone could. This year John made second in Nationals with these.

Hard to beat for easy loading. Just dont jam into lands.

 

[marzo2]

Re: Savage F/TR 308, Berger 155.5 fullbore and seating

Thanks

Darrell, just to compare, what is your coal when you seat the bullet to get .025 jump ?

With my case trimmed to 2.010 and with a coal of 2.935, so I will check how much of the bearing surface gets in the case...

 

[scaxeman]

Re: Savage F/TR 308, Berger 155.5 fullbore and seating

Marzo,

My OAL (meplat) is 2.910" for the same load I referenced above. Naturally, I almost never measure it that way, I more commonly use the OAL (ogive) measurement; 2.209" due to the +/-.005" ish uncertainty in meplat lengths that are present in *any* bullet lot out there. Unfortunately, every bullet comparator is slightly different, so you can't actually really compare ogive lengths.

I trim my cases to 2.005"