When Gun Hive Forum was alive it had a range report thread that was ongoing for a few years. If you went to the range and felt like posting that was the place I made a lot of posts on it. Anyway, today was range day. The cows got moved and I had some new loads for the Stevens .243 and a couple of improvements to the rifle. I replaced the stripped screws for the scope base got it torqued and secured. I added a front rail on the stock where the swivel stud was to attach an Atlas bipod instead of the Harris style still use a bag in the rear. Shoot from a portable bench at 100 yards against a tank berm pretty basic, no lead sled or bench rest swivel stick rest. I still have a few more powder bullet combinations left to try and that will about be it. Next step will be getting overall length for the bullets that can reach the lands of the riflings. The light projectiles are barely in the case neck so it is what it is just tune the powder charge and get some velocity numbers it's limited with a 20 inch barrel. The scope I have on this rifle is a Vortex Strike Eagle FFP 5-25 power 34mm tube. It's an entry level long range scope I will leave it at that.
For the report, I will say I don't really like any of the groups but and this is a big but it's a sub 400 dollar rifle. Just about all of them are an inch a couple are over a little and if I had shot three shot groups I think they would have all been an inch or less. Target one first shot from an extremely clean bore went high right then the remaining four went into an inch or so those little squares are a half inch. The targets are self explaining one group was four shots (target 4) I was out of prepped brass targets 2 and 3 were three shots. I was using new Remington brass that had the case mouths straightened and was chamfered and Federal 210 primers. Hopefully there is a magic load for this rifle maybe something around 95 grains I still have some Balistic Tips and Vmax to try and Partitions even some A Max but they might need a faster twist than 10. Now that I have some real velocities I will shoot without the Magnetospeed hanging on the barrel maybe just maybe that will make a difference.
For the report, I will say I don't really like any of the groups but and this is a big but it's a sub 400 dollar rifle. Just about all of them are an inch a couple are over a little and if I had shot three shot groups I think they would have all been an inch or less. Target one first shot from an extremely clean bore went high right then the remaining four went into an inch or so those little squares are a half inch. The targets are self explaining one group was four shots (target 4) I was out of prepped brass targets 2 and 3 were three shots. I was using new Remington brass that had the case mouths straightened and was chamfered and Federal 210 primers. Hopefully there is a magic load for this rifle maybe something around 95 grains I still have some Balistic Tips and Vmax to try and Partitions even some A Max but they might need a faster twist than 10. Now that I have some real velocities I will shoot without the Magnetospeed hanging on the barrel maybe just maybe that will make a difference.
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