Wed. at the range I got a real surprise. With three different powders and 5 different loads yeilding between 1650fps. to 1850 fps.the Berry 150gr. bullet out of my 30-06 had a hard time achieving 9" groups at 50 yds. The powders were : Blue Dot,2400 and 4759

Previously this same bullet, same batch, same velocity range, shot sub MOA out of 2 ea. .308s, a mod 340 savage in 30-30,and a .300 win mag.

The 30-06 in question shot an 1 1/4 " 10 shot group with 110 carbine bullets at 3100fps.after 50 of the Berry bullets were shot, from a dirty barrel.The rifle normaly shots under an inch at 50 yds.with most hunting bullets.

This was totally beyond my comprihension. any comments?roger

Hi, Roger -

Have you measured the throat of your '06? One possibility might be that the Berry bullets are significantly smaller in diameter than your chamber throat. (They may be 2-thou bigger than the bore and still be 4-to-6-thou smaller than the throat.)

So far as I can tell, Berry bullets are cast bullets with a copper wash on them, rather than actual jacketed bullets. If so, they MIGHT be running into the same phenomena that make significantly undersized cast bullets sometimes inaccurate.

If you measure your rifle's throat and find it is more than 3-thou larger than the bullet diameter, you might want to try bumping your bullets up just a thou or so. Sometimes makes all the difference in the world in performance consistency.

(Lotsa guys like to bump pure lead slugs in the chamber to measure throat diameter...I prefer to make a Cerrosafe cast. If you follow the directions explicitly it will give good enough results for the girls I go with.....)

Roger -

Another thought -

From the powders you list as having tried in your '06, and thinking about the case capacity of the '06, I have to wonder if you are getting a pressure high enough and a powder position consistent enough, to give you a complete and "regular" burn each time you shoot?

You know as well (or better) than I do that powders require a certain amount of confinement and a certain level of pressure to burn truly consistently. If you don't find a significant difference between bullet diameter and throat diameter as mentioned above, I'd suggest trying some VV N-140 with your bullets...loading with the aid of a chronograph to about 2,100 fps. My experience with Berry bullets suggests they will take that much pressure easily, and it should be enough to get a more consistent burn. also, that much powder will greatly decrease changes in powder position as the cartridge is chambered and fired.

Best wishes, anyway.......

AC

AC, Somewhere in your explanation is the answer, I'm sure. The Berry factory rep. says that these are plated bullets that are.004" thick. That's a lot of plating ,I know, but that's what the man said. The surprise was that useing these same powders with the same bullet and jacketed bullets in other rifles the results were just great.

Granted we had never tried this bullet in an 06 but I have used gas checked bullets in this 06 with these powders and got good results. There were variances from one gas checked bullet to another some good some not so good but never 9 to 12 inches at 50 yds.The worst previously to these Berry's was perhaps 1 1/2 inches Maybe 2.

Thank you for your response. roger

I agree with everything Alberta Canuck said, and I'll go a step further. I believe those plated bullets have a coating much softer than any bullet jacket, therefore, I believe the bore is fouled. I have experienced much the same phenomona when using Barnes bullets without first running a good copper solvent thru the bore. It also taught me the value of a nylon bore brush!
My experience with plated bullets was in 38/357 when shooting on an indoor range. I bought those "Rainier" bullets on a lark and had no complaints that I can recall. IIRC, I believe those plated bullets were swaged, not cast. I'll see if I have any left just so I can give 'em a whack with the old ball peen to see how soft they really are.

quote:

Originally posted by buckshot:
I agree with everything Alberta Canuck said, and I'll go a step further. I believe those plated bullets have a coating much softer than any bullet jacket, therefore, I believe the bore is fouled. I have experienced much the same phenomona when using Barnes bullets without first running a good copper solvent thru the bore. It also taught me the value of a nylon bore brush!
My experience with plated bullets was in 38/357 when shooting on an indoor range. I bought those "Rainier" bullets on a lark and had no complaints that I can recall. IIRC, I believe those plated bullets were swaged, not cast. I'll see if I have any left just so I can give 'em a whack with the old ball peen to see how soft they really are.

Good point and thanks roger

Roger, glad you brought this up. I've been toying with the idea of loading some plated bullets in .308. I would use the extreme brand,(formerly west coast), their 150 .308 bullet should work well.
exteme bullets

I've used their bullets in auto and revolver loads for a couple years. Literally thousands of rounds. Don't know about Berry's but the extreme bullets are swaged pure lead, then plated in pure copper. They are then double struck, meaning swaged the sized again after plating. They're supposed to be plated to a thicker layer than either ranier or berrys.

I did get some berrys in 40/165 weight, but haven't loaded any yet.

I have used Berry's 300 gr. .458 bullets in my .45-70 M-'86 lever action atop 59 grains of Vihtavouri N-135, which is a pretty stiff load. They shoot one ragged hole 5-shot groups (a big diameter one - grin) at 75 yards using the iron sights.

Just mention that as my way of saying that if the bullet actually fits the throat correctly, I know they will shoot well even at pretty high pressures for cast bullets.

That's why the thing I would do first is to make a mould of your chamber throat. Could be those bullets shot well in your other rifles because the others have smaller throats than your '06...thus avoiding all the problems of loose bullet/throat fit.

I know that may well NOT be the answer, but it is easy to check, so that's where I would start.