using my stoney point gauge, with it zeroed, i get 3.903 so i think to be 30 thousands off lands, i need to be 3.603, is this correct? Using barnes tsx 180 gr boattails reloader 22. remington 700 bdl 300 win mag.

3.603 is 3 tenths or 30hundreds or 300thousands off your lands. 3.873 unless my mind has gone south with everything else.

Ramrod

Your mind is still in Texas. 3.873 is the correct answer.

wtman

How did you arrive at the -.030 distance off the lands as being the ideal?? Wouldn't you be better served to try .000, -.010, -.020, and -.030??

Ray

well, i thought i heard barnes said 30 thous off the lands, guess i am screwed in the head today. is that not correct?

i refigured and did get 3.873 as well after i made the post.

damn, i am stupid, here is off their website.

7. Where do I seat the Triple Shock Bullet?

Answer. As with the X and XLC Bullet, we recommend seating the Triple Shock .050" off the lands {rifling} of your rifle. This length can be determined by using a "Stoney Point Gauge" or other methods. You do not have to seat the bullet at or on one of the annular rings.

so where does that put me?

3.853?

hehe, trick ? i guess. 3.873 is .030 off the lands.. silly rabbit, get off the craxk pipe wtman.

wtman

My point was - don't go by what someone else says. (Including me) Try different seating depths in YOUR rifle and pick the one that works best while still feeding thru the magazine.

Ray

cheechako,
Oh, no problem there. Just i am haveing one of those days when you end up overthinking everything you do. I have been working with these loads and wanted to try some RL 22 that everyone is raving about. My father-n-law gave me some he never used so i thought i would put it to practice this wkend and see what all the fuss is about. These barnes bullets with 69.5 gr of H4831 at 200 yards is giving me 1/4 lapped bullets holes thus far. but i dont know what my velocities are. So i am going to try them with RL22 and see what kind of results i get. I totally appreciate your help and welcome your comments.

wtman, please let me know your results. I am interested in the 180 TSX's as well. Not much info. out there on these. More on the 168 TSX's.
Peter.
PS. I would worry more about the round fitting in the magazine, assuming that you plan on hunting. I suspect that you will find that seating to the lands may well yield rounds that won't fit in the magazine.

FWIW, TSX bullets tolerate being closer to the lands than the previous generation x bullets which really needed to be .050. My best load for my 300 win and the 168 is 75.5 gr of reloder 22 and a Fed215m primer and my OAL is 3.544 way past SAAMI length, but oit fits in my Sako AV with a 3.6 inch magazine.
BTW it is moving at right around 3200 fps.

Peter,
I finally got out to the range today with the 180 tsx's and rl22. I can say that the temp was around 70f and wind around 3-5 mph. Not too bad. Anyway, my rem 700 bdl in 300 win mag gave me these results and they really didnt vary that much. 73 gr gave me 2868, 2952, and 2955 fps.

73.5 gave me 2855, 2858, 2979 fps

74 gave me 2982, 2973, 2976, 2960, 2949, 2947 fps

i loaded more of the 74 gr rl22 because i thought that would be my best and it was as far as consistency and accuracy. Now, for the 64,000 dollar question. Even at 73 grains, i had signs of pressure in my rifle. my oal was 3.873 from the ogive of the bullet, or 2.873 if you subtract the 1 inch zero on the stoney point bullet comparitor.

The signs of pressure i had were flattend primers but never had a sticky bolt at all. I was using cci 250 mag primers, and am going to try this again using federal 215's i think.

Accuracy wise. I didnt have any over 1 moa but they did close up to, well lets just say they were touching at 74grains. I think i am going to switch primers first, and if that stops the primer flattening I will carry on. If not, i am going to seat them further and see if that is the problem.

sierra g/k 165 grain and rl22
74 gr 2950 fps
74.5 2978 fps
75 gr 2994 fps all ave 3 shot groups

accuracy was out the door in my book.. 100 yards and about 1.75 moa. some a little tighter some looser but about 1.75 moa average i would say.

IMR 4350 and 165 sierra g/k

66 gr 2865 ave
66.5 gr 2916 ave
67 gr 2953 ave and accuracy was touching each other with the the 67 gr.. Something seemed a little screwy with the ave of these compared to the other 2 loads but i will retest these.

So there is my experience and mind you this is a stock rifle rem 700 bdl in 300 win mag.

quote:

Originally posted by wtman:
The signs of pressure i had were flattend primers but never had a sticky bolt at all.

It is certainly prudent to stop and think when you experience ANY pressure sign - as opposed to simply stuffing more powder in the case until you reach velocities cited in a book or on the Internet.

That said, in the cases you observed flattened primers, were the cases new when you fired them?? If yes, new cases are often a tad short, and this can cause the primer to flatten as the primer is initially backed out of the case and flattened against the bolt head, before the expansion of the case finally puts it back into the primer pocket.

When you reload your cases, pay attention to how easy it is to seat primers in your fired cases. If your primer pockets expand unduely (they should hold up at least 4-5 loadings), your load is too hot.

- mike

wtman, your pressure signs may be due to bullets seated out too far. I had a similar problem. Now I will try and confirm my results today, but I had very good results with IMR 4831 and 180 grain TSXs. Will let you know later. Still disappointing results with RL22.I am using regular large rifle (match) primers. Most relaoding manuals specify their results with regular primers.
Peter.
Peter.

mho,
These rounds have been fired 3 times before, so they werent new brass. The primers seem to be pretty tight when putting them in. these bullets were 30 thousandths off the lands so i will try some more like i noted above and see how they do. It was strange seeing that they flattend the primers even at the lowest load data i had for rl22, but then again, even at highest load i had, there was no sticky bolt at all. I have some new brass and will try a few with it as well. i was using magnum primers though so i will use some federal 215 and federal 210 primers with a few and see what happens with those. These Barnes bullets arent cheap and i am wondering if my rifle just doesnt like these Barnes bullets?
Stranger things have happend i guess.

Not all rifles will accept max book loads. If you are seeing flattened primers in older cases, that should set alarm bells ringing, unless you have an explanation. Smooth bolt lift is not a guarantee your pressures are OK.
- mike

mho,
My book shows 180 xbt, but these are tsx 180's, as rl 22 start at 70.5 up to max of 75.5.

now giving that i started at 73 which is mid range. i had the flattend primers. with an ave fps of 2925.

starting load of 70.5 shows fps as being 2898, so with 2.5 grains above starting i only got 27 more fps? Book shows 75.5 being max and fps at 3103.

could i really be at max with just 73 gr starting? I know all rifles are different but i just thought it was strange. And Barnes also says that the tsx's can be loaded 1-2 gr over the xbt data. Thats why i was wondering these things. Dont think for a second i am going to keep pressing my luck here. when i seen what they were doing, I stopped and didnt go over 74gr.

the 74 gr did ave 2964.5 fps which was kinda neat. Now also, when i say they are flattend, its just i noticed they were flattening out, little marks from firing pin hole. Wish i could get a good pic of them to show. Maybe its not that bad. This is the first time i noted or saw what i thought to be signs of pressure and i dont want to hurt myself and further more anyone else!! Just looking for advice and letting others know of my experience. I appreciate your reply's and help in this matter. I would rather err on the side of caution than NOT.

It must be one of the great mysteries in my life, why I rarely get to book velocities. And when it occasionally happens, I sometimes find myself with expanded primerpockets and a bunch of lost dreams. Every rifle is a law onto itself, and you'd better be safe than sorry.
- mike