Anyone have info on actual range work with this combination? Based on research I am thinking about using 55-57 gr of RL17 and 53-54 gr of H4350 to start my load development with this lighter bullet.

What say you?

I ran a couple boxes through my M70. Ended up getting just over 3700fps with Win case, CCI mag primer and 64.5gr of H4831SC. Tight fit, a bit compressed. No real word on accuracy, rifle has an issue, was all over the place with every bullet I tried. Hybrid100V is supposed to be good for over 3800fps, have a can of it but rifle is getting bedded

Best,
Mark

I have shot a few in 100gr with aa2700 and imr 4350 at about 3200f/s very accurate and deadly on WVa deer. I dont think I would drive a 80gr at 3700f/s , may work ok.

When we had our annual clean-up I recovered a couple 80's outta the remains of the round bales we use as a 50 yd backstop (we use old soggy ones lined up end to end...mostly for rimfire but no pass throughs with the hot stuff) Perfect peel back with petals intact even at that range, granted the plywood and RR tie target holder is not as hard as bone but I was still pretty impressed.

BTW no bullets ever seem to make it to even the second bale, I found that surprising as we found some fmj .45 and .223 rounds had been used at the short range and were in the first bale?

m-g,

Yeah, I've had good success with my .25-06 Remington & a Buddie's .257 Witherbee with both the 80 grainers & the 100 gr. TTSX's, too. For the 100's I wanted a slower powder so used H-4831sc and figured a tad faster powder may be just the ticket for the 80 grainers - Yup!

Screamers .... Whew!

55.5 grs. of AA-4350,
R-P nickel brass,
Federal 210 primer
crimped into the front groove with a Lee FCD.

Out of my Blaser R93 5 will go into one VERY small hole.

My Buddy shot a coupla Roe Deer with the 80 grainers in his Witherbee - impressive if you're into DRT to say the least!

Good info guys. Will be at the range in the AM with my loads and will respond afterwards.

Well I had several one inch groups had it not been for one outside the RL 17 would have been 1/2". Gonna give it another go in the AM with one load the same RL 17 and one grain more in the H4350 as it was a good clover leaf spread but am hoping one grain more will close it up.

Have thought about doing this with my .25-06, but never got around to it. Thanks guys for your efforts. Guess I'm going to have to buy a box of the 80 grainers and try them out on antelope.
Max

quote:

Well I had several one inch groups had it not been for one outside the RL 17 would have been 1/2". Gonna give it another go in the AM with one load the same RL 17 and one grain more in the H4350 as it was a good clover leaf spread but am hoping one grain more will close it up.

m-g,

Keep us posted on your results - I figure at the price of Barnes bullets in Europe I'd rather have you doing the R&D for me!

I just returned from New Mexico last night after another great antelope hunt.

Last year and this year both, I shot my buck with my 25-06 using the 80 grain Tipped TSX.
The buck last year was right at 300 yards and at the shot he just collapsed, never even kicked. The buck I shot this year was a lasered 340 yards and he tried to get back up but couldn't, died right there.

I shoot a case full of IMR 4831 and get 3600 fps in my rifle. H 4350 might be a better choice to eliminate some of the powder compression. But the IMR 4831 was the first thing I tried and it works, drops them right there and complete penetration.

Well took four shots each of 57 RL 17 and 56 H4350 and both put three in about 1/2" BUT each had a flyer out at 3/4" one higher than its three shot friends and one lower than its three shot friends. The RL 17 is an inch higher than the H4350 at these load levels. Will test further to see if the ME factor is causing the flyers or just the "always probblematic tang safety ruger, LMAO! Thanks guys for sharing your data and experiences with this bullet.

m-g,

I too, just returned from the range.

I cleaned the 25-06 Remington barrel twice this am with Bore Foam as I'd tried some Nosler Partitions and my experience with Barnes' seems to indicate they like a real squeaky clean barrel especially minus regular jacketed bullet fouling.

Anyway, 2 foulers and the remaining 3 (with a 15 minute pause - I'll get to that later) resulted in a 3-shot cluster right at 12:00, 2.5" high which is as it is sighted-in.

I've got a 16X Nitrex scope on the barrel as it's primary use is Springbok culling in Namibia. Shots long and heads small. With this particular barrel & cartridge though barrel heat mirage is a big problem when load testing.

quote:

BUT each had a flyer out at 3/4" one higher than its three shot friends and one lower than its three shot friends.

I was wondering if perhaps you either really space your shots when testing for groups or do a 3-shot rush and then give the barrel a cooling rest. Reason is; my barrel is smoking hot after three evenly spaced shots and you cannot even touch it after five shots.

Perhaps barrel heat mirage is giving you the flyer you are encountering in the groups?

Don't get me wrong; I'm not chasing or begging groups here; I desire the rifle to shoot while hunting, so POI is more important to me than a 1/2" either way. Just want to get the correct POI - the rest will sort itself out when potting Springbok at >300 meters.

Cheers 10, you are probably on to the reason for the flyer as I too get the mirage from barrel heat usually after three shots. For this past session I fired two and read the sports paper, then two more and read the funnies, etc. However, barrel has a hard time cooling sufficently in 80 degree early AM weather!