Thanks to lb404 and PRDATOR, a good time was had by all.

Heading out at 4AM this morning, Orion was rising in the east.

Met PRDATOR, and his nephew, and lb404 at the OK City Gun Club. Great people, guns and shooting facilities all around.

PRDATOR trained his young protege a bit, turned him loose, and commenced to check out the performance of his tack drivers of all bore sizes.

PRDATOR's Oehler was then turned to the task of checking out lb404's loads for the Sterling Davenport 500 Jeffery Mauser in attendance.

PRDATOR quickly centered 3 rounds on the 50 yard bull with each of three different loads:

535 grain Woodleigh Weldcore RNSP's
HDS brass made by Horneber
GM215M primer
Varget Extreme powder:

100 grains Varget with no filler: 2222 fps ave

100 gr Varget with 4 grains poly filler: 2276 fps and extreme spread of 10 fps for three shots, very uniform

110 gr Varget with no filler: 2402 fps ave

PRDATOR had to run after a few more shots. Worship service with family. He did this shooting off of Mossy Oak shooting sticks, standing, with the H&H Moon Bead and fixed rear shallow V.

lb404 and I continued services at the range.

lb404 allowed me to fold down the moon bead to use the target bead, and shoot from the bench with upright posture and with the back of my forearm-gripping hand resting on the front bag and the rear of the rifle touching only my shoulder. This simulates the dynamics of offhand or standing rest shooting.

With the finer bead, and slow fire, I finished up with the 500 Jeffery, my final three shots going into one hole that measured 0.217" center-to-center at 50 yards. Lucky compensating errors? The other 2 shots before that last three made for a 1.260" 5-shot. I pulled them, no doubt.

That Krieger barreled Davenport Mauser has potential.

That last load I shot was 105 grains of Varget with no filler, other components same as above. The 535 granier was slightly over 2300 fps. In my distraction by that one-holer, I forgot to record the average velocity. lb404 will have it.

Interesting point: With the 100 grain Varget charge, using 4 grains of filler added about 50 fps to the average velocity, and shrunk the extreme spread from about 70 fps to only 10 fps, for three shots each, with and without filler. lb404 may have better numbers.

lb404's idea for another load:

540 grain GSC FN with 95 grains of Varget, and see if it will need filler or not. The GSC FN is quite a bit longer than the Woodleigh, so maybe that charge will give 2150 to 2200 fps uniformly if air space is eliminated.

Rehab that shoulder, lb404.

BTW, Mrs. lb404 is an accomplished safari hunter too, with .416 Taylor and 9.3x62mm. Nice meeting her too, what a Lady!

We did have a wonderful time today. I must say that RIP is a hell of a man with a gun. My shoulder is still getting the kinks out after extensive surgery in February. I am shooting up to the power level of the 458 Win. Mag. with 500gr. at 2150f/s. I am working up to the 458 Lott and 500 Jeffery level, hopefully, by this fall. Anyway, back to RIP. I have to put a final count to the talley, but so far he shot the following today;
500 Jeffery 12 rds.
458 Lott 10 rds.
416 Rigby 16 rds.
404 Jeffery 12 rds.
10.75x68 16 rds.
375 H&H 10 rds.
9.3x62 10 rds.
all in all a hefty recoil day. Most off the Bald Eagle rest as described above or directly off the bags. The last 5 rounds of 375 got to him. Congratulations for a job well done. We must do this again. Predator is just busting to make up a 500 Jeffery on his own. Once you get them converted they can never go back. The Hoffman 10.75x68 is a real winner. For a 7.5 lb. rifle it does hit with a hell of a wallop. I think I am going to make up that 22" barrel into another 10.75x68 with the ability to use both fixed and scope sights in a 7.5-8 lb gun. I think it would be a KICK! I also have one nice load for the 458 Lott, 5 shots of 500gr. Hornady RN at 2268 f/s into .5" at 50 yrds. SWEET!!!

Who was in charge of the camera!!!

I suffer from 10.75x68 envy!

quote:

Originally posted by lb404:
... The last 5 rounds of 375 got to him

I must admit that I begged to borrow the PAST PAD for my shoulder, and got it for those last 5 shots with the .375 H&H. I had enough for the day.

The rifles of lb404 are like classical music. A symphony of Mausers and Pre-64 M70's, whereas I am more accustomed to country/western and rock and roll.

I enjoyed some champagne on a beer budget today. Thanks again. My turn to buy lunch next time.

The .458 Lott and .375 H&H loads were impressive, the recipes recorded.

The 10.75x68mm Mauser was a new experience for me.

That is an impressive amount of power from a compact rifle and cartridge. Don't build the next one any lighter!

Sounds like ya'll had a BLAST... whacking away with a 500 jeffe is an interesting expereince, ain't it? Mine,s 9#6oz or so, and it rocks and rolls!!! Casts at 23somthing and jacketed at 2450 or so!!

I want a 10.75x68, and mine would be (horrifically) light. I am thinking a rebarrel on a guild rifle.. trim, pettite, and packs a whallop on BOTH ends.

jeffe

My Hoffman weighs in at 7 lbs. and it does have a good hit to it. It is light enough to carry all day and powerful enough to kill anything we can hunt. If the 9.3x62 is very close to the factory loadings of the 375 H&H then, the 10.75x68 is equal to the original 404 Jeffery loadings. Worthy praise for both the 9.3x62 and the 10.75x68. That would be a fun pair to try in Africa.

quote:

Originally posted by lb404:
My Hoffman weighs in at 7 lbs. and it does have a good hit to it. It is light enough to carry all day and powerful enough to kill anything we can hunt. If the 9.3x62 is very close to the factory loadings of the 375 H&H then, the 10.75x68 is equal to the original 404 Jeffery loadings. Worthy praise for both the 9.3x62 and the 10.75x68. That would be a fun pair to try in Africa.

9.3 plus 10.75
That would be a perfect combo, like a .375 plus a .416

Full sufficiency in each and backup redundancy in the pairing.

I'll scan that 500 Jeffery "three holes in one" target and post it later.

lb404 is my witness.

107 F was one temperature read locally during the shoot.

The velocity is an interpolation between the 100 grain and 110 grain no-filler loads. I didn't record the actual 105 grain loads, being giddy with recoil by then, though lb404 was getting chronograph printouts.

I guess that the two low shots were with the bigger moon bead.

The smaller gold bead put 3 in the same hole at 50 yards, that I am sure of.

When lb404 gets a slower load with 540 grain GSC FN's it will shoot higher, so better try that before doing any other sight adjustments.

These heavy bullet moderate velocity heavy recoiling guns will shoot higher with the slower loads and lower with the faster loads, just like a 454 Casull revolver or a 470 NE double.

The light bullet and low recoil guns with high velocity will often shoot higher with the faster loads, aye. Barrel time, muzzle rise in recoil (or a lack of it) and finally the BC of the bullet out at long range, all these and more interact complexly on the POI.

Thanks for the picture -- looks like it will definitely shoot!

And no thanks for ramping up my case of 10.75x68 envy. I was about ready to build one, had a donor rifle picked out, when I found something else I had to have first and got derailed. I do not need another rifle project right now!

quote:

Originally posted by Charles_Helm:
Who was in charge of the camera!!!

I suffer from 10.75x68 envy!

No camera, one scan is all I could come up with. You are welcome.

At least I can't be blamed for the 10.75x68mm envy. That is lb404's fault, and it has even gotten me thinking about one of those puppies.

Great shooting. I ordered up a couple of NECG front sights to try when we finally settle on a load. I ordered some 530 gr. Hard cast bullets from LTD Custom Cast Bullets. I am hoping to use them for plinking rounds later on. A real interesting issue revolves around the evaluation of the load using two different ballistic programs. Quick load predicts that 100gr. Varget and a 535gr. Woodleigh PP would yield 32613 psi and Accuload predicts 47000 psi. RIP commented that he felt that the pressure of the tested loads was around 30000 psi range. Why the large variance in the predictions of the two programs, not that it makes that much difference anyway. I was just currious.

SWAG of 30 to 40 K range, ja, mild pressure.
I have been puzzled by AccuLoad pressures more so than QuickLoad.

Man that was a fun day I cant belive my nephew shot my 338 ultra And liked it?

Hey my trip this week got canceled so how about the range this weekend? I may even get to stay longer

I'm in, David is home for a week or two. I just hope they will let me alone long enough to reload. I shot the hell out of everything last Sunday and have been out until 2100 to 2200 every night this week. Time doesn't fly when you are working.

Leonard,
Not only do you need to reload, you've got some gun cleaning to do. Gitterdunn.

I might overdose on fun if I tried to get down too soon (translation: my shoulder is a little sore still and I will be bringing my own PAST pad instead of shooting in shirt sleeve next time).

You, Spencer and I have quite a bit in common besides hunting, rifle and reloading loonery. It was certainly a pleasure meeting you guys.

Its hard to get the gumption up to go reload when its 107 in the shade and close to 10,000 in my garage And I have David's press Just thoght about that. Well there is a Praire dog match sat (now that they have a iron site round I might take the 416), so sunday would be the day to shoot the big stuf
Rip it was good to meet you and I wish you had your 375 wby to shoot!

Prdator, We could do a reload day in my Gun Room on Saturday if you want. Airconditioned inside, plenty of room, good equipment, etc.

I might just do that. I have to fill out my resume this weekend as a promotion is out for bid so that will be first fiddel and we all know how much help I need with my Spellin
Ill give you a call and see whats up.
Oh I talked with DJ and he said he might shoot the P dog match sat.