Well, I took my .375 Taylor to the range today for it's shakedown run. It's a M1999 Montana, 23" Shilen #4 CM in a Borden Rimrock stock. My first loads were 270g Hornady Interlock SPs, 69.0g of RE-15, Fed 215 primers, Rem brass. After 4 sight-in rounds with cleaning between rounds, the first group at a 100 yds was 0.93". I shot 2 more 3 round groups with this load, both being 1.23". Average velocity for all 9 rounds was 2693 fps. SD was about 32 fps. The brass looked great with the shoulders being moved forward about .075" and no pressure signs. The primers were not flattened but punched pretty good.

I had one other load cooked up: 270g Accubonds with 70.0g of RE-15, Rem cases, Fed 215 primers. The only group I shot with them (last group of the day) was 1.78", but I don't feel good about my effort on that last group. Average velocity was 2745 fps, SD was very low, 8 fps. Again, no pressure signs, no flowing brass, no flattened primers. One thing I did notice. All rounds were very dirty, with a lot of powder residue in the barrel. I'm going to work up some loads with 4064, AA2520, and Varget. Is it possible that not all of the powder is being burned, leaving the excess residue (powder) in the barrel? Do I need to try faster powders? I plan on sticking at/near the 270g bullets: Accubond, Barnes Triple Shocks, Hornady Interlocks, and Nosler 260g Partitions.

Lastly, what was it like to shoot? A blast, both literally and figuratively. The gun moves to the rear a long ways, but it's not sharp in the least. More like a BIG push to the rear. My shoulder did great (1" Pachmeyer Decelerator pad), but my trigger hand took a beating. I ended up shooting 19 rounds of .375 Taylor and would have shot a lot more if I had had them loaded. Interestingly, I had my brother's .30-06 along to sight-in as well, a gun that I thought kicked pretty good in the past. It felt like a .22 after shooting the .375.

Well, got to go. I've got to load some more .375 Taylor.....

MKane160 aka BigDogMK

P.S.: Them Colorado elk better learn how to duck!