There was a thread here a while ago about the Browning 1885 Low Wall rifle. I posted something on that about having poor results with one in .260 Remington. It's a new rifle, with 24 in. octagon barrel, and it has a 10X (fixed power) Redfield scope on it.

I've now done some more shooting with it and come up with much better results. I used 120 gr. Sierra Matchking bullets, new Remington brass (flash hole deburred & neck sized), CCI 200 primers, and IMR 4320 powder; all loads were loaded to a cartridge overall length of 2.78 inches. I loaded three rounds each in one-grain powder increments from 38 to 42 grains. Yesterday (Sunday, 2/10/02) I got to shoot them. These are my results from a single 3-shot group for each load, shot at 100 yards, and shot in order, from lowest powder charge to the highest.

(I had shot two fouling shots with loads using 100 gr. Nosler Ballistic Tips and IMR 4064 powder, and then put the rifle aside for nearly an hour, before I shot these groups.)

38 gr. -- 1.28 inches
39 gr. -- 4.67 in.
40 gr. -- 0.55 in.
41 gr. -- 1.08 in.
42 gr. -- 0.30 in.

That 42 gr. group is stunningly good for such a rifle. I will load more rounds at that loading and see whether the results are consistent, or whether that was just a fluke.

The terrible 4.67 group with 39 gr. of powder is puzzling. I may have been putting the sling swivel stud on top of the front rest pad -- I don't know for sure whether I was or not. But, in any case, after that I made sure that the swivel stud was placed ahead of the rest pad, not on it.

I still hate the trigger on this rifle -- it seems to have a let-off weight of about half a ton -- and I think the rifle "feels" flimsy. But the beauty of a rifle is in the shooting, and if these results hold up, then this is a great rifle.

[This message has been edited by LE270 (edited 02-11-2002).]

Sounds good. I've had real good luck with varget powder. 39gr with a 107gr sierra gives me great results. Just a thought.

Sounds like you are having fun. That last group was extremely good. For consistency, try placing the rifle at the exact same place on the pad every time. And if you think you had it on the swivvel, keep it off that thing. Does the low wall browning 1885 have an adjustable trigger like the high-wall browning 1885? You may want to read the owners manual. My high-wall has an adjustable trigger. BUT, it is adjustable from 5 pounds to someting like 12 pounds. Now if I could get it down to around 2 pounds, it would really shoot better. The shooting "Technique" will help close the groups as well as anything. Just my opinion.