Originally Posted by
CA Dude
I went out today and shot my loads across a chronograph. My guessamations wasn't too far off. The 235 grain load produced an average of 2,376 fps for a five shot string. This load produced a spread of 118 fps (low 2308, high 2427). The SD was 42.8. In my rifle it produced 22.5 ft. pounds of recoil. Compared to 25.2 ft. pounds of recoil from a 7 pound 30-06 rifle. The 270 grain load produced an average of 2276 fps for a five shot string. This load produced a spread of 37 fps (low 2251, high 2288). The SD was 15.9. In my rifle it produced 26.6 ft pounds of recoil. Compared to 27.8 ft pounds from a 9 pound 300 Win Mag.
The cases for the 235 grain loads indicated zero case expansion. The 270 grain measured .0005 larger than a unfired cases.
I loaded four rounds in the magazine and they all feed without issue. My rifle required no modification to make it feed.
As for how loud it is? Well, it is hard to say. I remove my hearing aides, put in ear plugs, put on my ear muffs and then I talk very loud to everyone.
My rifle was chambered with a Reamer and headspace gauge from PTG. Both are ground to the C.I.P specs. If you have seen the old case drawing from 1910 you will note that the shoulder is shown at .455 in diameter. My reamer produced a .450 shoulder and that cause a very minor issue forming the brass.
My dies were made by CH and they are cut to C.I.P. specs. 30-06 brass can not be just ran through the sizing die and then trimmed to length. The 30-06 when formed in the sizing die results with a shoulder that measures .441 so the case has no resistance against the bolt as it is chambered. You have two options to make the brass so it can be safely fired in you rifle. One expand the neck and body to approx. 43 caliber so that when the case is formed in the die it will have enough shoulder to set the headspace. Or two, when sizing the case don't push the shoulder back so far. In my case I put a .030 feeler gage between the shell holder and the die, then tighten the die down against the feel gage. The first case could not be forced into the rifle enough to close the bolt. I kept doing this same process with thinner feeler gages until I had a .021 gage between the shell holder and the die. When set up like this I could close the bolt on the formed case. I then sized all my brass with this set up. The neck measured only .328 in length. When I fired the round it came out with a .350 length neck that matches the old case drawing.
Overall, I think it will be a very good round for hunting Middle Weight to Light Heavy Weight, non-dangerous game. My 270 grain loads still has 2080 ft. pounds of energy at 200 yards. I think I could harvest just about any animal I'm likely to run across in the woods of Arkansas.