Range report on 220 gr. #311284

[Paul B]

I did finally get to the range today. Fifty rounds of 220 gr. cast bullets over 25.0 gr. 5744. Winchester brass and primer. Results were interesting as hell. Recoil was a lot stouter than I
expected from a roughly 1600 FPS load. Another thing, the barrel heated up quite rapidly even when shots were spaced one and two minutes apart. I've seen comments about 5744 that say it does that. The longer time when the barrel reached lukewarm. Five sighters where shot, first three to see where they hit and then scope adjusted to put it closer to point of aim. I shot five of the loads with the bullets sized .310", then five with the .311" bullets, this of course on separate targets. The I did five more of each on the same target again five of one and five of the other. Checking the targets it looked like the bullets sized .311 might be the best way to go.

Next, I stapled a fresh target over each of the original targets being careful to keep them as closely aligned as possible. I then shot ten of the .310" on one target and ten of the .311" on the other as before. This time two minutes between each shot held as close as possible and care with trigger squeeze and follow though. This time most of the shots from the .310" bullet fell inside a 2.5" square (the target bull) and the .311" bullet showed fair grouping ( 3.0") but with three widely scattered flyers , 4 to 6" off point of aim.

All shots were fired at 50 yards. Bullets seated to the crimp groove. Normally I load long nosed bore riders to slightly engage the rifling but as this was an unknown load that I was just starting with I kept it simple. Brass is now fireformed to the Browning B78 so I'll neck size the cases for the next go round. Most likely will also seat the bullets to slightly engage the rifling as that has worked well for me in other cartridges.

Paul B.

[gwpercle]

What cartridge ... I'm a little slow and need to be told things .
Rifle is Browning B78 right ?
Gary

[obssd1958]

I know that I shouldn't, but I'm going to guess here --

311284 is a nominal 220gr. 30 cal boolit
5744 is listed for reduced lead boolit loads in the 30-06, but supposedly is only 22gr. to get that 1600fps

regardless, I'm going to guess that the cartridge he's loading is the venerable 30-06

[Paul B]

What cartridge ... I'm a little slow and need to be told things .
Rifle is Browning B78 right ?
Gary

Yeah, it's a 30-06. My bad. Just a heads up. Until today I haven't fired a shot since DEC 17. Three years ago my wife had a stroke and range time was limited to a quick sight check before a hunt. My wife passed last month and today I went out and did a bit of shooting for pleasure for the first time in a long while. The comments about the Chargemaster are because for the first time in 15 years it threw erratic charges. I just happened to catch it when I decided to load ten more rounds to use as sighters, The sighter loads were all hand weighed, not that it made any difference.

Some follow up stuff. One, 5744 is one hell of a dirty powder. I never thought I'd ever get that **** out of my barrel. No sign whatsoever of leading. Not a trace.

Interesting thing about that Browning. The rifling looks like some form or Micro-groove like Marlin uses but the grooves are much more shallow that what Marlin uses. **** trigger on the gun never feels the same from shot to shot. Checked the pull and it's running 2.25 to 2.5 pounds per pull. Trigger feels spongy. Funny thing is that rifle shoots MOA with jacketed bullets.

I'm not too unhappy with the 2.5" and 3.0" final groups. I figure not bad for the first try with a bullet I've never used before and an unknown to me powder. Now to figure out the flyers. I'm thinking that the Chargemaster was screwing up and I didn't catch it. Charges when I tested it yesterday ran from 2 to three grains low to one grain high. Guess I'll never know on that as I shot all that ammo up in the test. FWIW, the sighting in loads that I made up yesterday were all hand weighed prior to putting the charge in the case. Those loads were just as erratic.

I read in one of the Speer manuals that Browning uses a 1 in 12" twist. So does Husqvarna and many other European gun makers. Shooting a slower moving 220 gr. bullet just might not be stabilized. When looking over the targets some of the holes looked like they were done with a wadcutter. They were that clean (3 holes) Half the rest looked like tears no different than when I shoot jacketed but the other half showed smears of lead on one side or the other of the hole. Tipping?

I'm also thinking about trying a different rifle. The next trial will give me an idea whether to stay with the B70 or go to one of my bolt action 30-06s.

I'm beginning to think it's a miracle I even hit the paper at all. Just thought of something. These are the first shots I've fired since Dec 31, 2017. You know what? It felt good.
Paul B.

[swheeler]

Paul, I'm sorry to hear of your lose but glad you are getting out to shoot now, enjoy life! 5744 may benefit from a grain of Dacron if you are so inclined with your loading, maybe try 10 each 23-24-25. I would think that rifle should do better than that, maybe 1.5" at a hundred with right load? Keep at it and have fun, keep us posted.


Paul I hope this is a typo!!!!!!!!!!!!!since Dec 31, 1917. Scot

[Texas by God]

Good on you for getting out for some fun, Paul. My brother once had a B78 30-06 that he delighted in outshooting our OCD friend’s Ruger #1V 22-250 with! That gun was amazing. I do remember him having to wash the West Texas sand from the trigger with carb cleaner when it got “spongey.”