This year's elk hunting season was a success. Lots of work, three new bullets, new location, new tent, snow, wind, rain, sun, everything one would want in a fulfilling season.
Like any successful hunting outcome there is a good story to go with it and mine started back in the middle of June when I unexpectedly drew a tag for an Eastern Oregon any bull tag in a unit right next to where I grew up yet never hunted.
I have a lot of details to share and good stories to go along with it yet it's late and I'm a bit short on time so I'll post some pics and a few tid-bits of info on this years bullets and success with a more detailed version soon to follow.
Needless to say I got very little work done for BTSniper customers in the last three weeks as I was very busy making and testing new bullets, packing, preparing and unpacking for and from this adventure, drawing a big bull tag in NE Oregon only comes around once every 4-8 years depending on unit and even longer in most. Now everything is put away with meat soon to be in the freezer and I can get back to work.
Last elk I took was a nice 5 point from 530 yrds using a .338 Sierra 300 grain Match King from a 338 Edge. This time I wanted to take an elk with a bullet I made myself. I figured I would take the 338 Edge and the proven 300 grain Sierras just in case I needed them but I still wanted to use bullets I made myself. I figured for close range dark timber hunting I would put together a light weight 375H&H. I have a Savage with a short 20" barrel, nice and light at only 7.5lbs scoped out and everything. Well I made some awesome 315 grain bullets using scrap 223rem brass and a cast 240 grain core from the Lee 30 cal mold for the core. I didn't bother to core swage or weight sort these jackets and cores, just made them up as is.
Now I needed a medium range offering, figuring the 375H&H was good out to about 300 yrds and the 338 edge was good out a LOT farther yet the edge with it's 30" bull barrel is not one you want to carry very far so I needed a packable rifle that would do the job on an elk out to 600-800 yrds or so, I figure if I needed to shoot further then that I would have time to grab the edge if need be. Well...... I purchased a 26" McGowen 300WM barrel in a heavy sporter contour that I hadn't shot yet and I figured this would fit the bill nicely. I had also purchased a few thousand RCE 1.30" 30 cal jackets a while back as well. It was time to make some bullets. I looked over my 30 die offerings and grabbed a 15S secant ogive die that matched the Berger VLD profile pretty close. Doing some research hunters where having good success with bergers in the 215 grain range from the 300WM on elk so I set up the dies to see what the 1.3" jacket could make. Anything over 200 grains wasn't going to work with this jacket and nose profile so I settled on a nice 190 grain VLD bullet. A weekend later and I had 500 of these beautiful 190 grain 30 cal VLD pills, that where nearly an exact match to the Berger 190s, ready to go, just needed to find a load. Well..... after three days of range work with three different powders and every possible OAL and primmer combo it was determined this barrel just did not prefer the 190 grain offerings.
A little disappointed and time winding down till the season begins I started doing some more research on the latest 30 cal offerings that where popular with the elk hunting crowd. I had known about the heavy offering from Berger with their 230 grain Hybrid and began to research the success shooters where having with this heavy pill. A couple days worth of research and I decided to try my luck making a heavy 30 cal bullet with the 1.30" jacket and this time a 10s tangent point form die. I needed to determine just how heavy of bullet I could make using this jacket and set out with my different core weights to see what I could do. I worked my way up with 200, 215 and 230 grain attempts. At about 220 grains IIRC the jacket was pretty much full, It looked like with a bit of a lead tip I could make a nice 230 grain spitzer. I have always had good luck with my dies and them making a nice lead tip using a manual press, but using the RCE hydro press there is no control over the speed and force of the ejection stroke so where I could get a nice lead tip using a manual press and "feel," the hydraulic press was a little more abusive on the soft lead tips. I was able to make very good looking 230 grain pills but had a bit of a mashed lead tip to them so.... a lead tipping die I set out to make.
A couple attempts later and I had a ......... adequate lead tipping solution, not quite perfect but good enough.
Now it was off to the range (woods). I used RL-33 powder with the 230 grain bullets in my 300 WM. First day was hopfully determining a good powder load. Luckily it did show promise and a preference for 82 grains worth. Second day was OAL testing and found it shot well with a .010" jam into the lands with groups in the 1/2 moa range at 200 yrds. This was considerably better then the results I had with the 190s. I had a large steel target set up at 600 yrds with a few extra rounds. I was able to get on target with a rather impressive group, I had a rough idea as to BC figures and drops for this 230 grain pill launched at 2850FPS but verifying this on target at 600 really helped to determine the most accurate figures in determining a proper drop chart.
With this data in hand I loaded up a hundred or so rounds. I printed out the data all the way to 1K yrds. I grabbed a few extra steel targets and on day three I went to a new location to stretch the legs of these bullets a bit and verify my BC data. I set targets up at 350, 475 and 650 yrds roughly and sent five rounds at each target. Shooting prone off the ground as I would in the field I was rewarded with the sound of lead on steel with each shot. Then I moved back 150 yrds and shoot all three targets again with five rounds each. This put the far target at 800 yrds. I was very happy with the results and at the end of the shooting session I was confident in myself, the gun and the bullet's abilities to make hits out to at least 800 yrds in favorable conditions.
I now had a mid range to long rang gun to compliment the 375H&H for shots anywhere from a few feet to 800 yrds or possibly a bit more if need be. I spent plenty of time shooting both the 300WM and 375H&H both free hand and prone. I got to where I was making consistent hits on a paper plate size target at 100 yrds free hand standing up and obviously a lot further with a rest. I felt ready and with this new 300 WM and an awesome 230 grain bullet I did not feel the need to bring the big 338 edge as I was confident in the 300wm and my home made bullets potential.
As for the lad development with the 375 H&H and the 315 grain pills made from 223rem brass the load development was much easier (yet a LOT harder on ht shoulder!). I had come across data that recommended H414 with the 300 grain bullet offerings in the 375H&H so I loaded up some test rounds starting at 75 grains and working up to 78 grains. I had shot some of my "factory seconds" in this 375 H&H to get on target and a feel for the gun, needless to say it kicked the heck out of my shoulder! But on to load development I went. The first load of 75 grains put three bullets all touching at 100 yrds, this with a thick cross haired retical simple 3-9 power scope (not exactly set up for long range precision). With that first load I was more then happy and didn't bother testing any of the rest. I loaded up 20 rounds with the 75 grain load and my 315 grain bullets and I felt ready for anything the season would through at me.
Now for some pics......
315 grain .375, 230 grain 30 cal 10s and a 190 grain 15S vld bullets
A Berger 190 grain VLD on the left and my 190 grain VLD on the right!
My 230 grain 30 cal 10s ogive made from a RCE 1.30" jacket
A Sierra 300 grain .338 match king on the left and my 230 grain 30 cal on the right for compare
three shots touching at 100 yrds with the 315 grain pills out of the 375 H&H
A look at the 800 yrd results with the 230 grain 30 cals marked with the orange ear plugs. Shot 3 was a called pull, shot 6 was not the best of holds but all the rest landed right where I wanted them. The orange center steel target is 10" and looks mighty small at 800 yrds. I adjusted my vertical slightly as you can see shots 1 and 5 as well as those that hit the orange center made for a group I was rather impressed with. I actually took video footage of shooting these steel targets with the 230 grain bullets. I'll have to upload them to youtube and will provide links soon.
A look at the 300 WM I put together.
Savage action, 26" McGowen barrel, I forget the stock brand?, Sightron STAC 3-16x scope
That is just a brief recap of making bullets, and load development. Still got the entire hunting trip to talk about and finally the success with meat hanging in camp!
Here is a pick of camp and a bit of scenery to start with......
We actually had to shovel threw a foot of snow before setting up camp, by the end of the season the snow had all melted.
A look at come of the country I got to spend a week in chasing elk. Camp was at 6200'elevation and there was plenty of country above that elevation. The town I live in is at an elevation of less then 500' so it took a little while to get used to the thin air, especially for my large butt (a little thinner now as I was able to drop 30+ lbs in time and exercise spent getting ready for season, still a lot to go but a good start).
Well this is a good start for now. Enjoy the pics, I'll have more pics and story to follow soon.
To those few on my work order list and the few that have contacted me in the last few weeks, thank you for your patience, I'll have your orders and replies to you just as soon as I can.
Swage on!
Brian