300 Savage Arisaka at the range

[blixen]

After findin some once-fired 300 Savage cases and buying loading dies, I loaded some rounds -- it took some fooling around to put .314 boolits into 300 Sav. brass.

I finally took my Arisaka sportier to the range today. I really only expected to fire form the brass to the Arisaka chamber and get it onto paper.

My load was a 185 gr. lee bullet sized to .314 and gas checked. Pushed by 16gr. 2400 (my standard load for milsurps).

It took me most of my rounds to get the scope on target. My best group was about 3 inches at 50.

Here's where it gets interesting. I found a handful of Hornady 150 gr .311 spire-point j-words that I had for my .303 british. I loaded them in front of 16 grains of 2400 and took them alone.

I got a 1" 3-shot group at 50 yards! I immediately ran a target out to 100 yards to shoot the remaining j-bullets. Below is the result: a little better than a 2.5 inch group.

My question why do .311 j-bullets shoot so well out of my .313ish japanese bore? Meanwhile, I'm sizing my CBs to .314 in hopes of accuracy?

BTW, I plan to dedicate this rifle to cast boolits, but it's good to know it shoots jacketed slugs so well. I think it would do better if I could get the trigger pull down from 6-7 pounds.

[EMC45]

Could be too heavy for your twist. The cast bullets that is.

[runfiverun]

I doubt it they are 1-10.
the problem is the metford rifling make the boolits harder so they will grab the rifling better.
my jaxketed load is 44.5 grs of AA-2700 under the hornady 312 diameter 150 gr bullet and I use the win lrm primer.
all my cases are reformed from 270 brass to squeeze fit the chamber as closely as possible.

[Blkpwdrbuff]

Blixen,
Timney makes a replacement trigger for your Arisaka. It makes a world of difference!
I have a Arisaka rebarrelled to 6.5X257.
I had the Timney trigger installed and set to 3#.
You do have to remove a bit of wood in the stock so the trigger will clear and work properly.

Blkpwdrbuff

[leadman]

While the groove diameter may be .313" or so, the bore diameter is smaller, probably around .303". My 1891 Arg. Mauser shoots .308" diameter bullets pretty well.

[blixen]

Thanks for the feedback. It's very helpful.
Before I jump to any conclusions, I want to shoot another 100 or so CBs through the Arisaka. I had some trouble chambering them--it seems the rechambered 300 Sav. chamber is very tight and the throat is short, at least for my long 185 grain boolits.
but I re-examined my targets and it looks like the 16 gr. 2400 load was trying to group.

I won't know for sure until I shoot more groups systematically. I'm also going to try some plinker loads of 8gr of Red Dot to see if lower velocities will make a difference.

BTW, I'm not sure how hard my alloy is. I was shooting range lead--lord knows what's in that and I don't have a hardness gauge--except that I'm not getting any leading in my barrels.

finally, I think I'll size some CBs to .312 to see what happens. In my Argies that usually gives me keyholing. But maybe it will be different with the Arisaka.

[Wayne Smith]

Cast some more of those boolits and water drop them. You should have enough antimony in the range lead to harden it some. If you have some wheel weights drop them in too. Let these boolits sit for a month or two and then shoot them.

[blixen]

Took two rifles to the range today.
1. Arisaka .300 Savage.
.314 185gr. Lee Cast Boolits tumble lubed 45/45/10 Alox-paste wax. Aluminum gas checks. Best groups from with 16gr. 2400. The .300 Sav. has a very short neck forcing me to seat the GC belown the shoulder. The aluminum GCs don't seem to crimp on as tight as the copper. I wonder if they are falling off and that is affecting accuracy. I've got a few .30 cal copper gcs left--I'll see if it makes a difference.

2. 8x57 Yugo Mauser--I finally honed out the inside of my Lee .324 sizing die to .326. I'm using the lee 8x56mm mold, C329-205-1R. Same lube as usual with copper .32cal gas checks. Got great results with 16 grains of 2400. Not quite as good with 20 grains SR4759. Problem is, I'm almost out of 2400 and haven't been able to find it around here.

Obviously, with some load figuring, these rifles will do better--I'm satisfied that I've got a couple CB-only rifles.