BT Sniper
10-30-2013, 08:44 PM
It's that time of year again, my favorite time of year! Elk season starts this weekend. It seems every year I try out a new bullet and caliber of my home made creations. It started with a 176 grain 30 cal bullet made from FN 5.7x28 brass shot from my 300WM, that bullet has taken two nice Oregon mule deer for me. Last year I chased after the deer with my 40-308 and a 225 grain bullet with ballistic tip made from 9mm brass and a swaged airsoft BB tip. Didn't connect with anything that year.
Now this year I want a close range hammer for hunting elk in the heavy brush of Western Oregon. So I grabbed the Savage 375H&H. I found a good load with simple Speer 270 grain bullets loaded with 69 grains of RL-15. Then next thing I know I had shot up the entire box of 50, so I ordered a couple more boxes, well be careful of the online stores you order from, it seems "hunting4less.com" offers products as "in stock" that are actually on backorder. Matter of fact I would be leery of ordering anything from this new company. It became clear that I was not going to have any factory bullets for hunting season... no problem I'll just make some! :)
So in my free time I cut some scrap 223 blanks down and began the process of turning them into .375 bullets. A rather good caliber bullet for the 223 case to make since it is already .375ish in diameter. After trim, anneal, clean, size, seat core, canalure, form bullet and load, I was ready.... Off to the range! I found these bullets shot about 1MOA for me at 100 yrds stoked with 71 grains of RL-15, fps was 2675. Sighted in at 200 yrds I am 2" high at 100, I use the start of the thick part of the simple 30-30 retical cross hair and I'm dead on at 300-350 yrds. Anything farther and I'll be trying to sneak up on them or use my 338 Edge for the long shoots.
I'll have some pics soon.
Good shooting, hunting and swage on!
Brian
Now this year I want a close range hammer for hunting elk in the heavy brush of Western Oregon. So I grabbed the Savage 375H&H. I found a good load with simple Speer 270 grain bullets loaded with 69 grains of RL-15. Then next thing I know I had shot up the entire box of 50, so I ordered a couple more boxes, well be careful of the online stores you order from, it seems "hunting4less.com" offers products as "in stock" that are actually on backorder. Matter of fact I would be leery of ordering anything from this new company. It became clear that I was not going to have any factory bullets for hunting season... no problem I'll just make some! :)
So in my free time I cut some scrap 223 blanks down and began the process of turning them into .375 bullets. A rather good caliber bullet for the 223 case to make since it is already .375ish in diameter. After trim, anneal, clean, size, seat core, canalure, form bullet and load, I was ready.... Off to the range! I found these bullets shot about 1MOA for me at 100 yrds stoked with 71 grains of RL-15, fps was 2675. Sighted in at 200 yrds I am 2" high at 100, I use the start of the thick part of the simple 30-30 retical cross hair and I'm dead on at 300-350 yrds. Anything farther and I'll be trying to sneak up on them or use my 338 Edge for the long shoots.
I'll have some pics soon.
Good shooting, hunting and swage on!
Brian