Richard B
02-27-2010, 08:37 PM
The weather broke so that I could take my Savage Model 23 to the range for a shake down trip. I wanted to get an idea of how this rifle performs with the 115 grn FN (.314) Lasercast bullets that I bought using Unique. I was using Remington virgin cases and CCI small pistol primers. All the loads went bang but the results were interesting. I shot a minimum of one 5 shot group per load and two or three in the accuaracy load ( 5 grns) that I got from Ken Waters Pet loads. I shot all my groups at 25 yards as I did not know what to expect from this rifle
My most accurate load was 4.0 grains with five shot groups at 3/8" and as the powder charge increased so did the group size until I reached the Lyman max load of 5.5 grains where the groups went over 1 1/4". Most of the other powder charges consistently shot around 1" groups. I am going to load up the more promising loads and try them at 50 and eventually 100 yards.
I also tried some "J" bullets using AA 1680 (another KW accuracy load) and the results were worse than the cast bullets.
The rifle was wearing a Redfield 2 3/4X for sights.
My most accurate load was 4.0 grains with five shot groups at 3/8" and as the powder charge increased so did the group size until I reached the Lyman max load of 5.5 grains where the groups went over 1 1/4". Most of the other powder charges consistently shot around 1" groups. I am going to load up the more promising loads and try them at 50 and eventually 100 yards.
I also tried some "J" bullets using AA 1680 (another KW accuracy load) and the results were worse than the cast bullets.
The rifle was wearing a Redfield 2 3/4X for sights.