Thanks guys!! I will tell him about the extra prep work on the Bertram brass. He isn't set on any one brass, and I found out last night that his gun has a tight chamber. He can't slide a bullet back in a fired case by hand, either handloads or factory fired ammo. When he bought his gun new, factory ammo showed extractor marks on the base. After he shot 14 rounds he saved the rest and started reloading the empties. He was able to get 5 to 6 firings each before the brass started to go away on him. He found that the more rounds he shot down the tube, the more fps he gained with the same load/bullet combo. After 60 or so rounds down the tube, he fired another factory round. FPS increased 60 or 70 fps (IIRC) and he no longer had an extractor mark on the base. BUT, he still cannot drop a bullet in the case after it's been fired. Factory Christensen rifle. I made him a modified case so he could check the base to lands dimension and to get the bullet to slide in the case we had to run the case partially in and out of the FL sizer die just to expand the neck.
A buddy gave him a 20 round box of once fired factory 26 nosler brass and right now he's going to try to make 28 nosler out of it.
He was here last month, and I took him to the 1,000 yd range. I got him on steel at 1,000 yds with him shooting the 175g SMK and he was happy, as he never shot further than 600-700 yds before. We only had 15 rounds to play with and I had left my laptop at home so dialing up from his 300 yd zero was a SWAG on my part using the data I had for the 180g Berger in my 7mm Allen Magnum for those conditions.
