Black Diamond 408
Well-Known Member
I was making a new sizer and seater die for the 338 Snipe-tac and i found somthing interesting. I measured the neck dia of the chamber reamer that i use for the seater dies, it is .372...just for testing sake i measured one of my seated shells, it measured .370, well i thought that is pretty close for a large magnum. I dug out some of my original cases from case development. To my surprise the necks measured .368...i then checked some of the new Jamison brass and it too measured tight. So out came the neck turner and some carpel tunnel. I turned them to match the .368 necks. I loaded up the cases with 300MK's and 143gns of WC872. I went through the cases and made sure they were all trimmed to the same length, they were.
I called up a friend and said we need to goto the rifle club and do some long range shooting, he was up for that.
We started out early tring to beat the wind, we arrived and there was allready several guys there sighting in for some little club match. We set up a few targets at 100yds to check zero and my friend wanted to shoot his new takedown rifle. He set up his chrono to test the speed from his 17" 308 win barrel. Factory Fed 168 match loads were running right at 2585, SD 5 pretty darn good for factorys. I shot several through the chrono, 3205 and 3212, both shots landed dead center. The same loads with out the moly coating usually runs right at 3295fps, quite a drop from the moly coating. We had to wait untill the range cleared to drive out and set up some targets. There are steel gongs at all distances but i cant shoot the snipe-tac as it punchs holes. More guys arrived for their little money grudge match of some kind, lots of fun ribbing going on...who has the best gun, who cant hit thier butt and ect. I didnt know the guys because its a private club and im not a member, my friend is. I just sat back and listened. There was lots of chatter going on about the rifles i brought, two different 338 Snipe-tacs. I had a customers along to fire a few shots long range, yea i have the brake on now. It was about noon and the match was about to start, they had targets set up at 600yds...i seen several rem 700's police specials, savages and one WBY. They were rattling sighters at a 15" steel gong, but by now the wind was really blowing, 20-30 into and cross from the right. 308's, 30-06, 223 and a 300winny is what is seen. Occasionally i heard a clink in the distance. They were taking turns as there is only three benches in this real nice shooting building. Sturdy benches, big 4'x4' doors that open to shoot out of during the winter. They did their thing for about 20 mins which gave me time to clean my rifle and chat with the guys. They all put 5 bucks into the hat, winner take all. My bud even fired a three shot volley at the target, no luck.
The guy that seemed to be incharge, and had the biggest mouth, asked me if i wanted to take a chance at the cash...the best target so far was two hits, about 12" spread. I said thanks but no, 600 is too close for my rifle....hahaha, boy you should of seen this guy puff up! I said "i dont want to take your money and have any hard feelings" I could see these guys were not all that good or coulnd read the conditions. I was still waiting to rain havoc on the 1000yd target we set up. They kept heckling me, in a good way, so i said ok i will shoot but it will not be fair. I set up the sniper-tactical, added 16.5moa as i know that is what it takes to hit the target....oh by the way im shooting at the 1000yd target. They just laughed....BOOOM, first round down range, the dirt kicked up behind the target, jacked in another, BOOOOOOM, the paneling on the door blew off from the muzzle brake blast!, jacked the third round, BOOOOOM, Dirt kicked up again. There was a lot of quiet in the room. One guy was looking through his scope, "He missed the target, i see no holes" the paneling now just hit the floor from the door, opps! haha. I said i seen at least two shots go through the target, i could tell from the dust cloud, third one i didnt see as the recoil knocked my box of shells on the floor. So out to the target we went, i was pretty confident i hit at least two of the three, but who knows with the wind conditions. It took a while to get out there as the range is set in the Hills of Iowa and there are lots of terraces to drive up and around. We could drive to within 100yds and had to walk the rest of the way, at about 75yds i could see some thing that looked like holes, sure enough, i see three! The closer we got i could see a grin on my friends face, "lookie there guys" he said. I heard several differnt coments from OH MY to SH!t. There was some head scratching going on, how could this be? The group was just a bit to the left and a few inches high. I held the crosshairs in my IOR for a 1moa wind drift and used the bottom hash in the scope redical. The group measured 4.075, C t C I was almost more surprised than they were, it is my best 1000yd group to date, shot from a Harris Bi-Pod, with one shot bag filled with Oats for my rear bag. No sighters, just dumb luck! After that i did some 600yd shooting, they put out about 15 one gallon milk jugs filled with water, they took turns shooting at them, you got 3 shots to break as many as you could, i broke nine, in a row. I dont know if the neck turning or moly bullets had much to do with that or not, but the case pressures have dropped. I got her cleaned up again and said anyone want a turn? All but one guy shot her, one was scared of it. All milk jugs were destroyed by days end, and i was out of ammo. We went through about 45 rounds, 80 cleaning patches, half bottle of juice, foam cleaner....it was a fun day at the range. Here is a pic of the winning target...oh yea, i pocketed 65.00 for that little three shot group. I broke about even for the day /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif
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I'm not one for extreme case prepping, but i think the necks were to tight and causing some pressure spikes, my ES and SD dropped to single digits after the neck turning. I didnt try any non moly bullets so i cant say if that had any effect or not.
Here are a couple more pics at the range...
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I called up a friend and said we need to goto the rifle club and do some long range shooting, he was up for that.
We started out early tring to beat the wind, we arrived and there was allready several guys there sighting in for some little club match. We set up a few targets at 100yds to check zero and my friend wanted to shoot his new takedown rifle. He set up his chrono to test the speed from his 17" 308 win barrel. Factory Fed 168 match loads were running right at 2585, SD 5 pretty darn good for factorys. I shot several through the chrono, 3205 and 3212, both shots landed dead center. The same loads with out the moly coating usually runs right at 3295fps, quite a drop from the moly coating. We had to wait untill the range cleared to drive out and set up some targets. There are steel gongs at all distances but i cant shoot the snipe-tac as it punchs holes. More guys arrived for their little money grudge match of some kind, lots of fun ribbing going on...who has the best gun, who cant hit thier butt and ect. I didnt know the guys because its a private club and im not a member, my friend is. I just sat back and listened. There was lots of chatter going on about the rifles i brought, two different 338 Snipe-tacs. I had a customers along to fire a few shots long range, yea i have the brake on now. It was about noon and the match was about to start, they had targets set up at 600yds...i seen several rem 700's police specials, savages and one WBY. They were rattling sighters at a 15" steel gong, but by now the wind was really blowing, 20-30 into and cross from the right. 308's, 30-06, 223 and a 300winny is what is seen. Occasionally i heard a clink in the distance. They were taking turns as there is only three benches in this real nice shooting building. Sturdy benches, big 4'x4' doors that open to shoot out of during the winter. They did their thing for about 20 mins which gave me time to clean my rifle and chat with the guys. They all put 5 bucks into the hat, winner take all. My bud even fired a three shot volley at the target, no luck.
The guy that seemed to be incharge, and had the biggest mouth, asked me if i wanted to take a chance at the cash...the best target so far was two hits, about 12" spread. I said thanks but no, 600 is too close for my rifle....hahaha, boy you should of seen this guy puff up! I said "i dont want to take your money and have any hard feelings" I could see these guys were not all that good or coulnd read the conditions. I was still waiting to rain havoc on the 1000yd target we set up. They kept heckling me, in a good way, so i said ok i will shoot but it will not be fair. I set up the sniper-tactical, added 16.5moa as i know that is what it takes to hit the target....oh by the way im shooting at the 1000yd target. They just laughed....BOOOM, first round down range, the dirt kicked up behind the target, jacked in another, BOOOOOOM, the paneling on the door blew off from the muzzle brake blast!, jacked the third round, BOOOOOM, Dirt kicked up again. There was a lot of quiet in the room. One guy was looking through his scope, "He missed the target, i see no holes" the paneling now just hit the floor from the door, opps! haha. I said i seen at least two shots go through the target, i could tell from the dust cloud, third one i didnt see as the recoil knocked my box of shells on the floor. So out to the target we went, i was pretty confident i hit at least two of the three, but who knows with the wind conditions. It took a while to get out there as the range is set in the Hills of Iowa and there are lots of terraces to drive up and around. We could drive to within 100yds and had to walk the rest of the way, at about 75yds i could see some thing that looked like holes, sure enough, i see three! The closer we got i could see a grin on my friends face, "lookie there guys" he said. I heard several differnt coments from OH MY to SH!t. There was some head scratching going on, how could this be? The group was just a bit to the left and a few inches high. I held the crosshairs in my IOR for a 1moa wind drift and used the bottom hash in the scope redical. The group measured 4.075, C t C I was almost more surprised than they were, it is my best 1000yd group to date, shot from a Harris Bi-Pod, with one shot bag filled with Oats for my rear bag. No sighters, just dumb luck! After that i did some 600yd shooting, they put out about 15 one gallon milk jugs filled with water, they took turns shooting at them, you got 3 shots to break as many as you could, i broke nine, in a row. I dont know if the neck turning or moly bullets had much to do with that or not, but the case pressures have dropped. I got her cleaned up again and said anyone want a turn? All but one guy shot her, one was scared of it. All milk jugs were destroyed by days end, and i was out of ammo. We went through about 45 rounds, 80 cleaning patches, half bottle of juice, foam cleaner....it was a fun day at the range. Here is a pic of the winning target...oh yea, i pocketed 65.00 for that little three shot group. I broke about even for the day /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif
[image]
[/image] I'm not one for extreme case prepping, but i think the necks were to tight and causing some pressure spikes, my ES and SD dropped to single digits after the neck turning. I didnt try any non moly bullets so i cant say if that had any effect or not.
Here are a couple more pics at the range...
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