first range session with HS

[EXPRESS]

well I just got back from the range playing with my new old toy.

This rifle is accurate!
This rifle is different to what I am used to shooting.
It likes to be held and I found something strange, - it seems to shoot best when you take pot shots, the longer I sat and breathed, concentrated and squeezed the more erratic the groups got. A lot of his is probably accountable to the trigger which is a lot heavier than my 6PPC.

I didn't do much of a breaking in routine, just cleaned between shots at 1, 2, then 5 shot intervals.

The best group I got for the day was .323MOA the average .5MOA, so I'm not going to complain.
I could see the groups shrinking over the day as I got more familiar with the rifle, I think it will take some time to get to understand it and what it likes.

The one thing that worried me, but I won't say it is certain is that it seems that the rirst or second shot of a 5 shot group would be a flyer. Then the others would fill in the gaps and you would get a tight group. Or I got a .3 group with a shot sticking out opening it up to .8 or so, sometimes, 3 together and two flyers.
I think what is happening is that I'm correcting my shooting, because I kept the barrel a pretty much the same temperature the whole time so I don't think it was the barrel wamring up and cooling down.

Interesting note: Initail groups gave diagonal stringing, turns out one leg of the bipod was set out longer than the other!

Brass was new and FL sized, but all loads above 42.2gn(starting load from VV manual) gave me flat primers, though no signs of stiffness in the bolt.

That's all I can come up with for the moment, it's satisfying to finally be able to share something that someone might find useful here.

[ 04-10-2004: Message edited by: EXPRESS ]

 

[Dave King]

Thanks for the report on the H-S rifle.

I've had two (2) of their rifles, a 300 Win mag that was tremendous and a 338 Lapua that was NOT tremendous. I make my first long range kill with my H-S 300 Win mag, 905 yards on a bull elk (and got badly flamed for my efforts at posting the experience and method(s)) (pre-Long Range Hunting forums).

I'm a little curious about the diagonal groups you mentioned and the thought that the bipod leg difference may have contributed. I have noticed that if I shoot across a side hill and the bipod egs are of different lengths I get not to stellar results too.

Maybe you're correct about the trigger and the groups being better "snap shooting" but I notice the same with shooters if the "think" too much about what they're doing and force their shots... maybe the new rifle "feels" different to you and you're being "forced" to shoot.

How's the safety? My safety levers were the devil to move, at first I thought the safety didn't work but later determined they were just **** difficult to use.

 

[EXPRESS]

Dave, the groups stringing out diagonally dissappeared once I pulled the legs of the bipod out to the same length, I noticed something was amiss when recoil was sending the rifle way off to the left. The groups would go upwards and to the right with each shot. I should have noted it down, but from memory it was the left side the was lower.

The safety; Great, no problems at all, although the whole action is very stiff. It takes some force to feed from the magazine and close it.
That's just going to be a matter of time before it smoothes out.

I have a Shilen trigger to install, that I didn't do myself for fear of damaging something. I have heard that the HS trigger is more compact than the Rem 700 style triggers so you have to make room for it either by shortening the trigger or modifying the guard.


To tell the truth I haven't even pulled the stock away from the rifle, so I don't know what it is like.

Are the flat primers an issue to worry about?
The 43.2gn charge was what gave me best results, and it is max according to the VV manual. I get 2686fps average vel.
Maybe try another powder?
Suggestions?

 

[Ian M]

Express,
You might find that the rifle demands uniform holding, I find that my HS and siimilar rifles shoot tightest groups with a very firm, consistent hold into the shoulder. I liken it to staying in charge, don't let the sucker recoil in varying degrees and motions. Change that tension and your round is likely to fly out.

You will never get easy, smooth feeding from a full mag, that is just the nature of a straight stack mag. They do feed consistently tho. HS made some changes to their trigger design a couple of years ago and it is a reliable unit. Not sure you would gain much by switching it out.

Try to get your hands on some Varget or 4064, might not be easy in Europe (?) but those powders excell in the .308 Win.

Your observation about getting the shot away quickly is right-on, the longer we take the more likely our hold will change, eyeballs will go out of sharp focus, mind will lose its concentration etc.

Sounds like you have a good shooting rifle, I would not try to micro-manage it too much, just pull the trigger and get real familiar with it. Sooner you get it out on your long-range setup the better - 100 yards is just for getting ready to really shoot that rig.

 

[1894]

Express,

Viht are not frightened to put some fairly stiff loads in their book for modern chamberings. An experienced UK accuracy riflesmith let on to me that some of their max loads are in his opinion quite hot.

I would not bother going to 550 for a rifle that is going to get shot a lot on the range. There is no doubt in a number of peoples minds that double based powders reduce barrel life. No problem in a hunting rifle but in a range rifle it might be an issue.

Care to post some photos?