I'm 700 miles from my build in Salt Lake and having withdrawalsbut I did manage to fire form some brass and send 9 rounds down the tube before I left. I didn't chrono anything but just wanted to go thru the forming and break in process. Fire forming was easy as the brass was so close to dimension after running thru the dies and there was little shrinkage in length in most cases. There is plenty of brass to work with both in trimming to length and turning necks.
I tried my gunsmiths break in technique which seemed to work very well. The following is the process: Fire one round then clean thoroughly with bore tech, dry patch then clean with alcohol, one patch with Remoil, two dry patches, fire again. Repeat this process until copper fouling is minimal. After five rounds the fouling was greatly reduced so I then fired four rounds to determine max load for Retumbo with a 215 hybrid. This turned out to be 81 grains. I found the BAT action to be a little different than what I am used to. By the time you get any bolt stiffness, you have blown a primer. At least I hope this was the action and not a function of the brass quality? I then cleaned again and found little copper fouling. Looks like a pretty smooth bore
Recoil was really mild with the 4 port muscle break but I did notice bark flying off the trees to the side of my rest
First impression of the 8x32 SIII was really good. It has a 1/8th moa dot which is the first dot I've used. It is the 2 moa scope which I think will be pretty useful.
I'm chomping at the bit to get back and do some serious testing. More later.....Rich
I can't comment about any new brass but my old 375R brass has handled pressures well. It's been about 4 years now since I bought it. I bet the blown primers are because the action is so strong.
I wager the 215's will be around 3025-3050 fps for a accurate load.
Looking forward to pics!
