Amoskeag Auction No. 106

They have posted their latest auction catalog online.  Plenty of things to look at.

Not to many 03 Springfield sporters that caught my eye.  But I did see a few nice Krags.

Lot 227 –  Unmarked Custom Krag Model 1898 Magazine Sporting Rifle – Love the drop of the stock.  Was only ever meant to shoot using open sights.  Great work from an unknown maker. From the Mark Benenson Collection.

Lot  237 – Unique Dale Goens Custom Krag Single Shot Bolt Action Rifle – A more recently built gun, but in a traditional style. Modern skill and craftsmanship make this rifle standout.

Lot 608 – Custom 1898 Krag Magazine Sporting Rifle – Another more recent build.  Nicely executed.  Would be nice to have a picture of the other side.

22 WMR Bolt Action Options

I keep being tempted by the idea of a 22 Magnum bolt action.  A while back I had the bright idea to get a suppressed 22 WMR.  Not sure the reason, but seemed like a neat idea.  Maybe catch a ground hog or two for fun.  So I purchase a CZ455 varmint in 22 WMR.  CZ rim fires had a good reputation for accuracy.  The heavy barrel provided a nice amount of additional weight and enough material at the muzzle to thread for a suppressor.  Well I have been unimpressed with this setup.  I have tried every type of ammo out there, which has not been easy in the great ammo drought.  With or without the suppressor, nothing great.    In the mean time, I had fitted a Boyds Tacticool Pro Varmint stock and even went so far as to pillar bed the action.  No noticeable improvement.

I had been debating what I should do with this project.  CZ455s are designed to allow an easy barrel swap.  So a new barrel?  Try another CZ factory barrel?   As I was thinking through my options I was reviewing a post at rim fire central where several people were noting accuracy problems in CZ455s.  So another factory barrel may not solve my problem.  Lilja makes great products, but I am not sure I want to spend that much more money on this project. Basically the barrel will cost as much as the gun!  So I have been looking about at other options.

Ruger American Rifle – Bought one of these in Long rifle.  Shoots about 4 inch groups at 50 yards.  Sent back to Ruger.  They test fired and says it meets their standards for accuracy.  So not even looking there.

Ruger 77/22 – Expensive option when bought new, few around used.  Nor sure this would satisfy my accuracy requirements.  They seem to have a mixed reputation.

Savage 93 FV-SR – Never been a big fan of their designs.  But they offer a great set of features for the price.  Heck I can buy the whole gun for let than a Lilja CZ barrel!  It comes with the barrel threaded, saving me some work.

Marlin XT-22 – They do not offer a heavy barrel in this model, so that makes it less attractive.  Not sure I want to go through the effort to thread the barrel for a suppressor on this type of gun.  Just limited return on investment.

Browning T-bolt – Again there are a few out there but price and performance are the stumbling block for me.

Sako Quad – Of course if money is not a factor, you might find a Sako quad new or used out there.  But that is a bit of over kill for my project budget and really for the idea I had.

When you look for a WMR it really cuts down the options.

Range Day 2015 Ep. 6

With the good result from the 6.5×06 and continuing good weather, I wanted to make another trip to the range on Sunday.  So I quickly loaded up some ammo.  I loaded the gun I had shot previously (I will call this one the heavy barrel) and another one also in 6.5×06 (the lightweight).  Hoping I could find a single load that would shoot in both guns.

• Started out at 100 yards with good result from from the lightweight 6.5×06.  Then problems with the ammo for the next group.  Excessive pressure.  So I stopped.
• Went to 200 yds with the heavy barrel and the loads that shot well the previous day.  First group, not good at all.  Second group – same problem as the light weight.  Excessive pressure.  Again, full stop.
• I did have along another gun that I was able to sight in – an AR-10 in 308 sporting a Lilja barrel.  Lilja products shoot!  Just enough rounds to break the gun in and then I was shooting on paper.  At 100 yards, with only a 4x scope, shot just over 1/2 inch (.503 to be exact).  So the trip was not all a waste.

On the drive home I realized my mistake.  I try to double check all loads and powders before I load a batch of ammo.  But I think I confused my powders numbers – Vihtavuori  150 instead of 160.  Luckily a few ruined cases was the only result.  So more reloading and waiting for more nice weather.

Hornady O.A.L. Gauges

I was in need of a case gauge for a few calibers which Hornady does not supply.  So I went looking for information about the specs on the cases the Hornady system uses.  At the time I did not find very much information.  However, I did find that Hornady does offer a service to make cases for any caliber – you supply 3 fired cases and $15.  If I were only doing one caliber, that is a good option.  But I had several I wanted to make,  so I got out the micrometer and pitch gauge.  The cases are tapped – 5/16-36 tpi.   Not something I had in my tap selection, so I went and ordered one.

Before I had time to make any cases, I also ran across this article on Accurate Shooter.  It confirmed my measurements for the tap and gave a few helpful tips.

So I have now made cases for 3 different calibers – 6.5×47 Lapua, 6.5×06, and 6.5 Creedmoor (you can buy the last one).  Here are a few observations.

• It took more than one case to work out the bugs.  So be prepared to sacrifice a few cases
• I have a lathe, which makes drilling a tapping the case a fairly straight forward process.  The Accurate Shooter article says you can do it with a drill press.  I’m sure you can, but it will not be fun!  The lathe chuck makes holding and centering the case very easy.
• Sizing the cases is a must on a gas gun.  On a custom match chamber, it may not be necessary.  I was able to size the case even after the case was drilled and tapped.  So you can wait if you want.  Sizing will clean up any distortion that may happen while in the lathe.
• A reamer is necessary to open the case neck for the bullet to move freely, especially if you size the case.  I have a tapered reamer and slowly open the neck of the case until a bullet passes through without effort.

Build – 6XC

Have been talking about doing this for some time.  Over the winter I began noticing a lot of the tactical type builds moving away from the various 6.5 mm cartridges to 6mm.  So I began exploring the various options – 243 Win, 6mm Creedmoor, 6×47, 6XC, etc.  My main interests is in playing with a new cartridge and developing long range, accurate loads.  Three things I focused on:

• Brass – I get tired of having to make or form brass.  So I would like to be able to buy high quality brass in the caliber I choose.  Plus I like it when the head stamp is really what I am loading!
• Bullets – Long range high performance bullets are what I want, not something for varmint hunting.   Sierra and Berger produce bullets that fit the bill in the 107 to 115 grain range.
• Barrel life – Obviously this is related to the choice of bullets.  Shooting heavier bullets, especially in the 243 Win, can cause barrels to deteriorate quickly.  So I would like to find a compromise between velocity and barrel life.

You may reach a different conclusion than I did, but I have chosen to build a 6XC.  This is not going to be a high end tactical build with all the latest and craziest options.  I have done those in the past and they are fun.  I have decided to try and keep this simple, with a reasonable cost, but still a high degree of accuracy.

Action is the standard Remington 700 Short action.  No upgrades or changes here.  Again, simple is the name of the game

Barrel – Krieger is never a bad choice.  I have decided to keep the weight down on this rifle so I went with a light palma contour to finish at 26″.  Twist in 1 in 7.5″ to ensure stability shooting the heavy bullets.

So I will be packing up the barrel and action and sending them off.  Now to be patient and wait for their return….

In the mean time, I need to think about a stock.  Same criteria as above – simple and reasonably priced.  Maybe by the time the gunsmith work is completed Magpul will have their stock available?

Christmas in May?

In the past, I was quite the collector of vintage ammo boxes – 22s, shot shell and rifle.  I really enjoyed the graphic on the boxes more than anything.  As with any collector, interests change and the collection was largely sold off years ago.  I did keep my collection of 30-06 and 308 match ammunition which I will share in future posts.

So I still watch for rare and unusual boxes.  It doesn’t get much rarer than this – the “Christmas” shot shell box.  Not one but two are being offered for sale at this auction.  If I remember the story, these were made for the factory salesmen to help promote their product line and were given as Christmas presents to their top retailers.  Hence their nick name.

I was once offered a rough, to be generous, UMC box.  But I have not seen boxes in this condition for sale in a long time.

Morphy Auction Lot 256 – UMC “Christmas Box”: 12 Ga. Sealed

Morphy Auction Lot 257 – Winchester “Christmas Box” 10 Ga.

Sierra 69 gr Tipped Matchking Bullet

Finally broke down and purchased a box of these.  I have plenty of the old Sierra 69 gr bullets so I hope these do not work to well!  The increase in BC in this new design is impressive.  Real world testing  has show the data provided by Sierra to be actually a little on the conservative side.  So there are many upsides to getting these bullets to work in rifles that are unable to handle the heavier bullets.

One things I should have guessed, but still surprised me, was how much longer the new bullets are.  I know Sierra and the other companies provide a lot of information on their web sites about their products.  But a critical piece that no one seems to include is bullet length.  When comparing bullets from various manufactures, it is a nice piece of data to have .  Twist rate calculators need this piece of data to work.  So can companies start including this, especially with their new designs?

Barrel Break In Procedure

Just received a barrel from Lilja which prompted the post.  I am amazed by the variety of opinions about breaking in a new barrel and processes that people use.  My simple summary would be – do something!  Don’t just run to the range and shoot a few hundred rounds through a new gun.  Whether is a precision target rifle or a run of the mill production hunting rifle, a process should be used as you begin shooting a new barrel.  Heck, I even follow this procedure for a gun that is new to me.  You never know how a gun was treated before it came into your possession.

Two recommendations I found on the web:

• Lilja
• Krieger

I will not make any claims that a process will increase accuracy or barrel life.  But I have found it makes future cleanings much easier.  It is worth the time and effort.

6mmx250 Load Development

I finally had enough fire formed cases to begin load development for this case and rifle.  As you can see this is really an “improved” round with a very sharp shoulder.  Case volume is very similar to a 243 Win.  With a custom round like this, I had very little loading data to start from. So I had to do some interpretations to get starting points.  I wanted to make use of the case, so I am working with the Sierra 107gr HPMK bullets for this round of tests.

To make this development even more complicated, I needed a load that would consistently function the action on the rifle.  The gas system is even longer than a traditional rifle length.

I started working with a few loads listed on the Hodgdon reloading data site.  Varget seemed like a nice place to start.  Good flexible powder, with good temperature stability. My testing environment was low 50s, so I did not want to develop a load that would show sign of pressure in the summer heat.  I slowly worked up the powder charge seeing sizable gains in velocity.  I noticed this cartridge really does have an incredible case volume.  Powder charges started to approach 243 Winchester loads.   Maximum velocity I achieved was 2904 fps with no signs of pressure.  After that, I was burning more powder without any increase in velocity. But the action would not cycle fully.

So on to the next powder – Hodgdon Hybrid  100V.  Nice jump in velocity, not so nice jump in pressure.  I could not find a balance.  A safe load gave me a velocity of 3077 fps, but would not cycle the action.  Only when the pressure was high enough to piece primers did I get the gun to function reliably.

So I went and reviewed the powder burn rate chart to find a powder that may develop a different pressure curve than those listed on the Hodgon site.  The next to be tested:

Winchester 760 looked like the next candidate, only to fail like Varget.  No signs of pressure, but still not the right combination to function the action.  Finally velocity – 3015 fps.

Vihtavuori  N160 was next.  Right away I could tell there was a difference in the cycling of the action.  Working my way up I found I could cycle the action well before any signs of pressure.  Maximum velocity –   3081 fps

Vihtavuori  N560.  Had to try this for fun.  Load data very similar to the N160 for most other calibers, but results in a slightly high velocity.  Well, no luck here.  Only got to 3017 fps and did not cycle the action

So I now have a base line for a trip to range.  Have several different powder charges of VV N160 to try.  Hopefully we will get some encouraging results.

6.8 SPC Load Development

Original loads for the 6.8 SPC were designed around bullets designed for use in the 270 Win. These bullets were no designed for the velocities the 6.8 SPC produces, nor the need to be loaded short enough to fit the AR magazines.  So my initial load development focused around the Sierra 115 gr MKHP and the 135 MKHP.  These both produced excellent accuracy and, with relatively high ballistic co-efficient, provided good down range performance.  The trade off has always been – can you get enough velocity from the 115 gr bullet to overcome the better energy retention from the 135 gr bullet?  Using VV N133 I was able to obtain an accurate load that shot consistently in several barrels.  But I have been watching as new options have come on the market, not only bullets, but also powders.

Bullet manufactures have responded to the increased interest in the 6.8 SPC and developed  bullets specifically for the use in the AR platform.    I plan to work through some of the 6.8 SPC designs and some other “270” bullets and see what performance can be achieved.  At the moment I have these three in hand:

1. Hornady 110 gr Vmax
2. Hornady 120 SST
3. Nosler 85 gr Etip

I would also like to try the Hornady 100gr GMX bullet but have not been able to find them in stock.  I might play with some of the Barnes bullet, but they are expensive and their offerings are a bit confusing (to many TACs).

To further  explore what is possible from the cartridge, I plan to test the loads out of three different rifles.  I know there are a whole host of other variable which could affect the velocity besides the barrel length, but I an not willing to cut up any of these barrels!

So the tests will go through:

Pistol – 10.5″ Bison Armory (no longer available)

Carbine – 16″ Bison Armory Subsonic (1 – 7 in twist)

Rifle – 20″ Krieger custom Barrel  (1 – 10 twist)

If time permits, I would also like to test the terminal ballistics on several of these rounds.  Using ballistic gel, I am curious if the twist rate has a major influence in expansion.  Testing would be done at 100 yards.