PHOENIX PHIL
AH ambassador
Well today was my third trip out with the Searcy, but first time with loads I built. Along with the rifle came a nice big box of goodies. This included a bunch of 500gr Woodleigh RN softs and primed Jamison brass. It was a good thing that I had some primed brass as I discovered this week I will need a new priming tool to work with these big cases.
Over on another site as luck would have it, there was a thread on using IMR 7977 for this caliber. One advantage of this very slow burning powder is you fill the case and avoid having to use any filler. So I loaded up two rounds each at 119, 120, 121, 122 and 123gr last night.
I found with the Woodleighs and their short shallow ogive that they had to be seated deeper than the 3.98" SAAMI spec. How far exactly I don't know. In the box of goodies was a number of rounds loaded with the same bullet and so I just used that as my starting point for these loads. That turned out to 3.875" +/- which is seating to the cannelure on the bullet.
This in turn without question resulted in compressed loads at no more than 121gr of powder and probably to a lesser degree in the lighter loads. It's just that by 121gr, I could definitely feel the resistance of the powder being compressed.
Shooting conditions were near perfect today. Sunny in mid 60's with just enough of a breeze to help cool warm barrels. The results below are from 25 yards versus the normal 50. In addition to being a load development exercise, I'm also getting used to shooting open sights on a rifle which I have little experience with.
I have some more work to do, but all in all I think this looks pretty promising. My rifle has extractors. The extractors seemed to have no problem easily sliding the spent cases out. So there seems to be no pressure issues. The 123gr load is listed as max on the Hodgdon/IMR website.
This is at 119gr of powder
120gr load
I know I jerked the second shot just a bit at this 121gr load
I adjusted my sight picture with the front bead just a bit with these shots.
122gr load
Without question I yanked the second shot on this one. Recoil while building through these heavier loads seemed to take a bigger jump with these 123 gr loads.
Over on another site as luck would have it, there was a thread on using IMR 7977 for this caliber. One advantage of this very slow burning powder is you fill the case and avoid having to use any filler. So I loaded up two rounds each at 119, 120, 121, 122 and 123gr last night.
I found with the Woodleighs and their short shallow ogive that they had to be seated deeper than the 3.98" SAAMI spec. How far exactly I don't know. In the box of goodies was a number of rounds loaded with the same bullet and so I just used that as my starting point for these loads. That turned out to 3.875" +/- which is seating to the cannelure on the bullet.
This in turn without question resulted in compressed loads at no more than 121gr of powder and probably to a lesser degree in the lighter loads. It's just that by 121gr, I could definitely feel the resistance of the powder being compressed.
Shooting conditions were near perfect today. Sunny in mid 60's with just enough of a breeze to help cool warm barrels. The results below are from 25 yards versus the normal 50. In addition to being a load development exercise, I'm also getting used to shooting open sights on a rifle which I have little experience with.
I have some more work to do, but all in all I think this looks pretty promising. My rifle has extractors. The extractors seemed to have no problem easily sliding the spent cases out. So there seems to be no pressure issues. The 123gr load is listed as max on the Hodgdon/IMR website.
This is at 119gr of powder
120gr load
I know I jerked the second shot just a bit at this 121gr load
I adjusted my sight picture with the front bead just a bit with these shots.
122gr load
Without question I yanked the second shot on this one. Recoil while building through these heavier loads seemed to take a bigger jump with these 123 gr loads.
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