Not having the cash to spend or being able to wait for a new scope I mounted the ever trusty old Tasco 4-16 x 40 (yeah yeah I know but it is an older japanese scope and has proved to be faultless over the last 7 or so years!), loaded up my reloading gear and off I went to silverdale.
Getting there at 0800 I was greeted with a warm morning and a slight breeze crossing the range diagonally right to left. Getting there this early also gives me the opportunity to set the bench, set up my reloading gear then have a cuppa and a bit of a chinwag with Mark the range officer.
With the factory chambering / barrel she liked them hot with 36.7 x 2208 behind a 55gn V Max, since I was sighting in and running in the barrel I loaded the first lot of five mildly with 35.8 x 2208.
After bore sighting "the old fashioned way" the first shot was 4" high and 3" left with the next four shots bringing me closer to centre. With no obvious signs of pressure I bumped the load up to 36.2 grains, the next two shots got me centred and after an elevation adjustment (the old tasco proves to be very tight and faultless with this) the next three printed a nice clover leaf pattern 1.5" high @ 100m
(baring in mind the barrel was patched out with sweets and scrubbed after each of these ten first shots).
Awesome says me so I loaded five more with 36.4 gn and printed a respectful group of 0.527" measuring edge to edge.
There is a little room for improvement playing with seating depths but these were made to fit in the mag and being tightly chambered there really isnt that much left to play with, so I cleaned and oiled her up and decided to quit while I was ahead. Very happy to say the least!
Excuse the photography it's off the phone.
