That looks like a pretty solid load from my reading, and my results are below.




I thought about doing that but since I am planning a big range of loads for the bolt action that would hurt an M1 I decided to separate church and state by running commercial brass in the bolt and mil spec in the M1. Now that might go out the window as my supply drys up and I start buying starline cases but we will see....


I took advantage of the Marysville Rifle Club's public day by shooting for 5hrs straight. I warmed up with my .22lr, then got serious and moved to the 30-06 bolt gun, my 1886 in 45-70 was next, and the M1 was last. In retrospect I probably should have gone .22lr, M1, 45-70, then the bolt action because I was tired by the time I got to the M1 and it got hard to focus on the targets.



The M1 was fired at the 100yrd line targets




In the photo above are the "combined" group results for the m1's 150gr loads of 43.0gr and 44.8gr's. I only managed to get 5 shots on the paper with the 43.0gr loads. Of the 5 shots 3 of them were outside the circle at the bottom of the paper. I don't remember where the spotter said the other 2 landed. But this led me to try adjusting the sights (to sperate the groups) where I found the elevation knob screw was lose. So I used a thumb nail to tighten it up as I added about 3 clicks. Of the 44.8gr loads shot next I got 6 shots on the paper, with one off the paper and one round the gun tried to eat when chambering. It was stuck projectile down in the area foward of the magazine with the butt of the case up in the air like a reverse stove pipe pistol round. It was just damn odd and 1st foul up of its kind so far. (Pics are below) Needless to say this didn't sit well with me but the deed was done.



After a minute breather I loaded the 46.6gr rounds and took aim at the red diamond target and came away with the 5.5" group below.



Fatigue was really setting in now but I had the range to myself at this point, so the RSO helped me hang two fresh targets for the 168gr smk loads. Starting with the bottom target in the photo below, the lower group repersents the starting 39.6gr load. The RSO who was spotting for me said I got 7 shots I got on target. The 8th was just off the paper. Having learned my lesson earlier I cranked about 5 clicks of elevation into the sight to get some seperation between the groups. The upper cluster of 7shots on the lower target represents the 42.1gr group. The 8th shot can be seen at the bottom right corner of the upper target paper. The 42.1gr group had the diagonal stringing where you can see two separate clusters of 3 shots. So I'm not sure what to think of that. For the last group (44.6gr) I moved to the top target and managed to keep them all on paper but thats not saying much....



With my ammo and shoulder exhausted the RSO and I went down to retrieve my targets. I was grumbling a bit about doing a crap job. The old guy chuckled picked up the worst target and held it up to his chest. He said man you've taken a beating today and you managed to keep all your shots from an 80yr old battle rifle inside a target that back in the day would still have resulted in a dead Nazi, you did good.... I couldn't argue with that logic, but I would still like to shrink these groups down to 3" or so.

Bolt gun results tomorrow.....

You are trying to get accuracy out of a battle rifle working it up using iron sites and two different bullet weight loadings. You are making it hard on yourself. I load 30-06 for a 1955 Remington 721. I used to load different bullet weights but it became a PITA so I picked a Lee bullet mold that gives me a 160 grain bullet and stay with that weight. For hunting I have 160 grain spitzers. Instead of staying with one powder I found a node that works for accuracy and I am able to substitute four or five powders and stay on that node.

You really do not have enough brass to do much. One of the guys here should be able to source you more brass.

One of the guys mentioned checking the throat I think I would also want to cast the chamber and slug the barrel too.

I am getting the same accuracy using at least five different powders with different specific grains of powder using the same weight bullet and same velocity. I am using mixed bag brass but I went through all my different head stamps to establish case capacity so I know that on the node I am using I will not have any over pressure issues.

By him doing a chamber cast he will be able to actually measure the wear of his chamber includjng the throat instead of just measuring his shot brass.

The problem with only measuring the brass is that there is no way top account for spring back.

Is it normal for see chronograph speeds 150-250fps less than the reloading manual for a given powder?

Sure, that wouldn’t surprise me. You could be using a different barrel length, different barrel type/diameter, different primer, different bullet, etc.