About a year ago, I started down the path of having a new rifle built for my son. I had purchased one of the last bare Rem 700 actions that Brownell's carried and put it in the safe for future development. I had only shot factory rifles to this point and wanted to send this action off to be trued and have a custom barrel added. I initially bought a Schneider .308 barrel with the intention of having a .308 win built, but changed my focus to a 6.5 mm calibers. I finally decided on .260 Remington as my caliber and researched all of the variables. I had Phoenix Custom Rifles complete a bolt knob modification, bought a Tubb muzzle brake and I picked up a Krieger 1:8.5" twist barrel from 3rd Generation Shooting Supply. I contacted William Roscoe and we ironed out the details for his custom work. I boxed up the pieces and sat patiently waiting for my son's new rifle to get made. A couple weeks ago, Mr. Roscoe called me to answer a few fit & finish questions. He stated that the rifle was just about done and would ship out the following week. I got busy loading some test rounds using the 140 gr Amax and H4350 powder. A few days later the barreled action arrived. It looked fantastic and I couldn't wait to get some rounds fired through it. The delivery coincided with my custody weekend for my son and everything was lined up for me to surprise him with his new rifle. Bad luck struck and he ended up staying at his mom's house due to a stomach virus. I was soooo tempted to go shoot without him, but I used the weekend to get the action installed in my McRee's MP-MODSS, add the Jewel Trigger, Atlas V8 bipod, Tubb Speedlock firing pin, EGW 20 MOA base and US Optics Rings. I then mounted and bore sighted his new Bushnell Elite Tactical 6-24x50
scope.
This weekend I picked Jr up and gave him the good news of the arrival of his new rifle. We spent yesterday afternoon in the cane field first getting the scope sighted in and then running the test loads to narrow down his best load. When I loaded the test rounds, I verified each load from my Chargemaster with my Sartorius scale. To further limit any variables, I loaded each charge weight with both WLR primers and Fed 210M primers.
I was doubtful of us even being able to get some shooting time in due to the bad weather. We just missed a thunderstorm that passed before our arrival, but the lower temperature sure was nice. It was 78 degrees when we arrived, but it quickly climbed back to our usual 98 degrees within an hour. The sighting in of the scope gave me my first impression of the Tubb T2K muzzle brake. There was little movement at all after the shot broke and getting back on target was very easy. The action was extremely smooth the rifle will easily be more accurate than the test loads demonstrated.
I ran .1 gr increments starting at 43.0 gr and ending at 43.4 gr of H4350. Here are the reults:
Winchester WLR Primers
Fed 210M Primers
I was really surprised at the difference in group size with the only variable being the primers. I will definitely be refining the load with the Federal primers.
The other noteworthy primer fact was that none of the loads using Federal 210M had blown primers. Of the 10 sight-in rounds with 43.0 gr of H4350 and WLR, 2 blew primers.
On the test loads, all three of the 43.4 gr rounds with WLR had blown primers.
None of the Fed 210M primers were blown, regardless of charge weight.
The bottom line is that Jr has a fantastic new rifle and he couldn't be happier. Thank you Mr. Roscoe!!
scope.
This weekend I picked Jr up and gave him the good news of the arrival of his new rifle. We spent yesterday afternoon in the cane field first getting the scope sighted in and then running the test loads to narrow down his best load. When I loaded the test rounds, I verified each load from my Chargemaster with my Sartorius scale. To further limit any variables, I loaded each charge weight with both WLR primers and Fed 210M primers.
I was doubtful of us even being able to get some shooting time in due to the bad weather. We just missed a thunderstorm that passed before our arrival, but the lower temperature sure was nice. It was 78 degrees when we arrived, but it quickly climbed back to our usual 98 degrees within an hour. The sighting in of the scope gave me my first impression of the Tubb T2K muzzle brake. There was little movement at all after the shot broke and getting back on target was very easy. The action was extremely smooth the rifle will easily be more accurate than the test loads demonstrated.
I ran .1 gr increments starting at 43.0 gr and ending at 43.4 gr of H4350. Here are the reults:
Winchester WLR Primers
Fed 210M Primers
I was really surprised at the difference in group size with the only variable being the primers. I will definitely be refining the load with the Federal primers.
The other noteworthy primer fact was that none of the loads using Federal 210M had blown primers. Of the 10 sight-in rounds with 43.0 gr of H4350 and WLR, 2 blew primers.
On the test loads, all three of the 43.4 gr rounds with WLR had blown primers.
None of the Fed 210M primers were blown, regardless of charge weight.
The bottom line is that Jr has a fantastic new rifle and he couldn't be happier. Thank you Mr. Roscoe!!
