Looking more at the Nosler RDF 175gr bullets, I see they have a BC of .536. That's pretty awesome. I think the 175 SMK is only .500. Definitely gonna try these out at 1000
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Looking more at the Nosler RDF 175gr bullets, I see they have a BC of .536. That's pretty awesome. I think the 175 SMK is only .500. Definitely gonna try these out at 1000
That seems a tickle high from my own experience with loading for .308. It seems like most people, self included, are getting best results at 43.5gr Varget. Are you not seeing any pressure signs at that weight of powder?
43.5g varget used to be my accurate load in my r700 308. But after a couple years of chasing the lands, my accurate reload is now 44.5 grains.
Which leads me to; My rpr 6.5's throat has grown(eroded, burned out, etc) almost 0.015 thousands, maybe a thousand rounds. May have to think about an aftermarket barrel.
Which leads me to; My rpr 6.5's throat has grown(eroded, burned out, etc) almost 0.015 thousands, maybe a thousand rounds. May have to think about an aftermarket barrel.
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I posted similar findings on the old site. My groups started to open up so I went digging for the reason. Found that after 500-800 rounds my lands were now ~0.020" farther away. Seated bullets .020" less and the accuracy returned to nice tight groups.
Have the same rifle also in 6.5 CM and have a little over 1,500 rounds and the throat erosion is about .004 per every 500 rounds so at this point it has eroded .012 but have increased the COAL accordingly and looks like it should last at least another 1,500 rounds at this rate before needing to switch out the barrel.
it seems most folks go for the 6.5 or the 308. not much love for the 243 it seems. i love mine though.....cheap brass, and it was prettty easy to find the heavy 6mm bullets when the 6.5's were pretty much unobtainable. now, with the 6mm creedmor coming out....i'm betting i have a harder time getting my prefered bullets. i was much happier when they were not producing 6mm creedmoor.
i get the barrel shot out of this one.....i may rebarrel it to the 7-08....that'll be the next hot creedmoor they come out with.
i get the barrel shot out of this one.....i may rebarrel it to the 7-08....that'll be the next hot creedmoor they come out with.
Nope. No signs yet. I do keep an eye out for that. It was very accurate too at 43.2 gr. 45 gr was just a very slight bit better.
How are you guys able to measure your throat erosion so accurately? Is that by the fact that the rifling is further out......so when you are pushing a bullet to the lands, say using a Hornady Seating Depth Gauge, you are finding them that much further out?
Sorry in advance for the long post...
My rifle is here, (hurrah) and I am mocking up the scope, mount, bipod and such. It is the .308 version. As I said earlier I have a Vortex Viper PST 6-24x50 SFP EBR-1 Mil scope, and it is in the Aadmount one piece mounting system. (bought both before forced retirement ended overtime and I was making a few extra $). The mount is 20 MOA so I removed the 20 MOA scope rail supplied with the rifle and replaced it with a 0 MOA.
I have been sitting on the scope and mount for a couple of years waiting for the right rifle, and it finally came along.
I bought a book by Checkner on long range shooting, and a Mildot Master, and am reading and trying to educate myself.
This old dog is determined to learn a new trick.
There is a group of retired farts from work that do a trip into the boonies once a year and we like to call in coyotes, other than that this will primarily be a paper puncher.
With all that outta the way, I would like some advice on break in methods, if you believe they are necessary, and ammo selection. I have about 500 rounds of Federal GMM 168 gr. Locally I am limited to a 200 yard range but want to take the rifle to whatever my limit is or 500 yards anyway. I am sure the gear is better than I can be. I wonder if I should buy a couple of boxes of 175 gr. as well.
.308 is cheaper than it has been in awhile, would like to be prepared. I am not a reloader, so will be stuck with factory offerings.
You guys all have more on the ball than me in this area, and I would be thankful for any thoughts you'd be willing to share, and places you can send me online for further education.
Once or twice a year I may have access to a "nephew" who is an Army Vet, and he was in a position to know what he is doing...I plan to take him with me to the range and extract all I can in the form of lessons from him, would like to have the rilfe and myself at least ready to learn from him and avoid making an ass outta myself, LOL
thanks for reading...
My rifle is here, (hurrah) and I am mocking up the scope, mount, bipod and such. It is the .308 version. As I said earlier I have a Vortex Viper PST 6-24x50 SFP EBR-1 Mil scope, and it is in the Aadmount one piece mounting system. (bought both before forced retirement ended overtime and I was making a few extra $). The mount is 20 MOA so I removed the 20 MOA scope rail supplied with the rifle and replaced it with a 0 MOA.
I have been sitting on the scope and mount for a couple of years waiting for the right rifle, and it finally came along.
I bought a book by Checkner on long range shooting, and a Mildot Master, and am reading and trying to educate myself.
This old dog is determined to learn a new trick.
There is a group of retired farts from work that do a trip into the boonies once a year and we like to call in coyotes, other than that this will primarily be a paper puncher.
With all that outta the way, I would like some advice on break in methods, if you believe they are necessary, and ammo selection. I have about 500 rounds of Federal GMM 168 gr. Locally I am limited to a 200 yard range but want to take the rifle to whatever my limit is or 500 yards anyway. I am sure the gear is better than I can be. I wonder if I should buy a couple of boxes of 175 gr. as well.
.308 is cheaper than it has been in awhile, would like to be prepared. I am not a reloader, so will be stuck with factory offerings.
You guys all have more on the ball than me in this area, and I would be thankful for any thoughts you'd be willing to share, and places you can send me online for further education.
Once or twice a year I may have access to a "nephew" who is an Army Vet, and he was in a position to know what he is doing...I plan to take him with me to the range and extract all I can in the form of lessons from him, would like to have the rilfe and myself at least ready to learn from him and avoid making an ass outta myself, LOL
thanks for reading...
Turbodiesel, sounds like you have a fine setup there. Down to the scope mount your rifle is almost exactly like mine. The 168gr will be more than enough out to 500, even if it gets a little breezy. I personally have shot them at 1000, although they didn't perform as well there as anything with a little more weight to it. I reload now but as far as factory ammo goes, out to 600 what performed best was Nosler custom competition 168gr. At 1000 it was Hornady Superformance 178gr. I use a 175gr SMK load now because it performs very well whether I'm shooting at 100 or 1000. It's kind of a one size fits all. I am also going to try the Nosler RDF 175gr since I like what I read and hear about it.
I used the following break in procedure:
I used the following break in procedure:
- Shoot one round and then clean. Do this for the first ten rounds.
- Shoot three rounds and then clean. Do this for the next fifteen rounds.
- Shoot five rounds and then clean. then shoot a fouler round.
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You don't need to touch the barrel nut but you may need to adjust the forearm nut to get the alignment correct. The hardest part was just getting the forearm over the nut and back off and on again a few times getting that perfect. Very stout and nice forearm by the way.
The snow finally melted enough for me to get at least to 600 yards. Threw some of those 175 SMK bullets with 45gr Varget behind them. Ended up with a 3.5" group with one flyer that might have been the cold bore. I was pretty satisfied.
Thanks. Do you know what the barrel nut they include is for then? Or is that really the forearm nut?
You might want to watch this video . Look like a very simple and easy task. I'm thinking about replacing mine with the Seeking Precision too.
I wanted to give the original stock a chance but in the end, it wasn't doing it for me....had to go. First time behind the rifle and I knew it was the right call. Easy install....the Luth AR MBA1 is an excellent stock, way better than factory stock.
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What length are you guys with SP3Rs going with? I was thinking the 12" to cut weight even though the 15" would probably look better on the 6.5. Meausuring on my factory forearm, I would still be able to mount my bipod in the same location. All the forearm space in front of the bipod would be lost, but I dont ever remember using that area to rest on anything.
I think most use the 15". The weight difference between the 12 and 15 probably isn't worth losing the extra 3 inches for better stability. Not to mention that with the 24" bbl, a 12" Handguard wouldn't look right (my opinion). I use the MI 18" on my 6.5. It's heavier for sure but the rifle is already a tank so the extra ounces I don't even notice. It is so stable and easy to shoot with the 18" Handguard.
I don't single load very much so when I did I just put the mag in but stop it just before it clicked in. That height seemed to work very much like a bob sled. I'd have to tap the bottom back up every few rounds of so. But it worked pretty well for the time being.
There have been posts on fabricating a single load mod for the Magpul mags but I can't find it (on the old site). I made one using 1/2" PVC. Cut a section just wide enough to fit in the magazine (PVC inside up). It should be about the lower 1/3 of the pipe. You insert it into the mag like a cartridge and it forms a nice smooth surface for the cartridge to sit on and overrides the bolt hold open feature of the magazine. I found some pics I had saved from the post.
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I'm curious about something. Some of us group our reloads by weight or whatever else. But for those that don't anneal their brass every firing, do any of you group them by how hard or soft the bullets seat to basically group them by more consistent neck tension?
Don't know if this answers your question but neck tension is important. I've noticed that different seating pressure will give different poi, therefore I'll set aside the ones that feel different and use them as the first couple rounds to foul the barrel.
I keep my brass sorted by how many firings, and recently started annealing after the third firing.
I keep my brass sorted by how many firings, and recently started annealing after the third firing.
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^ Exactky what I was getting at. I'll have to try it. I sort my brass by how many firings as well
I've been doing this: I size the cases without the the decapper/sizer in the die. I use a mandrel to size the necks in a separate operation. When I get one that feels loose, I throw in the neck sizing die with a smaller bushing and re-size the neck right there to adjust the tension. If I can't get it the same as the others, I toss it aside, I re-anneal it and start over. I have a Forester press, so changing the die is instant. There always seem to be a few that are different. -G
Alright, I posted this originally over in the optics section, but I found a few comments across the web about similar experiences with the RPR but no resolution.
I picked up an RPR in 6.5 last week, bought a Sig Tango4 6-24x50, and mounted it with Mk4 high rings. I zeroed the rifle and the first group I shot with it at 100 yards measured .71**, and that was within the first 10 shots from a new rifle. Needless to say I was stoked about the possibilities.
Well I zeroed my turrets, and went to run them up and down... I only have 8 mils of upward travel out of the advertised 15 mils. Due to the 20 MOA base shouldn't I be closer to the 12-13 mils area?
I ran the scope from top to bottom and back and there is 16.5 mils of travel in the elevation. The windage has 15 as advertised, though 10 right and 5 left.
Help? My rifle that is supposed to almost double the effective range of my 308 is maxing out at the same range!!
I picked up an RPR in 6.5 last week, bought a Sig Tango4 6-24x50, and mounted it with Mk4 high rings. I zeroed the rifle and the first group I shot with it at 100 yards measured .71**, and that was within the first 10 shots from a new rifle. Needless to say I was stoked about the possibilities.
Well I zeroed my turrets, and went to run them up and down... I only have 8 mils of upward travel out of the advertised 15 mils. Due to the 20 MOA base shouldn't I be closer to the 12-13 mils area?
I ran the scope from top to bottom and back and there is 16.5 mils of travel in the elevation. The windage has 15 as advertised, though 10 right and 5 left.
Help? My rifle that is supposed to almost double the effective range of my 308 is maxing out at the same range!!
Makes me not want the sig optic. I use a Bushnell ERS and the zero is 12.1 mils from the mechanical zero leaving me almost 17 mils of travel. That should be more than enough for the effective range of the 6.5 and having an H59 reticle I can easily holdover if need be.
Edit: typo, 17 not 28.
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that is odd. Did you happen to purchase 20 MOA rings and put them on backwards cancelling the rail 20 MOA?
Not sure rings are made that way, unimounts yes, rings no.
OP, your zero sounds very close to mine (I use badger rings). I just think that maybe that scope isn't the best choice for a 6.5cm. 19 mils of total travel isn't very much for a rifle that can reach out to 1500 yards or more. What reticle do you have? Hopefully you can easily holdover when you need it, but 8 mils of travel won't get you to 1000 yards without holding over in addition to maxing out the elevation.
I suggest trying a unimount with 10 MOA -20 MOA. This will stack on the factory 20 and you could recover up to 6 mils of that total travel. Emphasis on could. You may also not be able to get a 100yd zero by doing this. If it were me, I would try the 10 MOA mount first. See what happens and then go from there. It's not the cheapest fix but it should help.
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It's Mk4 rings. I know others who have scopes with 15-16 mils of adjustment in their scopes and still have 12-13 mils of adjustment after 100 yard zero. I should be in that same ball park I'd think?
But are they using the same rings? Like I said, your zero is very similar to mine using a Bushnell. Difference being the Bushnell has 29 mils of travel.
No, they have lower rings, which theoretically would give me more upward travel, as I have to dial down to get a proper zero. Unless I am seeing things wrong? Something seems to be off. Maybe I'm just expecting too much.. I should throw my mk4 on it and, put the Sig on my 308 just to test.
edited for typo.
edited for typo.
Ring height won't change anything, at least nothing you will perceive. If you can return the rings, do it. Get a good unimount with 10 or 20 MOA (I recommend badger but there are plenty of good ones) and see what that does.
What bullet did you zero with? You could try a different load too and see what that does. For reference, my RPR is zeroed for 140gr ELD and the zero is 12.1 from the mechanical zero. That leaves me 16.9 mils left (roughly).
I guess I may not be too far off then. I also used the 140. Yet I'm sitting right in the middle of the mechanical zero for at least elevationwise. I think that is what is throwing me off the most. With the 20 moa I thought i would have more elevation..
The scope should be good to go from what I understand. I'm also thinking its a problem with the rings. Even back when I was using a BSA Contender I had enough MOA to shoot well at 1000 yards. You might want to try switching the rings front to rear. I've recieved rings where at first I didn't have enough MOA, and then from defect, after switching them front to rear, had plenty.
I dropped it off at a smith who builds benchrest guns today. He's keeping it for the night, but when he eyeballed it he said the base didn't look anywhere near 20moa
That could be good news. May be as simple as screwing a new base on there. I'll admit I'm guilty of shimming in the past with positive results, but a bad base is a bad base.
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To get the scope to zero near the bottom of it's range, you will have to use a 20moa mount IN ADDITION to the 20moa rail already on the gun(That's a total of 40moa). That's what I have, and it causes the scope to zero about 2.5MILs from the bottom of it's physical range, which is ideal. That leaves me about 15MIL to dial up with. YMMV, depending on the scope. -G
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