LAST EDITED ON Apr-29-17 AT 10:21AM (MST)[p] Once bedding was complete I turned my attention back to the scope. This time I installed a 20moa rail, Warne rings, and lapped back into place.
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Lapping the scope rings
This would not be my preferred setup for this rifle for a couple of reasons. One is the height of the scope and low comb of this type of rifle. It is just not as comfortable and makes repeatable positioning more difficult. The second is because of the additional weight. I see no point in a light weight hunting rifle and dropping a huge NF or one of the larger Vortex's with rail on it.
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Finished rifle ready for load development.
With these relatively minor adjustments in place I was ready to resume testing. Armed with 40 pieces of once fired brass I began load work up using Hornady 130 ELD-M bullets with two powder choices (RL15 and 4350). Starting loads were 37gr of RL15 and 40gr of 4350. I utilized the OCW method to find the best powder charge for these combinations prior to testing for seating depth.
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130gr ELD-M over 40.5gr 4350 average 2544 fps .38"
I repeated the process for the 123gr ELD-M bullets.
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123 ELD-M over 40.5gr RL15 average 2876 fps .52"
My particular rifle had an COAL of 2.845 to get to the lands of the rifle. The mag box on the short action is 2.850". The test bullets were seated .010" off the lands making it barely possible to cycle these rounds through the magazine. Of the best loads that were identified I selected the powder and bullet combinations with the lowest SD, extreme spread, and grouping to perform a seating depth test. I generally do my seating depth test similar to what Berger recommends for their VLD style bullets, Once depth is identified I will load a couple of groups .005" closer to and away from the lands to see if the groups get any better or worse.
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130 ELD-M over 43gr of 4350 seated at .010" grouping .27"
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Duplicate readings through the chronograph at 2732