.300 Ackley shooters

Charles E

curmudgeon
Any of you guys ever tried H-4831-SC? I bought Joel Pendergraft's old .300 Ackley, and don't have much time to work up a load. A good starting point would help (Joel never even tried 4831).

The two bullets I have are the 187 BIBs, and a 210 Nevermind.

Any information you give, I'll start about 7% lower, unless you tell me it's a really mild load. Wouldn't hurt to mention the primer used, either.

TIA
 
Hi charles , In my cartridge (92gns of H2o) 4831-sc / H4831 and vv560 have been so close in charge weight it's not even funny.. Within a quarter of a grain across the three powders i have tested in the 75 to 80 gn window.. When right up at the top end, 4831-sc is the one that had a spike problem but it does not seem to want to shoot there anyhow..Hope this helps..JR..Jeff Rogers
Any of you guys ever tried H-4831-SC? I bought Joel Pendergraft's old .300 Ackley, and don't have much time to work up a load. A good starting point would help (Joel never even tried 4831).

The two bullets I have are the 187 BIBs, and a 210 Nevermind.

Any information you give, I'll start about 7% lower, unless you tell me it's a really mild load. Wouldn't hurt to mention the primer used, either.

TIA
 
Helps a lot, Jeff.

Joel's .300 Ackley has a capacity, full-to-overflow, of 101 grains H2O. My .30 Sort-of-Boo has a capacity of 87.5, again, full to overflow. Both have rather long necks; I don't know if the capacity you gave me was to the base of the neck, or full.

BTW, in the .30 S.O.B., 69 grains of H4831-SC with the 210 Neverminds and Russian primers gives the best groups I've ever gotten. No vertical outliers, as always seem to appear with Rel-22 or Rel-25.

Sounds like you may have a wildcat close to the .300 Win Mag? My SOB is on the RWS 8x68 case, and the Ackley, of course, is on the Weatherby. IIRC, your 92-grain capacity is right on the .300 Win Mag capacity. But I imagine you have a longer neck...

Charles
 
Charles,

Using a 210 bullet, I usually found 72-74 gn was about right accuracy wise. Might be a bit on the low end for some guys, it worked for me.

I'm always looking for new bullet to try, can I get those 210 Neverminds at Midway? That's a brand I've never heard of. :)

ps, CCI BR2 in warm weather, Fed 215M below 50F
 
Yes charles , 300WM shortened back to 2.590 with a 70 thou neck ,35deg shoulder with a std body taper .. 92gns h2o full in Lapua 300wm brass..JR.. Jeff Rogers
 
The 300 WBY is close to the Ackley....Most of the AI guys I talked to over the years were on RL25. It is what I have been burning forever. The recomendations I have gotten with the WBY/ BIB combo is RL 25.

Good Luck
 
I'm always looking for new bullet to try, can I get those 210 Neverminds at Midway? That's a brand I've never heard of.

Nope. In fact, you can't get them at all. That's why they're "neverminds" :cool:

'Course, I'm running a little low of the 210s just now. I may use the 187 neverminds"...

Occurs to me that a man of your talents could make a set of bullet dies, set them up, then hire a high school kid to make your bullets. Just tell 'em that if it feels a bit different in pointing up, put them in this other box over here...
 
Nope Charles,
I know enough about bullet making to know that the level of dedication needed for that, is greater than I posses. I have also felt that unless a person was retired, making bullets was something you had to choose 'instead' of shooting, there isn't time for both.

Then, I've also always thought that in order to start in bulletmaking, you had to accept that there would be a time period where you would make bullets that would be inferior to the ones commercially available. Until you perfected some processes anyway. Well, with todays commercially available offerings, I think the quality of them is such that the time frame is years, even for a person who really applies themselves, and has all the necessary equipment. A guy'd have to make a REALLY nice bullet, to say it is nicer than what they can buy. I may be wrong, but I think that is a difficult thing to do.
 
4mesh, I believe most of the new heavy gun records that were broke this year at williamsport for the aggs.,were by shooters using a custom bullet in 6mm. that are made by a fellow who does have all the resources to make the finest 6mm bulllet . From what i've heard it is a very time consuming deal to make them to the perfection that he wants. Only a handful of shooters even get them because of the amount of time required.But i'm with charles , that you have the ability to make a great shooting bullet! I've tried to get some , but my dad keeps them under lock and key!
 
In one of his interviews, Mike Walker remarked that the key to the quality of the Remington .22 benchrest bullets was in large part due to the sheets the jackets were drawn from. He made the point that DuPont was big enough, had enough clout, that they could reject any material not to their specification.

Those Remington .22s were probably some of the best bullets ever made, custom or factory (Remington lost money on them).

Today's custom bullet makers are dependent on J-4 jackets, though from what I'm told, when Sierra gets a good lot, their jackets are superb. Problem is, their tolerances aren't as high, so those special lots don't come along as often. (They do argue that the difference can't be shot).

So the rest of bullet making is (1) design, and (2) pretty straightforward mechanics. Good dies, figuring out the lube, developing a "feel," etc. As always, good design is a compromise between performance and repeatability.

As far a the BIBs go, R.G. Robinett is a good enough bullet maker to have covered both (1) and (2). Like everybody, he's dependent on the jackets he receives. His design leans toward the repeatability side of things -- no VLD performance, but no VLD quirkiness, either.

[Aside: In the interest of full disclosure, R.G. is a friend of mine, but I'm not trying to tout his business -- he's already got as much work as he can handle, and got backed up from the stroke he suffered last fall. We had an email exchange last week, and he reports what with the PT he's done, he's in the best shape he's been in the last 20 years. Even better, the stroke was caused by something not apt to repeat.]

* * *

I wasn't aware of the "super 6mms" at Pennsylvania, but if we pay attention to Mike Walker (usually a smart thing to do), "perfection" still depends on the sheeting from which the jacket are formed.

* * *

Now, how about getting back to the .300 Ackley... Esp. with 190 grain bullets and either 4831 or 4350. Anyone got any more wisdom they're willing to share?
 
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Charles, I've been shooting the 300wby for years, I prefer 4831 pushing 240's or new 230's loads between 72.5 to 74 grns vol.around 2850 for both.34 inch barrel 1-10
 
Charles

Johnny Byers used IMR 7828 in his first 300 Ackley 12 twist heavy gun. 77.0-78.0 grains using 185-210 bergers and 200-220 grain sierras,federal 210 primers with pretty good results. Reloader 22 worked for a while, but Reloader 25 is pretty much now the powder of choice.
 
Shannon,

Yeah, I've used a lot of Rel-25 in my time. Look me up at the next match. I don't want to give away too much to all the competitors on the internet :cool:
 
Shannon,

Yeah, I've used a lot of Rel-25 in my time. Look me up at the next match. I don't want to give away too much to all the competitors on the internet :cool:
Charles, that's Alvin, unless I'm also mistaken.

Scott,
I didn't say they could not be made, I said a newcomer to bullet making has a long row to hoe before they start making better bullets than they can buy. And I more or less implied that was probably not the case many years ago. I do not have the dedication nor desire for that, and I suspect neither do you. Additionally, it's not a cheap proposition. Lets not also forget that those 6mms are a large joint effort on the labor side (or were for some time iirc).
 
Charles 4831 SC should work in that case. I shot the 300 IMP. with 240 Sierras IN 10 TWIST with 73 to 74 grains around 2750 and it shot really well. A lot less fouling then R 25. I shot around 75 to 77 grains with 210 and 190 grains. That was with 11 twist. I had one barrel that liked H4350. Seems to me it was around 73 grains and a little over 2950. MATT
 
Any of you guys ever tried H-4831-SC? I bought Joel Pendergraft's old .300 Ackley, and don't have much time to work up a load. A good starting point would help (Joel never even tried 4831).

The two bullets I have are the 187 BIBs, and a 210 Nevermind.

Any information you give, I'll start about 7% lower, unless you tell me it's a really mild load. Wouldn't hurt to mention the primer used, either.

TIA

Charles, though I'm a little late to the party, I recommend that you take a close look at Hybrid-100V. Via a pair .300WSMs, using a 165 Gr. BT, compared to H-4831 SC, the H-100V is delivering fine precision, and fully 200 FPS MV increase! :) Over the old Oehler, my barrels - 24" long, #3 [hunting] profiles - are clocking an honest 3250 FPS; this at relatively mild working pressure (easy extraction, and 10+ firings per case), and for such skinny profiles, consistent sub .5 MOA. These barrels are 'throated' to place the BT base just at the [outside] neck/shoulder junction, thus, no sacrifice of powder capacity.

Every case I've tried this stuff in, has shown very good precision potential, however, prior to the WSM/165 Gr. combination, velocity has been lacking - even with heavily compressed charges. A pair of "point-blank" HV barrels, chambered for .25x47 and 6x47 LAPUA, respectively, with 110 and 108 Gr. bullets, shot (grouped) GREAT, but at substantially less than 2800 FPS . . .

In short, my recent .300 WSM experience indicates that this over-looked number could prove exceptional in mid to smaller than monster .30 cal. chamberings/expansion ratio. RG
 
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