I have heard all the horror stories about the barrel burn out,etc
But I still want to give it a go..This is what I have...Savage mod 10
26 inch shilen bull barrel in 1 in 9 twist..16x weaver and bell and
carlson stock...
we only compete at 250 yards.20 rounds plus any sighters for relay
30 minute relays...
Two relays total40 rounds for score...My question for some of you
if your willing to give some advice is this...Is there a way to load
so as to help prevent the barrel burn out from accuring to fast?
I can take the full 30 minutes to shoot the rounds if needed..
And after this barrel is worn out I may go to the 6mmBR...I would appreciate
any thing you have to offer..Thanks so much...Bear)chill(
Sometimes it's useful to go back to the original question.
I think Roland has nailed it for you, on the assumption that you still want something other than a .22/250, as he said.
Viewed one way, I have a lot of experience with the .30 BR -- in on it at the beginning, when we tried a lot of things that didn't work so well -- like H-4227 powder. At one point, I had a short-range rail gun in .30 BR, and was leading the 300 yard NBRSA Unlimited shoot at Charlotte -- through 3 matches, I think. Well, I didn't win it. Partly because there are a lot better shooters, partly because as the day heated up, that load of 4227 developed so much pressure I was pounding the bolt open in matches 4 and 5.
A bit later, I built a .30 HV, and again, shot it at the 300 yard group match in Charlotte. Didn't win that day, but a lot of eyebrows went up -- it was somewhere in the top 10 (back in the days when 40-50 shooters showed up for a match), and that's a good placement for me in short-range group shooting. To this day, I still use that rifle when I shoot a short-range score match (up to 300 yards), or for the HV class in group shooting. That rifle's claimed a lot of top-10s, and a few wins in score.
On the other hand, since those days, there have been a lot of people who have used the .30BR consistently for VFS score shooting. They know a lot more than I, given the narrowed-down choices from that early work.
As to what your shooting buddies are saying: I say it's nonsense.
As to dies: Either go the route S.GJennings mentioned -- use a chambering reamer designed to work with the Redding dies, or use any reamer you like (a Robinett pattern is a good one) and have Harrell's make you up a FL die. About $70, IIRC. Best is to send them 3-4 fired cases, fired several times, and hammered just a bit on the last firing. Have the seater made up by the gunsmith that chambers the barrel, or if you're doing your own work, buy a Wilson blank ($40) and make it yourself.
In fact, if you're using a gunsmith, more than one will offer to make dies for you. You could probably get them cheaper, but not that much cheaper. Not a bad decision at all.
Powder is 4198,
probably anything between 34.0 and 34.8 grains. N-130 works well too, but costs more. In a few rifles, it may work better, otherwise no reason to mention it. H-322 works, but I wouldn't buy it until you tried & failed with 4198 -- which is doubtful. N-120 works, but costs too much.
By all means try the Berger bullets. Reasonable, and availability is not an issue. One of the grandfathers of the .30 BR is Randy Robinett (BIBs bullets), but you need to order bullets from him at least 6 months in advance. He sells all he can make, and won't farm out the bullet making to anyone else, so there is a limit to what he can get out. Disclosure means I gotta mention I count him as a friend.
Other custom bullet makers may well have a quicker response time, but they are all dependent on getting jackets -- essentially, from Berger, so occasionally, that gets everybody.
As for SGJennings other bit of advice, I'd skip it. Don't throat a .30 BR out more than .010. Odds are that a bullet in the 110-120 region will work best. If you ever try the 118-10 ogive, and have a longer throat, you won't be able to reach the lands. If you throat it lout for longer bullets, you'll also need a faster twist, BTW.
R.G Robinett make a lot of .30 bullets, and his page shows twist rates needed for various length bullet designs:
http://bibullets.com/products/
In short, for your first rifle, go with what's been proven to work.
Many ways to make cases. I happen to expand the necks up with a mandrel, best to get a mandrel that does it in one pass. Available (at least) from K&M. I just finished making cases for a .30 PPC, and took the .220 Russian cases up to .30 in one pass with a custom mandrel. It was an older lot of Lapua brass, and I lost no cases in this operation.
Other tidbits worth about what you're paying for them:
I don't like necks thicker than .012, and prefer .010. Can't prove it maters, but that usually means turning necks.
I shoot a 13.5-pound .30 BR free recoil. No problems. My barrel is 25-inches, Hunter profile. I'm in the process of making up a .30 PPC with a 20-inch barrel, and expect it to do just as well. Small .30s use fast-burning powders, and 25-40 fps doesn't mean what some tell you it does.
The small 30s are flexible, all seem to shoot well, and all seem to have both long case life and long barrel life. If what you want to do is shoot & shoot well out to 250-300 yards, I predict you'll be very happy with one. If you want to get hung up in trash-talking about B.C. M.V. & all the other stuff, maybe not.
Basically, I'm adding all these words just to echo what Roland has said.
Oh, and for gunsmiths in the New England to Pennsylvania area (good for New York), if you're not building your own, find one that builds IBS Score rifles, and can adapt to your situation.
BTW, I'd think long & hard on just building it as a VFS score rifle. Most people couldn't shoot the difference between that an a 22-pound F-class design, though as always, extra weight helps. But the extra weigh means re-balancing things, and that's not as simple as it might sound.
FWIW
