Savage 110, 30-06

I got to shoot the new Savage 110 today, a total of nine rounds. I loaded ten rounds to get the rifle on paper, with a fairly light load of 47.0 grains of surplus 4895. I used the Hornady 150 grain SST bullet, along with Remington brass and CCI 200 primers.

When you use canister grade powder, you generally know what you are getting. When using surplus, you know you are in the ballpark, but individual lots are apt to vary in burn rate. Variable burn rates make the powder an unknown variable. For example, the IMR reloaders guide says that with a 150 grain Nosler bullet, we should start at 49 grains of 4895 and expect a velocity somewhere close to 2856 fps. The IMR tables say that the max load is at 53.0 grains of powder.

The newest Lee manual says that with a 150 grain jacketed bullet, we should start at 45.4 grains of 4895 and reach max velocities of 2880 fps with 49 grains of powder.

Based on those manuals, I built a starting load of 47.0 grains to give me a load that should put the rifle on paper with a velocity somewhere about 2750 fps. I was shooting this morning in varying light, as clouds were scudding aross the sun. The chrony gave me as many error readings as good velocities, but I was able to get enough readings to know that the 47.0 grain load was giving me an average 2781 fps with a Sd of 34.

The target from 100 yards looks like this.



Those are shots #7, 8, and 9 out of the new rifle. I expected about 2750 and the readings out of the chrony were 2781. That is very close to published data. The Sd was larger than I like for jacketed bullets, but a high Sd is often influenced by loading density. I think that when I start increasing the load in one grain increments, I'll find one where the Sd goes down. That particular load will be an accurate one.

And, it looks like the jug of 4895 I bought is real close to canister grade. That puts my mind at rest about using it for loads approaching max.