Driving referrals

One of the way people find this blog is through search engines like Google, or Yahoo. That's okay. It lets folks find my little site and it brings traffic. I don't use this site as a money-maker. It's a simple little blog about guns and politics and whatever catches my fancy. I do it for me, not for you. However, I understand that a lot of folks share my interests and I want to make the site relevant to those who like the same sort of things I like.

When I check my referral logs, the two search phrases that stand out are

1. Remington 870 pump shotgun or some variation on that phrase.

2. Reloading for the Savage 110 .30-06 or some variation on that theme. So, as those are the two most common referral strings, it's probably time I talked about them again.

First, the Remington 870 shotgun is the pre-eminent pump shotgun of the late 20th century. Remington got it right when it designed this shotgun and they're still making them. That's not to say I don't like other pump shotguns. I have owned or shot them all, from Mossberg, to Remington, to Winchester. Right now, I own both Winchester and Remington pump shotguns and I have to admit that they're all great guns. However, the Remington Model 870 is one of the greats. You can buy them used for about $175.00 for a beater with surface rust. Or you can buy a brand new one in a dazzling variety of barrel lengths, chokes, finishes, and gauges. They're all great shotguns and if you're looking for a pump shotgun, the Remington is a great place to start looking.

Now, about Savage rifles. Everyone who reads this blog knows that I like Savage bolt action rifles. I consider the AccuTrigger one of the greatest engineering feats of the past twenty years. It's that good. I own a Savage bolt in .30-06 and one in .243 Winchester. One of my sons has the LEO version, a left hand .308 with the heavy barrel. Another of my sons has a 7mm Magnum with a heavy barrel. Each of them are accurate and very shootable.

My choice of powders for the .30-06 boils down to two powders that I've come to like over the years. IMR 4895 was designed for the .30-06 and is a great place to start for both Garand loads and more stout hunting loads. It's a good powder that's been around for a long time and performs well in the .30-06. The other powder I like, for heavy hunting loads is Reloder 22. It was designed as a magnum rifle powder, but it's got good bulk and is forgiving of a lot of faults. I like Reloder 22 in the .30-06 and it's performed well in the .243 with heavy bullets.

I won't talk about load recipes, but I've found that nearly a full .30-06 case of Rel22 with either a 155 grain or a 165 grain hunting bullet gives better than 2750 fps with standard deviations around 12 fps. There is a lot to like about Reloder 22 in the .30-06. The Alliant powder data center is here, for all your reloading recipe questions. You can use it interactively, or you can download the free reloaders guide.