Just got back from the range, it was cloudy, rained a little and cool. I took out the .257 Wby and my sporterized 03 Springfield 30-06. I just added a new scope to the Springfield and wanted to sight it in. Scope is a Leupold VXIII 3.5 x 10 40 mm AO. Gun shoots really great.
I tried something different with the Wby. If you remember from previous posts I have been working with this gun for 3 months...some good, some not so good results. I have a friend in Ca. that has the exact same setup and we were talking on the phone recently and he told me to seat the bullets only deep enough to work in the magazine, forget what the specs and what factory ammo is. I pulled some bullets on my best loads and reseated them further out (about .25) and the 100 yard groups are at least 50% tighter! Absolutely unreal. I know Wby put lots of freebore in their rifles, but this just blew my mind. I usually try to keep my loads a little longer (OAL) because I think it helps accuracy, but not a quarter of an inch.
Also the Wby has a Leupold VXIII 3.5x10 but it is a 50mm. I really have not cared for 50 mm because of how high the scope has to be mounted. But today I became a believer. The difference in brightness on a really dark, cloudy day was really big. The 50 mm seemed almost twice as bright as the 40, even with the same scope.
Live and learn.
I tried something different with the Wby. If you remember from previous posts I have been working with this gun for 3 months...some good, some not so good results. I have a friend in Ca. that has the exact same setup and we were talking on the phone recently and he told me to seat the bullets only deep enough to work in the magazine, forget what the specs and what factory ammo is. I pulled some bullets on my best loads and reseated them further out (about .25) and the 100 yard groups are at least 50% tighter! Absolutely unreal. I know Wby put lots of freebore in their rifles, but this just blew my mind. I usually try to keep my loads a little longer (OAL) because I think it helps accuracy, but not a quarter of an inch.
Also the Wby has a Leupold VXIII 3.5x10 but it is a 50mm. I really have not cared for 50 mm because of how high the scope has to be mounted. But today I became a believer. The difference in brightness on a really dark, cloudy day was really big. The 50 mm seemed almost twice as bright as the 40, even with the same scope.
Live and learn.
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