Hi all,
I recently purpose built my “Western KS” rifle, which is a standard 25-06 Rem chamber with a 1-7tw barrel.
Here’s the specs on the rifle:
Defiance Classic LH LA, 75° bolt
Shilen 26”, #4 contour, 1-7tw ratchet rifled barrel
Bell and Carlson (also in western KS) rem sporter
Remington 40x trigger
Rem BDL
Leupold VX-R 4-12x40 in PRW2 lows
Weight is 8lbs, 14oz
With mulies and pronghorn from the windiest and flattest region in the country in mind, I knew I needed a flat shooter. The easy answer was 25-06, which is my favorite cartridge.
I also knew I needed a bullet that could flatten an already flat shooting cartridge out even more. I chose the 107 HBC for some soon to be obvious reasons.
My wife won’t eat game shot with lead, and I like the devastating effect Hammers have proven to have in my [limited] testing.
This decision led to a phone call with the always informative Steve Davis of Hammer Bullets, where he said to look at 90gr Hammer Hunter data. I decided to go with H4350 because I have a few pounds of it.
I loaded up a pressure ladder, 9 rounds in 1gr increments. COAL was 3.268 if I’m not mistaken, but don’t quote me on that. I used CCI 200 primers and Hornady brass.
Today, I went to the range and sorted that out. I was hoping to hit 3300, as that would get me around 17” of drop at 400 (my max distance for my own personal ethics).
Here’s my findings:
50gr - 3136 fps
51gr - 3237 fps
52gr - 3262 fps
53gr - 3315 fps
54gr - 3357 fps
55gr - 3462 fps
56gr - 3521 fps
57gr - 3585 fps; bright ejector, primer not flat
58gr - 3612 fps; slight ejector, primer not flat
There was no cratering or flattening of the primers, and cases all look fine. Bolt lift was not stiff either. I will also add that the ejector plunger on this bolt is very strong.
If sighted in at 100, the 56gr load going 3521 fps will drop a little less than 14.5” at Western Kansas altitude (around 3400-3500 ft). It also maintains 1500ft-lbs of energy past 600 yards.
I know not what I’ll be loading for accuracy testing yet, but I have no doubt it’ll shoot well since it has not printed a group above 1 MOA in the short time I’ve had it, testing 5 different loads so far.
Let me know what you all think.
I posted this up on the Hammertime forum, and here’s what I’ve theorized:
This barrel sports “ratchet” rifling, which basically creates less engraving pressure and whatnot for easier cleaning and wind resistance characteristics upon leaving the muzzle. I believe this is also helping achieve higher velocities with less pressure when mixed with the skinny PDR groove valley of the bullets (makes sense in my head):
I recently purpose built my “Western KS” rifle, which is a standard 25-06 Rem chamber with a 1-7tw barrel.
Here’s the specs on the rifle:
Defiance Classic LH LA, 75° bolt
Shilen 26”, #4 contour, 1-7tw ratchet rifled barrel
Bell and Carlson (also in western KS) rem sporter
Remington 40x trigger
Rem BDL
Leupold VX-R 4-12x40 in PRW2 lows
Weight is 8lbs, 14oz
With mulies and pronghorn from the windiest and flattest region in the country in mind, I knew I needed a flat shooter. The easy answer was 25-06, which is my favorite cartridge.
I also knew I needed a bullet that could flatten an already flat shooting cartridge out even more. I chose the 107 HBC for some soon to be obvious reasons.
My wife won’t eat game shot with lead, and I like the devastating effect Hammers have proven to have in my [limited] testing.
This decision led to a phone call with the always informative Steve Davis of Hammer Bullets, where he said to look at 90gr Hammer Hunter data. I decided to go with H4350 because I have a few pounds of it.
I loaded up a pressure ladder, 9 rounds in 1gr increments. COAL was 3.268 if I’m not mistaken, but don’t quote me on that. I used CCI 200 primers and Hornady brass.
Today, I went to the range and sorted that out. I was hoping to hit 3300, as that would get me around 17” of drop at 400 (my max distance for my own personal ethics).
Here’s my findings:
50gr - 3136 fps
51gr - 3237 fps
52gr - 3262 fps
53gr - 3315 fps
54gr - 3357 fps
55gr - 3462 fps
56gr - 3521 fps
57gr - 3585 fps; bright ejector, primer not flat
58gr - 3612 fps; slight ejector, primer not flat
There was no cratering or flattening of the primers, and cases all look fine. Bolt lift was not stiff either. I will also add that the ejector plunger on this bolt is very strong.
If sighted in at 100, the 56gr load going 3521 fps will drop a little less than 14.5” at Western Kansas altitude (around 3400-3500 ft). It also maintains 1500ft-lbs of energy past 600 yards.
I know not what I’ll be loading for accuracy testing yet, but I have no doubt it’ll shoot well since it has not printed a group above 1 MOA in the short time I’ve had it, testing 5 different loads so far.
Let me know what you all think.
I posted this up on the Hammertime forum, and here’s what I’ve theorized:
This barrel sports “ratchet” rifling, which basically creates less engraving pressure and whatnot for easier cleaning and wind resistance characteristics upon leaving the muzzle. I believe this is also helping achieve higher velocities with less pressure when mixed with the skinny PDR groove valley of the bullets (makes sense in my head):
