04-28-2018, 12:18 AM
StoneHendge Wrote:When did you order / receive? I think I ordered mine the last week in Oct and got it in early December. I would think they would be the same reamer, but my throat is much shorter. Made dummies starting at 2.31 and then took it down in 0.010 increments. Everything stuck until I got to 2.205 (2.220 stuck and then i overseated the next at 2.205 shooting for 2.210. That dropped and I've been loading the RDFs at 2.200. Strange I would be so far off from yours when they were made around the same time. Maybe the tip of the reamer broke off when the made mine and yours got made with a shiny new reamer
I've let mine sit for the week since the kaboom. Have other projects to keep me busy and it'll probably be another week or two before I can put my face near the chamber. I've got a ladder of N540 worked up and think I might poke around with N140 which did pretty well with the random break in loads and has pretty low temp sensitivity according to "the chart." Nonetheless, I'm going to back off the speed. Whitley seems to get the good accuracy in the mid 2700s out of his 26"ers so I'm going to shoot for that area despite getting around 100 fps more in my barrel.
Definitely looking forward to seeing your results!
Looking back at your post about buying that barrel from McGowen I ordered mine a week or so before. I think it is a bit difficult to figure out when the bullet is touching the lands with your method of seeing when it gets stuck. Using the Sinclair gauge or the Hornady LNL OAL Gauge is way more accurate.
Load testing with 105 RDF and RL15 were almost unbelievable, either I don't know how the shoot groups, my barrel is a tomato stake or my Vortex Viper scope is jacked up, maybe all the above.
27.8 RL15 3 shot Av 2663 Sd 5 Es 11 3 1/2" group with 2 1/2" vertical spread
28.0 RL15 3 shot Av 2688 sd 19 es 38 1/2" group, go figure. Pressure signs, ejector imprint right where QL says danger.
The work up loads were all over the place, nothing under 1 Moa. I went in .5 grain increments until I was close to max. All brass is Hornady match prepped, weight sorted ect. Rem 7 1/2 primers. I weighed all the brass after shooting this horror show, nothing changed and the primer pockets are still tight, I even cut a couple cases in half to see if there was any signs of case head separation or doughnut.
Conclusion is 105 RDF was used to break in the barrel, the rest of the box is not worth wasting time on, trash can. I have 4 boxes of 105 Hybrids that I know work in my other McGowen barrel and some 95 TMK's. The 95's I'm finding are the ticket for this case capacity and barrel length to get the speed needed to give this round an advantage at 600 yrds in competition.