Yosemite Steve
New member
This is a follow up on my previous post "Superformance in my 30-06"
Savage 110 30-06 22" barrel
180 grain Hornady SST
Hodgdon Superformance powder
CCI 200 and 250 primers
12/30/17
To stat with I was seating my bullets way too long at 3.375" which was a gross miscalculation that was ended up in jamming the bullets .045" ... still shaking my head in shame.
Since I was there and was at starting load I went ahead and gave it a try. The bolt went down a bit stiff
I began at 54 grains and shot four rounds each up to 58 grains where I had an average of 2694 fps. The primers at this point were flattened to the primer pocket bevel and I stopped. My first group was 3/4 MOA, things opened up, then it was at 1.25 MOA where I stopped.
Later that week I measured countless times using two different methods to come up with my lands being at a COAL of 3.330" for this particular bullet.
Because I did not want to proceed with even shooting off the lands I seated the remaining bullets I had made deeper to a COAL of 3.320".
The Hodgdon suggested COAL was 3.330" which would have been a jam. On the bullet web page it suggested using the cannelure.
I then made up a batch of new rounds to work up the powder charge with the bullets seated at the cannelure which put the COAL at 3.255" and tested them out Yesterday when I posted the last "Superformance in my 30-06" thread.
1/6/2018
I started at 54.0 grains and worked up to 57.2 grains using both CCI200 and CCI250 for the sake of experimenting. My velocities were all over the place and so were my groups, but the last one was pretty good at 1 MOA at about 2700 fps.
At first I thought that it might be the brass and then the headspace as well as tossing a few darts at the back of my chronograph. So, I decided to try some of my Nosler brass and work around the velocity where I though I might have a node. These bullets were seated at the same depth with a COAL of 3.255.
1/7/2018
The velocities were just as inconsistent as were the R-P brass that I was blaming and the best group was 2.0 MOA. At 55 grains of powder I averaged 2569 fps.
Then I broke out the original batch that I had started shooting and later seated to .010" off the lands for a COAL of 3.320". I picked up where I left off at 59 grains. My average velocity was 2815 fps with a 5.91 deviation! No bad pressure signs and a 1.5 MOA shooting off my ammo box because I forgot my bags. The primers were less flattened then when I was Jamming. So I shot the next load of 59.5 grains and averaged 2843 fps with an 8.43 deviation and a 1" horizontal group!
Still no serious pressure signs. Hodgdon specified a max load of 59.7 grains at 2840 fps at 57,600 PSI.
No false advertising from Hodgdon! I'll take it!
I learned more lessons from all of this than can be summed into this thread but to summarize... Picking up where I left off at 59 grains was a bad idea. In essence I started at near max load. Seating the bullet .055" deeper probably gained 100 fps or a full grain of powder. I got lucky this time.
Savage 110 30-06 22" barrel
180 grain Hornady SST
Hodgdon Superformance powder
CCI 200 and 250 primers
12/30/17
To stat with I was seating my bullets way too long at 3.375" which was a gross miscalculation that was ended up in jamming the bullets .045" ... still shaking my head in shame.
Since I was there and was at starting load I went ahead and gave it a try. The bolt went down a bit stiff
I began at 54 grains and shot four rounds each up to 58 grains where I had an average of 2694 fps. The primers at this point were flattened to the primer pocket bevel and I stopped. My first group was 3/4 MOA, things opened up, then it was at 1.25 MOA where I stopped.
Later that week I measured countless times using two different methods to come up with my lands being at a COAL of 3.330" for this particular bullet.
Because I did not want to proceed with even shooting off the lands I seated the remaining bullets I had made deeper to a COAL of 3.320".
The Hodgdon suggested COAL was 3.330" which would have been a jam. On the bullet web page it suggested using the cannelure.
I then made up a batch of new rounds to work up the powder charge with the bullets seated at the cannelure which put the COAL at 3.255" and tested them out Yesterday when I posted the last "Superformance in my 30-06" thread.
1/6/2018
I started at 54.0 grains and worked up to 57.2 grains using both CCI200 and CCI250 for the sake of experimenting. My velocities were all over the place and so were my groups, but the last one was pretty good at 1 MOA at about 2700 fps.
At first I thought that it might be the brass and then the headspace as well as tossing a few darts at the back of my chronograph. So, I decided to try some of my Nosler brass and work around the velocity where I though I might have a node. These bullets were seated at the same depth with a COAL of 3.255.
1/7/2018
The velocities were just as inconsistent as were the R-P brass that I was blaming and the best group was 2.0 MOA. At 55 grains of powder I averaged 2569 fps.
Then I broke out the original batch that I had started shooting and later seated to .010" off the lands for a COAL of 3.320". I picked up where I left off at 59 grains. My average velocity was 2815 fps with a 5.91 deviation! No bad pressure signs and a 1.5 MOA shooting off my ammo box because I forgot my bags. The primers were less flattened then when I was Jamming. So I shot the next load of 59.5 grains and averaged 2843 fps with an 8.43 deviation and a 1" horizontal group!
Still no serious pressure signs. Hodgdon specified a max load of 59.7 grains at 2840 fps at 57,600 PSI.No false advertising from Hodgdon! I'll take it!
I learned more lessons from all of this than can be summed into this thread but to summarize... Picking up where I left off at 59 grains was a bad idea. In essence I started at near max load. Seating the bullet .055" deeper probably gained 100 fps or a full grain of powder. I got lucky this time.
Last edited: