working up 30-06 load

L

Lilswede1

New member
Still working on my Rem 760 30-06 pump.
With factory ammo have approx. .150" free bore. (Using Hornady OAL guage for measurements).
Have reloaded several diff. powder (below max) to an OAL of 3.220" which gives me .050" of freebore and leaves .309" of bullet in the case (need to have at least the cal. of bullet in case to be safe?).
Will take gun to range as soon as it quits raining which may be awhile here in NW Wash.
I you find fault with my logic would sure appreciate hearing from you.
 
Forget the free bore stuff. Pumps, like semi-autos and lever actions, require checking case lengths(trimming, chamfering and deburring as required only), FL resizing every time and watching the OAL. Otherwise it's no different than loading for anything else.
"...OAL of 3.220"..." Max OAL for .30-06 is 3.340". Using that will save you a lot of mucking around. No gauges either. Use your calipres. Mind you, your verniers can be set to 2.494" and used as a case length gauge for fast case length checking.
 
First of all I like pump guns, so this is not a knock on them.

Fine tuning a COAL does not change the limitations of the pump rifles.

You simply will not be able to get to where the COAL is relevant (improvement) with that gun as its other limitations over arch it.

A pump rifle is not a target rifle, its a hunting rifle.

The round also has to work in the magazine.
 
AND

I realize that my pump is a hunting rifle but the area I have been hunting in for the last 50 years was pretty brushy so the average shot was under 100 yds.
In recent years they have logged and thinned a huge section of the area and 200 to 300 yd. shots are not unusually now.
Just trying to see if the old gun can be tweaked enough to do the job.
Can resist a challenge.
 
Can resist a challenge.
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Good, because your in for one.
My old 760 in .308 likes 165 gr SMK bullets with IMR 4895. They are hard to find an accuracy load as we think of them. There are hunting rifles as others here have already said. Not much different than lever actions.

Your 30-06 may like a completely different bullet and load.

Freebore will depend on the bullet and load. There is no recipe that fits all rifles.

When it quits raining there you will just have to try it to see where your at with accuracy.
 
Lilswede1 said:
(need to have at least the cal. of bullet in case to be safe?)
Click to expand...

That will be news to anyone old enough to remember Lake City National Match ammunition. The 174.5-3.0 grain (often given as 173 grains, the middle of the tolerance range) M1 Type match bullet's bearing surface was less than a caliber long, so there was no way to have a full caliber of grip on it. It's parent bullet, the M1 Ball bullet that its weight and profile were taken from, is distinguishable from the match bullet by having a crimp cannelure. The distance from the middle of the cannelure to the start of the boattail is only 0.1875", so that's about how much seating depth the bearing surface normally had into the case; 0.200" maximum, as that's where the leading edge of the cannelure is. But when you selected the best of these bullet by spin testing for balance, they shot just fine that way.

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People experimenting with tuning seating depth have observed there are often a couple of seating depth sweet spots you can find for a bullet and that one of them is often not too far from the bullet being a caliber into the case, but that's not true in all instances and so you have to experiment to find what is best for your gun. I would not fear using up the extra 0.020", and your magazine may well let you get away with a little more.

The idea to try some different bullet weights is good. There will likely be some combination that does better than others, though I wouldn't count on finding one that really drives tacks. But assuming a 10" circular deer kill zone, minute of deer at 300 yards is about what you already have, if you do your part absolutely perfectly every time. That usually can't be counted on, so look to see if you can find a load more in the 2" range at 100 yards with it. I would look very carefully at the crown to be sure it's perfect, and I would slug the bore to feel for a constriction where the hanger cut was made (or anywhere else, for that matter) that needs to be lapped out.
 

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Your COAL will the longest you can seat the bullet and still have it feed from the magazine every time. I've also found that the Remington 760 is a very accurate rifle, almost equal with a bolt gun. I have reloaded for my 760 for 30 years or so. Using a load of 48 gr. of H4895, Winchester large rifle magnum primers and Nosler 165 gr. Ballistic Tip bullets, I can usually shoot very small groups that the range cops love to watch as they can't believe it most of the time. Every deer that has been shot by my sons and I with this load has been a one shot DRTSTW (dead right there, stayed that way). Most of our shots are head/neck shots too because we we know that the bullet will go exactly where we aim. (And by the way, I resize every case for our 760 and 742s with a small base full length resizing die.)
 
Did you find the small base die necessary for for feeding, or was it just something you happened to have? I've never used one for .30-06, not even in the Garand.
 
I had a friend leave his pump 30-06 one time so I could work up a load. I dont remember the load, but it was a very accurate gun. I tried to talk him out of it as he would probably never shoot it again, but it was his late dads and he wanted to keep it. Sweet gun.
 
If I remember correctly, there was a feeding issue that was resolved with the small base resizing. I believe the action wouldn't lock up if I had a round that had a case that was fired from a 700. A little extra work involved but it is worth it.
 
Hey Reloader28, maybe I could talk your buddy out of his gun. My daughter in Montana fell in love with the 760 and claimed it as hers. It is now a resident in Montana and will stay there as her very own. I wouldn't mind a replacement though. Darn kids.:D
 
FWIW, bullet seating depth "tweeking" is the last item on my list for chasing accuracy. Normally, I'll use the bullet manufacturer's recommendation for OAL for a specific bullet. Using this method and first varying powder types and charges I've gotten some pretty good loads or my long guns (My Ruger 308 will give me an occasional 7/8" group with Hornady 150s, loaded to Hornady specs., over IMR 4064. Mostly closer to 1" 'cause I ain't such a good shot!)...
 
Lilswede,

Last year my neighbor shot a nice buck at 436 yards with his Rem 760 in 06.
Rangefinder verified.
Using my handload 165gr. Ballistic Tip to the COL of 3.320" over a charge of IMR4350.

Loading the bullet out longer just isn't needed or wanted.
While longer fit the chamber as you would a bolt gun, and the magazine, if he didn't shoot the round he couldn't eject it.
 
Blackwidoe, darn kids is right. The oldest daughter stopped today to grab a gun for hunting for a couple weeks she said. The scope was bad on the first one I pulled out so she ended up borrowing my pet 243 which I made very clear was to come back. Luckily her fiance wants to stay on my good side and it will come back.;):D
 
Lilswede1,

With all the glowing reports of accuracy from some copies of this gun, I'll say again, as in the previous thread, that you want to look for a cause of problems I mentioned before; the pump wood rubbing, constrictions in the bore at the dovetail cut, and make sure it doesn't need recrowning, just to cover an obvious one.
 
Reloader28...Good thing you had time to read my post before the event or you would probably have had the same thing happen...dads are idiots for their daughters! By the by, my daughter has had MS since she was 17, so it wasn't so hard to say yes to that request. It gives me so much pride when she calls to tell me that she can shoot the pants off the guys out there in Montana using my gun and reloads. I'm also in the process of reloading more rounds to send to her now. Great kid!
 
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