The weather was going to be ideal, so I took the opportunity to ride down to the farm and get some chores done. Most of the weekend was spent dealing with the water system. I ended up replacing the shallow well pump and some plumbing in the cistern, but I did get a chance to get out and do some shooting. It is that aspect of the trip that I want to detail.

The Ruger American Predator in 223 Rem

I have not had the chance to really wring out the Ruger American Predator in 223 Rem. I bought it several years ago as a test bed for working on accuracy. I added a Boyd’s AT-One stock. I have not had all that much time to spend on it, and I decided to really make an effort with it– one of many long-standing projects. There has been a box of 75-grain Hornady BTHP sitting on the shelf for over 20 years. I tried them once in a couple of my rifles, and neither of them had the right barrel twist, and I always got keyholes. The RAR-P has a 1 in 8″ twist rate, and sure enough, the 75 grainers worked.

I have started experimenting with Ramshot Powders. Hodgdon has become expensive and hard to find. Ramshot is much cheaper, and I have been hearing good things about their offerings. I tried Ramshot TAC for this experiment. On an earlier trip, I had tried my first attempt, and the bullets patterned well, but I had my first experience with a pierced primer. I put the rifle away immediately and took everything home and pulled the bullets, using a Hornady Bullet Puller.

I then proceeded to reload the rounds with a full grain less TAC. Saturday morning, I managed to pull off a reasonable group and chrono’d the rounds at an average of 2735 fps with a Standard Deviation of 27.6. That’s pretty good for some rounds that were so severely manhandled. I think I may have found the proper bullet for bringing out the best in this rifle. More to come on this as the project progresses.

Thompson Center Compass in 7mm-08

My Thompson Center Compass in 7mm-08 has been my new man-crush. This is another rifle that I restocked with a Boyd’s. This time it was the Heritage stock in plain Walnut. So far, it has taken a doe (see The Shaman Nails a Doe) as well as the hog on last February’s Florida Trip ( see Boar Hunt with SuperCore). The load I have been using has been a Hornady 139 BTSP over a near-minimum load of Varget. It has been sufficient, but I kept hearing about Winchester’s new StaBall 6.5, and I had to see if the rumors were true. I finally found some last month and cooked up some loads with it. The results were impressive. The old load with Varget was clocking in the high 2600s. These new loads with the Staball 6.5 were giving me a good 200 fps more with reasonable accuracy.

I went home from that previous trip, intent on cooking up 50 rounds of the new load. However, when I got home, I found that I had both run out of the brass and the bullets. When I went to change over from Winchester brass to Federal, I found the Feds’ capacities were running a good 3 grains under the Winchesters, and I did not want to push the envelope any. I then had the bright idea that I (now being a retired fart) had the time and opportunity to go back to loading from the bench, so I sized up and primed 25 rounds of the Federal brass and packed up the following:

• Lee Breech Lock Hand Press
• Lee Bullet Seating die and shellholder
• The primed brass
• RCBS funnel
• Federal Arsenal scale
• Hornady Trickler
• An empty pill bottle to take put powder in the pan (It’s bad ju-ju to pour directly from the powder bottle)
• 1lb of Win Staball 6.5
• Lyman caliper
• An ammo box that held the primed brass and also acted as a loading tray
• Chrony F1 Chronograph
• The whole thing packs up in a soft-sided cooler bag built to take a 24 pack of beer

I really should have brought a scoop, but I got by pouring powder using a pill bottle into the pan of the scale and then using the trickler to bring it up to the final charge. 48.5 grains of Staball 6.5 gave me velocities in the mid 2800s. I then went up to 49.5 grains and got readings in the mid 2900s. My goal had been to get above 2900, so I stopped there. I’ll now go finish off the remaining brass and end up with 50 rounds of the new stuff ready for season.

This is my first time loading from the bench in years. I always felt hurried, just because I usually needed to get home for work. Now that I am retired, it really does not make any difference when I get home. The only thing impinging on me was the wind. That Federal Arsenal Scale is perfect for this gig, but it gets wobbly when there is any kind of wind. I knew I was going to be in one of those dead-air kind of days that almost never happens at the farm. I have that eventuality covered (literally) with a small cover I built for the scale back when I first got it. Y’all could do the same with a kid’s pencil box. The trick is to have a hole in the top cover to pour in the powder.

Before you ask, I generally don’t give full specifics of loads. I think it is a bum idea to go trying to copy loads off the Internet. It is a good way to end up missing your face. Always start with published loads from the powder or bullet manufacturer. Always start at 5-10% below the MAX and work your way up. Staball 6.5 and TAC are both good powders, but both of them gave me velocities far beyond what I was expecting for a starting load.