As you can remember on my last post, I was concerned at the groups I was getting with my Kimber. So I
got out to the range yesterday (Friday), with my Kimber and some new handloads with H4895 powder. However, I still had 20 rounds of factory Hornady 32gr fodder, so I decided to shoot this off, to hopefully run my barrel in finally.
Well, I'm now happy to report that everything turned out perfectly. After firing 125 rounds down the barrel, I fired a 5 shot group that looked like this:
The squares are 1/4 inch btw
Gets much better though, I then started on my handloads. I started off with 27.1grs of H4895 and the 39gr Sierra Blitzking and worked up to the book maximum which is 27.7grs H4895. Please note that this is the book maximum load but was safe in my rifle. Now according to Hodgon data, from a 24 inch barrel this gives 3774fps, but in my 22 inch barrel I hit 3910fps!
Runout on these loads could still be much better, as it is still well over .005, the problem is my Lee shell holder not aligning the cases properly in my die, so when I seat the bullets, the neck is being noticibly bent.
Regards,
Michael.
