Warm Loads - Barrel Life

[mvpal]

Rick,

Your pics have inspired me to the next level. We have some of pretty amazing desert lands south and west of Boise Idaho with endless roads and rolling hills full vermin deserving of extermination. I have been going to my favorite spot using an camp stool and a trigger style construction clamp that I turned into a seat mount (ill have to post a pic because it is pretty crafty all in all). I miss more because of my setup than because of my gun.

Out here there are TONS of places I could drive with a bench in the back so i can be comfortable and completely calculated.

Any thoughts on a good place to buy a good bench like you have without being taken advantage of?

[geoff23]

HI mvpal. Not a lot of people here seem to load ww748! . Ive tried 28gr of 748 with a 32 vmax. Do you know what sort of velocity your getting with 29grains of 748?. love to know

[Bodei]

Do you guys bring those trailers with you or does the landowner let you use 'em?

[Wrangler John]

Barrels are like brake pads, made to be used and replaced.

If you want to know how hot your barrel is getting try one of these:

http://www.amazon.com/MicroTemp-MT-100- ... 591&sr=8-1

Doesn't cost much and you really know hot things are getting. Keeping things cool doesn't really do much to stop throat erosion, but it slows it down some, when the throat erodes forward and the steel heat checks accuracy will already have suffered. When the little heat checked chunks fall out, accuracy will deteriorate more, at that point the barrel is toast. It's really the blow torch effect of the powder gasses and the abrasive effect of burning powder, and even the granulated glass particles of the priming mixture that does the damage. Some guys say that using a fire lapping throat maintenance kit helps keep things going longer, but these aren't available for anything smaller than .224". Don't go shooting them through a good barrel that is giving gilt edge accuracy, it isn't needed. http://www.davidtubb.com/final-finish-tms

[mvpal]

HI mvpal. Not a lot of people here seem to load ww748! . Ive tried 28gr of 748 with a 32 vmax. Do you know what sort of velocity your getting with 29grains of 748?. love to know

Hi Geoff,

I have not tested this for speed. Ultimately I am going to tone it back a bit as this load was flattening primers a little bit and is the reason that I posted the question.

Did you chrono the load with 28 grains?

[Rick in Oregon]

Rick,

Your pics have inspired me to the next level. Out here there are TONS of places I could drive with a bench in the back so i can be comfortable and completely calculated.

Any thoughts on a good place to buy a good bench like you have without being taken advantage of?

mvpal: A few years ago you could have purchased a BR Pivot Lite as shown in those photos from me here in Oregon, but now the bench is available from MidwayUSA, Battenfield Technologies, Optics Planet and many others if you do a Google search:

http://www.battenfeldtechnologies.com/c ... -Block-Top

I pondered the design for four years prior to ever getting the patent. It's the hot setup in any PD or squirrel patch. I use mine also for load development here in the outback. My Lite version is no longer available, but in the field, not much difference with the model available now; just as stable, just heavier. One good thing that came about is that now the BR Pivot is less expensive.

Do you guys bring those trailers with you or does the landowner let you use 'em?

All the flatbed trailers and trucks shown in the photos are the landowners property. He gladly lets us use them, and will even position them stratigically for us to enable the best field of fire, or even offers such exotic "elevation enhancers" as a surplus USFS fire truck:



Or an old farm flatbed trailer used for hauling hay about the place:



We usually pool together and haul all our gear in the small enclosed trailer shown in one of the shots in my post above, then ride together in a quad-cab pickup to save fuel costs. In the "old days", we all used our individual pickups......me thinks those daze may be a distant memory.

bow shot/Tokimini: Thanks fellas. A kind word is always appreciated.

[Jim White]

Waiting a while makes sense when these SS custom barrels run north of $300 a pop.

And thats just the price of the barrel. Fitting, chambering & head-spacing is extra.

Jim

[DoubleUp]

29g of W748, Rem 7 1/2 primer, and a 32 vmax gives me almost exactly 3,900 fps out of a Savage with a 22" barrel with a col of 2.337. No signs of pressure and shoots .5 moa but I haven't used it much lately.

[geoff23]

Super thanks for that. I also have a 22 inch!

[jo191145]

What would be considered allot of shooting for a day. Yesterday I fired 100 rnds from 10am to 4pm in the afternoon. It was about 65 degrees outside.

Being a varmint control operator is my most favorite occupation in the world however I was exhausted by the end of the day.

The load I fired was:
32 grn z-max
winch brass
rem 7 1/2 primer
29grn w748
coal 2.367

W-748 is THE coolest running powder in 204R I ever found. If its working stick with it.