Post by picklehead on Aug 23, 2015 16:27:45 GMT -5
I have about 250--- 117grn Horn BTSP bullets that I got for the 257 Roberts and 25-06 years ago. They didn't do very good so I just put them back for a rainy day. I haven't tried them in the 257 mag because I figured it would be a waist of components and time,,,UNTIL TODAY.
I was just looking at the real guns site and noticed that the mans best group was with that bullet and used R25. R25 is my go to powder for my 257 with a 115 Berger and shoots like hell. I know my rifle so I started at 72 grains. (his was 72.3) Well,,it was to hot for my rifle and showed promise for accuracy. I played some and backed it off to 70.7 and played with seating depth.
Im highly impressed so far and these pics im about to post doesn't tell the true story. The 70.7 load walked a line because I was shooting back to back and the barrel was getting up to 138 degrees. The flier was me and knew it,,,soon as I touched the trig.
I shot it 1 time after the barrel got back to about 85 degrees and cant ask for nothing any better. The great thing is the 117 POI is the same as the 115 Bergers and 110 Accubonds that I shoot. They cost a lot less and have piles of them. I think the 117 will be my hunting bullet for 50 to 300 yards and know damn well that they open up and kill. I know this because I dusted a crow at 143 yards and it left a quarter size exit hole. Yes,i can shoot a crow on Sunday here on private land.
I will load 10 more this week and making them out of 7mm weth mag brass. The sucky part is that the FLS cases opens up a tad from playing today and the 2nd neck sized firing is the real deal. Im not shooting 100 cases to just get bug holes and have 60 or more cases loaded with Bergers,,that drive a 2" dot at 400 to 550 anyway.