Range day, loads tested

Had a chance to hit the outdoor range today, partly just for fun and partly to try out those cast bullet loads I mentioned the other day.

With my standard DISCLAIMER: these loads work well for me in my firearms: they may not in some others. Use at your OWN PERIL, I'll pass on the loads.
#1 7.62x54r is Hotshot or Prvi Partisan brass I picked up at the range a while back(can't tell which), 150-grain RCBS flatnose gas-checked bullet and 16.0 grains of 2400 powder. Bullet seated up to the crimp groove and lightly crimped.
#2 Same brass, 110-grain Lyman spitzer gas-checked bullet, same powder charge.

This is the same load I dug up a couple of years(with the 150-grain bullet) ago for .30-06. With 7.62x54r being pretty close in case capacity, also being a strong bolt-action rifle and with this being a mild practice load, I tried it. Quite good results in both, and with both bullets in 7.62. I had to set the rear sight at the 400-meter mark on the M39- interestingly, same setting in yards on the 1903- to put it dead on at 50 yards. At 100, had to move the sights- on both- up to about 550. In the M39 this had the 150-grain bullets grouping right at the top edge of the 6" bull with a 6 o'clock hold, and this load gave groups averaging about 2". Which is pretty good for a .309" bullet going through a .310 bore. The 110-grain bullet hit a little higher but didn't group nearly as well. For practice out to 50 either would do nicely. Low recoil and good accuracy, what more could you ask for?

I also tried something out in .22. While back I mentioned I was going to get some match-grade ammo to try out in the Martini and see just what a difference it made; Sportsman's Warehouse carries some, the Eley Match EPS* to be specific, and I got a box last time I was there.

Eley has come up with a bullet design for their match stuff: flat nose with a flat-tip spike in the center. Undoubtedly some engineers and ballistics experts sweated coming up with and testing this design, it's what they use in their best match ammo, and the grade or two below.

I'll point out, as evidence that the 'grade or two below' probably consists of ammo that didn't meet the specs for the Ultimate, that the noses on the ammo were not real consistent: some had low, badly-defined spikes and slightly rounded corners on the point.

How'd it do? If I did my part, it gave 1.5 to 1.75" groups at 100 yards. Which ain't bad, except that Eley Sport and Federal Champion will do the same out of this rifle at MUCH less cost. The Match cost $12 for a box: Sport runs about $2 now and the Federal about $1.50. The Match may have been a touch more consistent, but not nearly enough to be worth the difference in price. Some day when I run across some of the Ultimate I may pick up a box of it to try, see if it gives enough of a better result to be worth keeping some around, but it's not something I'm going to go digging for. Not at $15/box


*All they had was the Match, and unless I'm sending an order to Midway or someplace so I can add a box on, I'm not ordering the stuff. Not just a box to try out.