Above load is made for gopher shooting. Average velocity is 2866 ft/sec and pressures are very low. The load is a fireforming load and is very accurate. Also the load is much too slow at 2866 ft/sec chronographed.

Accurizing was limited to, install aluminum pillars, glass bed barrel and action. The barrel has 12 pounds of uplift pressure at the fore arm tip.

Not much to report on this rifle except that it is a very good shooting rifle, considering the light weight barrel. Much better then I thought. It has to be one of those Remington fluke creations. The machining on the bolt lugs is poor; the action should be blue printed. But that again would call for a new barrel.

Load #1 produced only 2865 Ft/sec Av, max 2902, min 2841, with the 22" barrel. The load is listed as 3270 FT/sec with a 24" barrel. I estimated 3145 ft/sec with the 2" shorter barrel. The 275ft/sec must account for the Moly plated bullets and the over size chamber, which measures .458 at the shoulder. I will work up a load to suit the Moly and the bigger chamber. It looks like that it can handle a lot more powder. The case has almost improved dimensions.

The Barnes-x was seated .025" into the lands and did not perform well. Once the bore is more broken in with Moly I will try them again .030 off the lands which works not too bad in the 280 AI. 243 Winchester loads are very well documented. I will only report on the two best performing loads and bullets. One hunting and one Varmint load, preferable two weights that are not too far apart.

I had thought to convert the chamber to 243 Ackley Imp. This would require a new reamer with .260 diameter shoulder, because of the over size .458 243 chamber. With the factory barrel only 22" long, the improved chamber would add little to performance above that of the 243 Winchester. But would be better for handloading with a fitted neck.

The .260 diameter shoulder is fine but my favorite Redding Competition dies have the standard .456 shoulder in the 243 40 deg Ack. Imp. So it is best to stay with established dimensions. The 243 cases work fine in these dies the .002 oversize seems okay.

June 9/99

Table 3: 80 gr Starke RPVB Moly coated. Fired June 7/99

** 0.4705" is very close to Bench mark case head expansion for this rifle.

After the last gopher shooting session, I have noticed accuracy deterioration due to copper fouling. I have only fired Moly plated bullets, but that did not seem to stop the copper fouling. The barrel was cleaned to bare metal and fire lapped with the three finer grades of NECO abrasive compound 10 @400 grit, 10@ 800 grit, and 20 @1200 grit. This should eliminate some of the metal fouling. Fire lapping is not my favorite past time. Fire lapping load was 8.5 gr of 700x and a 90 gr Speer bullets. Estimated muzle velocity is about 1400 ft/secThe ogives of the bullets were cleaned with steel fur after seating to remove resitual grit, which could alter the throat length?

Table 4: 95 and 100 gr Hunting Loads. Moly coated. Both loads below require more development.

More hunting load testing is in progress. 

Warning: Loads used were carefully worked up in one particular rifle and may not be safe in other rifles. Moly plated bullets were used in all loads, the use of non plated bullets could dramatically increase pressures to unsafe limits. In tight chambers the above powder charges may be too high, since they are used in an over size chamber.