700 VTR in 308
I have a Remington 700 VTR in 308. Just bought it a few weeks ago. Wanted a accurate synthetic 308 that I could also carry and at 7.5# this will do it ok. Mounted a Weaver Grand Slam 4.5-14 on the rifle and took it to the range with factory and reloads. All groups at 100m with benchrest. Fired Federal 150sp from Walmart at $13.97/box, 6-3 shot groups at: 1.5", 1.45",1.0", 0.95", 0.74", 0.69". avg velocity 2755fps, 35 degrees, 1000' elev. Tried a cross-section of reloads/powders /bullets. Didn't like the 147fmjbt with wc846 or imr 4064, 5 shot groups ran 2-3". Tried Hdy 168 bthp match and had some promising results with 42.5grs imr 4064: 0.82" 5 shot group at 2530 fps and 41.0 grs imr 3031, 0.60" 3 shot group at 2613 fps. Those were the best, tried some 3 and 5 shot groups looking for what the rifle likes and will go back and do some more load development around the "sweet spots" I found. I like the feel and the trigger (mine breaks cleanly at 3.5# out of the box), would rather have a longer barrel instead of the muzzle break thing, and the leade/freebore on my rifle is quite long, no chance of seating the bullets anywhere near contacting the lands and still getting them in the magazine, the leade is so long, the only bulllet I've found to get it to within 0.010 of the lands and still fit in the magazine is a 170gr FP for a 30-30, and I'm going to try it and see how it shoots. Just my preliminary findings, and impressions.
Regards,
Trapper