Well I had a very successful day at the range!! The first order of business was to get my 300 grain loads zeroed at 250 yards and then check to see where they were impacting at 300 yards. I set my zero at 6.9" high at 100 yards then took things over to the 300 yard target. I fired a 3 shot group which ended up just a bit over 3" and lucky enough it was hitting 9" low which puts it exactly where it needs to be for me to use the first BDC mark in my scope! The next step was to perform my is it going to work for my hunting load test which consists of shooting steel bowling pins at 300 yards. Using the first BDC mark that I mentioned before I knocked over 3 pins with 4 shots the miss was absolutely my fault. I also noticed that it knocks the pins over with AUTHORITY!!!!!!!!!!!!
The second order of business was to test some new 350 and 200 grains loads and find out if adding weight to my buffer helped any. Well I am very pleased to say it did help and my loads turned out very well! The loads that were previously too hot and sticking in the chamber are no longer doing so.
350 Hornady
42.5 grains AA1680
AV FPS=1931
Case head expansion=.001"
Under an inch group
200 FTX Using the .284 brass BD1 sent me.
48 Grains 296
AV FPS=2723
Case head expansion=.0015"
Under an inch group.