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Old 04-01-2021, 04:21 PM
Johnly Johnly is offline
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Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: Eugene, OR
Posts: 953
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Took my M700 Classic in 17 Remington to the range yesterday with a variety of handloads, including 27.0 of Stayball pushing a 30 gr. Berger Match. The range conditions were horrible for shooting 17s, a full value crosswind that was variable and no wind flags (because I forgot them at home).

I shot a couple nice groups, but more than one was a wind tossed horizontal string across the target. The light was poor, so I didn't even bring the chronograph to the range. The best group of the day was a sub-1/2" group delivered by 24.0 of Varget pushing a 25 gr. Hammett BTHP. For the most part the groups indicated the rifle was showing that it is a 3/4 MOA shooter under good conditions.

For the 30 grain test groups the loads were:
22.0 Varget, that shot poorly
26.5 H414, about was between 3/4" and 1"
27.0 Stayball, that had similar accuracy to the H414 load.

This rifle has a trait of moving the POI upward as the velocity increases.
Without having chronograph data, I still believe that the Stayball load was faster than the H414 load just based on the POI change. Hopefully someome can provide some real data.

I was using neck sized R-P brass for this testing, and had no problem loading 27.0 gr. of Stayball into the case before seating the bullet.
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