CB
posted this
24 November 2008
I was looking at one of those at one point... Never did act on the impulse to buy though.
First thing you need to do is to slug the throat and the muzzle. I have heard that some of the Rems have poor bore diameter consistency. If this proves to be okay then you will have the throat dimensions you need to figure out what you need to size the bullets at. There is a very small section of that throat slug called the free bore and that is the diameter you what to size your bullets to.
I believe that gun has a 1-12 twist barrel, I have found that your bullet choice is a function of length as it relates to barrel twist, the weight of the bullet really doesnt matter that much.
If you do not throat the rifle, you need to use a bore ride bullet such as your RCBS 180 SP. You need to plan to shoot it in the 1600 - 1800 fps range which you should be able to do with the powders you have tired so far.
I go through a lot of extra little things to try to squeeze all of the accuracy I can out of the gun I shoot production with.
I do have the rifle bedded, I also have the throat cut to 3/4 min and use a bump press to taper the bullets to fit the throat. There are various methods to achieve the taper on the bullet.
I also have gaged the chamber to find the length and make my cases from 30-06 brass because my chamber measures out at 2.039 instead of the spec of 2.015 listed in the reloading manuals as the case length spec.
Being that you have a new rifle, it will take some time to break it in so it will shoot for you. Shooting some jacketed bullet to break off all of the sharp edges from the manufacturering process is okay and will help speed up the break in process. Make sure you clean all of the copper out of the barrel before you start shooting lead.
The other item I see that you can make am improvement is your lube. alox is good, but a synthetic soft lube will give you better results. You want the lube to spin off on muzzle exit and a synthetic will not burn and gunk up your barrel with undesireable fouling.
If you water quench the ww bullets, you will increase the hardness which is what you wil need to do for competition. Most shoot either heat treated wheel weights or lino to get the hardness up to around 18-26 bhn.
Fixed or variable power on the scope wont make a difference, I have a fixed on one rifle and a variable on the other. Never have turned it down.
Your front rest and rear bag will be very important in getting the most of your rifle. I have modified mine to be wider and heavier and use a rear bag that has a thick leather base to keep it square on the bench.
Once you find the combo that works best in your rifle, all you need to do is practice and make sure you pay attention to every detail and repeat each action of how you shoot the rifle each time. That is more important than having the perfect load.