Range Report - .358 Steyr - 5-28-15

[gitano]

The saga of this rifle is long and sad. The short version is that I have been unable to get it to shoot straight. There WAS a good reason. The barrel was mis-marked. It was marked as a .375 caliber barrel. It is in fact a .358 caliber barrel. After more than a hundred .375 caliber bullets down the bore, I discovered the error. Needless to say, I wasn't too happy about it, but MidwayUSA refused to even answer my emails regarding it. Be that as it may, I "reset" things and am now loading .358 caliber bullets from it.

For this range session, I have loaded 3 bullets:
1) The Nosler 250-grain Partition,
2) The Nosler 225-grain Accubond, and
3) The Remington 200-grain PSP.

I shot the Partitions first - 100 yd.

About 2" high and 2 1/2" wide. Certainly nothing to write home about. However, when I got up to go down range to check the target, I noticed a screw loose on the deck. It turned out to be a screw from the front ring. I replaced the screw and checked the rest of them. The MVs were: 2768, 2760, 2770. The average is 2766 f/s. Pretty close together. (A sample size of 3 is just too small to get a meaningful standard deviation.) However, all were a bit "hot". Stiff bolt lift and flattened primers. This load - 60.9 grains of Accurate 4064 - is too hot for my tastes.

The next bullet was the 225 Accubond. The load was 60.2 grains of Accurate 4064. The reason this charge is lower but the bullet is lighter weight is because the Accubond is much longer than the Partition. Plus it is a boat-tail and the Partition is flat-based, therefore the seating depth is much greater for the Accubond and therefore the charge is in fact less than for the heavier Partition. The velocities were: 2847, 2849, 2818, 2819. The average is 2836 f/s, with a standard deviation of 14.8 f/s.

You'll note that there are 4 MVs and only three holes in the target. That's because the first shot missed the WHOLE TARGET. I assumed - incorrectly - that the loose screw was not a "big" deal. It was. I had to re-bore-sight. Once bore-sighted, you see the three shots. About 4" high and about an inch wide. Good windage, but horrible elevation.

The final bullet was the Remington 200-grain PSP. It's charge was 69.2 grains of Reloder-17. MVs are: 2981 and 2900, for an average of 2890 f/s.

About 2" wide and 2 1/2 inches high. Not particularly impressive. The reason there are only two shots is that I had a first today. I've had full head separations before, but I've never had a case remain in the chamber. I tried to get it out with a cleaning rod, but no go. Therefore, shooting was over for the .358 Steyr. I'm thinking that the shooting may be COMPLETELY over for this rifle as configured. It just seems 'snake-bit'. The barrel is 26" long, so I may just cut the majority of this chamber off and start over.

Nice muzzle velocities, but all of the loads were hotter than I care for. Like I said, I think it's time to start completely over with this barrel.

Paul