Thread: "Feather in my hat" 308win Featherweight load development

Originally Posted by dannyb

yup valid criticism, likely a bit of bull at a gate syndrome to put it frankly.
Time at the range is hard to come by with a busy work and home life, I was hoping I would get lucky but it seems both rifles are being a little stubborn. I will get there hopefully without burning up too many components as that definitely is a factor.
The last few rifles I have developed loads for have all been custom bedded jobs or higher end very precisely finished rifles and they have been relatively easy to get shooting, I guess that kinda lulled me into a bit of complacency
I will need to check the bedding out on both sticks and probably should've started there in reality, bedding is not a job I am comfortable doing especially with very hard to replace wood stocks so that is a factor, there is time and a considerable amount of funds, I have been quoted $350-$500 to have each of these rifles bedded (recoil lug/chamber, Tang and pillars) so if I could get away with not doing it, it would have been nice.

I will do a swap for bedding if interested pm me

Originally Posted by Moa Hunter

I will do a swap for bedding if interested pm me

swap for what ? maybe pm me if you prefer ?

If you go down the flat base don't forget I asked first on the boat tails, I have a 26 inch barrelled xbolt.

Originally Posted by SmokeyJason

If you go down the flat base don't forget I asked first on the boat tails, I have a 26 inch barrelled xbolt.

your name is on them if I don't use them rest assured

So with this post re the featherweight I decided to do some investigating and unfortunately Mr tahr is dead on the bullseye, the win featherweight was never renown as a tackdriver. Best one can expect is 1 1/2 inches. My 223 mod which I never bothered to test re a group just sighted it in and went hunting. My first customer ran across my front in the matagouri and charged across the ck out into an open tussock face, stopped awkwardly with no availability to do my favourite lung shot, but I could see the shoulder bone protruding past the stomach area and I put the crosshairs there and the bullet did hit there.
The modern builds apperantly did have a back and front glue job.
Unless my shooting is atrocious I'm going to leave the stock on as is without any further mucking around.
One thing my 300 wsm has is a light trigger, and I mean Light.

Originally Posted by SmokeyJason

So with this post re the featherweight I decided to do some investigating and unfortunately Mr tahr is dead on the bullseye, the win featherweight was never renown as a tackdriver. Best one can expect is 1 1/2 inches. My 223 mod which I never bothered to test re a group just sighted it in and went hunting. My first customer ran across my front in the matagouri and charged across the ck out into an open tussock face, stopped awkwardly with no availability to do my favourite lung shot, but I could see the shoulder bone protruding past the stomach area and I put the crosshairs there and the bullet did hit there.
The modern builds apperantly did have a back and front glue job.
Unless my shooting is atrocious I'm going to leave the stock on as is without any further mucking around.
One thing my 300 wsm has is a light trigger, and I mean Light.

Yup I was already aware that they were not known for there tac driver abilties, but I will give it the best chance to do so. the lowest charge weight on my 165btsp gave 1.1" if I cannot improve on that bedding certainly won't hurt it.
I also still have the NBT charge ladder to try.

Originally Posted by SmokeyJason

So with this post re the featherweight I decided to do some investigating and unfortunately Mr tahr is dead on the bullseye, the win featherweight was never renown as a tackdriver. Best one can expect is 1 1/2 inches. My 223 mod which I never bothered to test re a group just sighted it in and went hunting. My first customer ran across my front in the matagouri and charged across the ck out into an open tussock face, stopped awkwardly with no availability to do my favourite lung shot, but I could see the shoulder bone protruding past the stomach area and I put the crosshairs there and the bullet did hit there.
The modern builds apperantly did have a back and front glue job.
Unless my shooting is atrocious I'm going to leave the stock on as is without any further mucking around.
One thing my 300 wsm has is a light trigger, and I mean Light.

it is childs play to adjust the trigger on your .223 small flat screwdriver and tiny cresent...if you havent tiny open ended spanners (sorry @akaroa1 ) loosen nuts,adjust,tighten and check is procedure from memory.... I took mine down to silly light and still couldnt make it fire unintentionally,but found about 3lb worked best for my style of shooting.

Originally Posted by dannyb

Yup I was already aware that they were not known for there tac driver abilties, but I will give it the best chance to do so. the lowest charge weight on my 165btsp gave 1.1" if I cannot improve on that bedding certainly won't hurt it.
I also still have the NBT charge ladder to try.

@dannyb Come on we expect better than that from you

Not wanting to hijack your thread
But I did this group this morning with a genuine circa 1840 14 gauge percussion double rifle
Open express sights at 25 yards
So no excuses



You can blame @Micky Duck because he mentioned me.
I shouldn't even be in this space

Without trying very hard, the last time I tried a load for my 243 lightweight, the kissing cousin to the featherweight (same action boring stock), it was only doing a 1 1/2 " 5 shot group and thats being generous.
Bedded too.
I will add that years ago I was of the very basic mold of sighting it in across the roof of the car and if it could hit a cigarette packet type target for a couple of shots it would be deemed mint.
Mild exaggeration but close.
It is bedded but no benchmark for a tight group
Didn't you get a tidy M70 lightweight from Ashvegas a few years back Danny?

One way to look at it is to focus on one shot cold bore accuracy.

If you have a good hunting bullet like that 165gr BTSP, and can land a cold bore shot within a A4 sheet at 300yd every time, off a variety of rests, for regular deer hunting within 300yd as you say, well that's a dead deer every time. I'd considering zeroing the rifle to the middle of a representative 5 shot group, and try it.

Much to the disgust of one of our members, the other day I chose to shoot just one shot with my .308 at his personal range. We had all the toys available to get the DOPE and everything, but nope.... I shot one shot, it hit where it was supposed to, and that was that. No need to go and then pull one and starting second guessing. The 200m zero BTW is very effective for a ~2,600 ft./sec 165gr in the .308 - the ballistics tie in really well with mil reticles for quick and accurate hold overs for farther targets.

It's only if you're head shooting you need to be MOA.

On a regular sized red stag, if the bullet hits within roughly an A4 sheet sized area centered on the hilar, it's dead in short order. The closer you are to the bullseye, the quicker its dead. An A4 sized paper on a typical NZ red stag would look like this relative to one another. That's what you've got to work with. My bet is that 6-7 times in 10 you'll be well within a 3" circle centered on the hilar, the others pulled by you or the wind or the rifle.



I would contend that if you were to somehow survey the entry wound positions on 100 reds shot by the same ordinary hunter within say 300yd, in all conditions in typical hard country, with a traditional zoom of 10x or less, then you'd find that there would be quite an even spread around that A4 sized area.

Just buy a box of fed blue and if it doesn't shoot them you're wasting your time chasing a load for it

yip weve been trying to tell him that for a week now....... poke a known load through...to check...or do quicky rebed and check... THEN fluff around tuning load
no point in trying five different fuels in a race car if you havent tuned engine or taken off the off road tyres that are out of alignment
or put another way which is closer..no point in putting top of the line tyres on a car if you havent sorted wheel alignment.you will just chew them out fast and not get desired preformance....

Originally Posted by akaroa1

@dannyb Come on we expect better than that from you

The Dirty 06 finnbear needs to be sub moa as I want to set that up as my tops/longer range rifle, the Featherweight as long as it is consistent and around moa it will be more than adaquate, obviously I strive for sub moa cause well I'm a fussy cnut. I will be satisfied with around 1" as long as it's consistent and I've done everything I can to give it the best chance of doing better.

Originally Posted by dannyb

the Featherweight as long as it is consistent and around moa it will be more than adaquate, obviously I strive for sub moa cause well I'm a fussy cnut.

well we agree on SOMETHING anyway...LOL

I've been following this thread with interest as I happen to have featherweight in 7mm08 I'm trying to dial in.
My best groups to date are with 140 pro hunters and 120 Ballistic tips, both are flat based. These have printed 3 and 4 shot .5" groups
The thing is I am trying to get a long range load and unfortunately these projectiles aren't the best choice.

My rifle is later model CRF and it has far more substantial bedding than the infamous 'hot glue' of earlier models, that said it is still only factory bedded.
It has be threaded and shortened to 20 inches unfortunately but it is what it is.

A couple of observations from my attempts at the range so far;
I believe that my barrel is very sensitive to temperature (from repeated shots) My last session it was a chilly day and I had plenty of interruptions, my groups were the best they had been in ages.
I shoot off sand bags, and I tend to lean into my rifle. I wondering if by doing so I'm loading up the stock at the front and the barrel is making contact with the stock.
My reason for this line of thinking is I had a couple of groups that were stringing.
The next time I go to the range I intend to make sure that I shift the front bag as close to the magazine floor plate as possible and make sure my barrel is not warm to the touch.

One final observation is that apart from the 2 loads mentioned earlier everything else is consistently 1.1 -1.4 of an inch.
I have tried 5 different powders and 6 different projectiles.
140's are best at around 2800, 162's it seems to do it's best work at 2550 so a little slower than numbers I see in a lot of posts.
Good luck and cool barrels