Originally Posted by
Puffin
I used the 115gr NBT for a few years, but for the past eight have used the 115 Berger VLD in my .257. Both have shot very well in a couple of barrels now and have worked out well for me on small to medium sized reds. I haven't shot any large stags, though that is not to say either bullet isn't capable. I can believe the pass-throughs with the Ballistic Tips as I shot two on one occasion with the bullet collecting the yearling behind from a neck shot. This despite the expectation that this family of bullets would be pretty frangible, so perhaps behaving more like the 120gr in 7mm, though I haven't sectioned one to check on the jacket thickness; this is just an observation.
The chamber is an improved. I have no desire to experiment any more with this rifle and only use 2213sc. The load Bruce is 54.3gr for 2940 ft/sec from a 19" barrel. That is in the sized down 8x57 cases I wrote about a few months back that have a smaller internal capacity than the original Winchester +P cases I used to have. CoL is 77mm. The predicted peak pressure, also checked with a pressure trace, is 61500 PSI. The primers are standard Federal LR premium. Magnum didn't offer any benefits for me with 2213sc. QuickLOAD predicts you could equal your 2940 ft/sec with 48.1gr of 2213sc from a 22" barrel in the standard chamber while keeping the pressure at 60.0 kPSI peak if the CoL is 77mm, and this seems a reasonable output from QL. I'm fortunate in the rifle action being of medium length. With a reduced CoL for a short action magazine then the powder would need to be backed off, though the expectation would remain 2940ft/sec while keeping the peak pressure not much above 60kPSI. I guess you'd then drop back from there looking for good groups. Worth keeping as a back-up load in case the Re-26 runs low perhaps? 2213sc seemed to give up surprisingly little to several double-based powders I tried in my .257.
