Went to the range a couple of weeks ago to check my M81 300 Savage for the firearm deer opener coming up soon. Its on enough for me at 100 yds. No function problems. Keeping my fingers crossed.
Tested the M8 35 Remington today with relaoded neck sized cases like DWalt suggested and no backed out primers like I had with the factory loads last time. With the Redfield receiver peep sight installed it ran about 4.5" at 75 yards. Now all I need to do with the M8 is get it apart and fix the loose barrel jacket. The loose jacket may have some effect but this rifle seems to be not as accurate as my other two but not by much. Still more than good enough and it may improve a bit when all is right with it.
You might have seen my posting today for the latest test on my .300 Sav M81 - 2" to 2.5" @50 yards, 5-shot group, open sights. I think it might perform better if I had a peep sight, but I don't. My eyes are no longer good enough to use open sights effectively, but I do OK with peeps. The .300 Savage loads I fired today were neck-sized only, as they were the same cases I fired from my first session.
Just to pass something non-Remington along, a few months ago I bought one of the cheap Mossberg bolt action rifles in .30-'06, $179.00 on sale at Academy Sports. It shoots much better than I expected, 5 shot groups at 100 yards in the 1" to 1.5" range, which I think is exceptional for any off-the-rack rifle, let alone the cheapest new one there is. Looks much like a Remington M700, but no frills. One of my groups today had three shots in the same hole. Only complaint I have is a hard and gritty trigger pull, which I have learned to live with after about 50-60 rounds through it. Mine has a very close headspace, as my FL-sized reloads are a squeeze to close the bolt, but work fine neck-sized after they have been fired once. Could be one reason for the good accuracy demonstrated. You might consider the Mossberg as a longer-range hunting companion to your 8/81 if you are on a budget and are not concerned about snob appeal (it has none, but beauty is as beauty does).
DWalt wrote:You might have seen my posting today for the latest test on my .300 Sav M81 - 2" to 2.5" @50 yards, 5-shot group, open sights. I think it might perform better if I had a peep sight, but I don't. My eyes are no longer good enough to use open sights effectively, but I do OK with peeps. The .300 Savage loads I fired today were neck-sized only, as they were the same cases I fired from my first session.
Saw your post, you are getting the same results I do with the standard sights. I have the same problem with buck horn and blade irons. Just cant see them well enough anymore. I have spent the time and money to run down peep sights for all three of my spring poles. They cut the groups in half out to 150 yards. After that it would have to be scope sights to do any good. Past the one fifty mark the targets just get too small to define the point of aim again and the magnification is needed to clear things up.
My go to rifles for longer range deer hunting are my scoped Ruger 77V in 6MM Remington or my custon Mauser Mark X in 300 Winchester Mag. Either one of these can get me well past one fifty. Using the Model 81 is a bit of a handy cap but it puts some challange back in the hunt for me. Popping a nice fat doe at close range is good enough for me. I let the younger generation in our family hunts worry about nailing the big racks.
I noticed Lee makes their collet neck die sets in 35 Remington, and since I don't have a set for that one yet I might have to pick one up now. Love the collet die once I got used to it in .25-06. The only thing holding me back is Hornady Leverevolution ammo shot so well in my .35 Rem 81, and no one has duplicated their loads since they use some kind of duplex powder that is not the same as the Hodgdon Leverevolution powder they sell.
I've seen the Lee collet sets, but I have never tried one; probably worthwhile, and the price is not bad. The set for the .35 Rem is the only one in an M8/81 caliber, but Lee also sells them in .30-30 and .308 Win, which would likely work, I'd think, for the ,30 Rem and .300 Savage calibers respectively. As Lee says, neck sizing only performs wonders for extending case life, and I think that's an important consideration when using some of the scarce calibers for the M8/81.
I am very partial to Lee dies, but I don't particularly like their decapping pin arrangement. I much prefer the RCBS design for decapping.
The old original Lee Loader works pretty well and is cheap. Only downside is that is very slow and tedious if you wish to load much. I used one several weeks ago to load up 100 rounds of .38 Special, and it took me several hours. But they are fine if you load only 5 or 10 rounds at a time, and are very portable. That's how I started in reloading many years ago, when a Lee Loader was $9.95, any caliber, including shotgun shells.
I do not have anything that fires .35 Rem, and so don't load for it. If I did, I'd probably attempt neck sizing using a .38 Spl/.357 carbide sizing die, and also for neck expanding. I don't know what die I'd use for bullet seating, but I'd come up with something, maybe a .380 seating die. One of my favorite activities is in loading oddball cartridges using dies for other calibers which I already have (which is a lot).
I've never bought into the LeveRevolution thing as I just don't see much value added in the available calibers for the vast majority of hunting situations, and none at all for paper punching. I seem to remember someone posting comments here about the LR's bullet performance on game being inferior to that of conventional bullets, and that wouldn't be surprising if true.
DWalt wrote:I've never bought into the LeveRevolution thing as I just don't see much value added in the available calibers for the vast majority of hunting situations, and none at all for paper punching. I seem to remember someone posting comments here about the LR's bullet performance on game being inferior to that of conventional bullets, and that wouldn't be surprising if true.
It is the powder I like for these fat bullet for the case size cartridges, plus the factory ammo grouped almost half the size of Winchester. I want to try to make something similar to their 35 Rem load in the 32. Wish I had a chronograph, and probably need to get one.
The fairly inexpensive "Chrony" made in Canada is a good choice, and that's what I use. There are several versions of the Chrony from basic to fairly advanced regarding features. I use the most basic one, as it does all I need done. Or you can go upscale to an Oehler for more $$. I had a friend with an Oehler, and his Oehler and my Chrony gave essentially identical average velocities when tested side-by-side. But his cost about $300 and mine was around $50, I think. I have used mine for about 8 years with no problems.
If you don't have a fairly sturdy camera tripod, you will need one. Garage sales, estate sales, and Goodwill are good potential sources.
