Every once in a while a really intriguing question comes along. Seems there was a fellow at the range today that was having a real problem with his Winchester M 100 semi-auto in a 308 Win.

It would just not cycle the action properly, and was pulling the rim off the cartridge and leaving the case in the chamber. I just could not help but overhear him, and see his frustration as I watched him push out each case with a cleaning rod. At least he had one along, or he would have been out of business.

At one point he looked over at me, shrugged his shoulder and gestured he was going to toss that gun away.

I said, “Bring it over here, and let me look it”. I also asked to see the ammo, along with the cases he was expelling from the chamber with the rim torn off.

Seems he was using some foreign made surplus foreign made military ammo I’d never heard of before, and it was in a machine gun belt.

Hummm, I’m just betting that ammo is the culprit, as machine guns could be made to work at a different pressure curve.

I just happened to have a 308 Win with me, and had some Federal factory ammo we could try. Lo and behold, his problem went away, and the gun cycled just fine and pulled every empty shell out cleanly.

This was the first time I have seen this problem with a 308 Win, as I have shot a lot of surplus military ammo in mine, but it was a bolt action.

I have seen problems in the old M 1 Garand of past WWII vintage when fellows tried reloading it with 4831 powder rather than 4895. Seems that slower powder has a pressure peak further down the barrel than 4895, and the pressure is too high when the bullet passes the gas vent hole, and it slams the action rod back too hard and bends it.

At least we solved the problem with a minimum of difficulty. Too bad all malfunctions are that easy to fix.

The next “culprit” I was going to work on was an Enfield 303 British that I had borrowed and was going to do some load research and development with.

The gun came with a very nice Weaver style once piece base on it, and I attached a Leupold 3-9X compact scope on it. The scope fit perfectly and I had high hopes of making a Deer rifle out of it.

The first time I took it out two weeks ago; I found that it ran out of windage adjustment. So now I have shimmed it and going to try it again. Had I been using a standard size scope, rather than a compact, I suspect I would have had enough windage adjustment.

This time my little shims did the trick, and I got the rifle zeroed in perfectly.

First I tried some more handloads all with 180 gr .311 dia Remington RN Core Lokts. The results were as follows:

All were in R-P cases with CCI 200

48 gr of AA 4350 = 2458 fps ¾ “ group at 50 yards 22 fps ES

42 gr Rel 15 = 2408 fps 1” “ 9 fps ES

43 gr IMR 4064 = 2486 fps ¾” “ 24 fps ES

42 gr Ball “C” = 2451 fps ¾” “ 47 fps ES

I then tried some factory loads:

WW 180 Power Points = 2409 fps ¾” “ 33 fps ES

Federal 180 gr SP = 2441 fps 1” “ 38 fps ES

It sure looks to me like the 303 will nicely do 2400 fps with 180 gr bullets and will be a fine Deer Rifle.

On to the next project, and that was to test some of Barnes new MRX bullets. I’ve been singing the praises of the new TSX bullet for the past couple years, and now Barnes has introduced a new bullet with a polymer tip and a tungsten rear core. This gives it a sleeker profile, and shortens the over all length of the bullet.

Testing them first in the 30-06, the 180 MRX shot equal to the TSX with 48 gr of AA 4064, and the best part is they had the same point of impact (POI). This is good, because MRX are quite expensive, and this means I can zero with TSX and hunt with MRX without spending a fortune.

We also tried the 180 MRX in the 300 RUM with 90 gr of H1000. Here the POI was not the same as the 180 TSX, as this gun happened to print only 1½” from where the TSX hit so 6 clicks of windage could solve that.

This week I also installed a new Lothar Walther 300 Winchester barrel on my Pre 64 M 70. I had been using an F34 contour 24” .650 Muz. Diameter Adams & Bennett barrel, and now this is a 25” # 3 Sporter with a .630 Muz.

This is just a bit slimmer than the other barrel and also the throat is .100 shorter, so this will be interesting to see how much difference there will be.

Whoa, I am impressed with this barrel.

With a mixture of ammo consisting of 180 gr Hornady Inter-Bond, Barnes TSX, and Federal Classic Sierra Pro-Hunters, they all went into a 1¼” group. This now is going to be a great hunting rifle, as I can switch things around without the worry of point of impact changes.

The velocities were also “above” average compared to the original barrel, so it was a win-win situation.

On the other end of the scale, I also test fired a FN “Patrol” rifle in a 308 caliber with a 20” heavy barrel. with a big Springfield scope on it.

I was really looking forward to some “one-hole” groups with this rifle, but ended up very disappointed.

Granted it was brand new and had not been broken in, but it sure should have grouped a whole lot better than it did.

First I zeroed it with some military ball ammo to get on the paper.

I then proceeded to shoot several five shot groups with reloads consisting of Winchester 748 powder and 150 gr Hornady Spire Points and 168 gr Sierra Match King Boat Tails. Sadly to say, neither performed anywhere near my expectations.

So this gun is going back to the manufacturer for a over haul, as we found that the recoil lugs on the bolt were only contacting one side, and the bolt face was so skewed, that the case was only contacting one side of it.

Feel free to write anytime if I can help you with your trip to the range at tblauwkamp@superior-sales.com