What's your favourite "varmint" rifle, and what for?

[CJRBOLTGUN1]

I though my suggestion of 270Win was excessive for a Varmint cartridge....300SAUM.. I guess it comes down to the size of your Varmints!

really comes down to personal choice,
If we weren't so restricted id have a top-notch AR with QD scope and thermal on the ready ,that would pretty much cover most of my needs, the bolt actions would probably get sold off or sit idle in the safe

[Wapiti]

I though my suggestion of 270Win was excessive for a Varmint cartridge....300SAUM.. I guess it comes down to the size of your Varmints!

Yeah true... But it's all I've got that fits the bill at this moment mate.
I have other heavy stuff but it's way more extreme.
The lighter for calibre bullets in .30 will be screaming out, so making sure the game isn't too big in that case is really something I'll have to watch for.

I know from trying in a 300 RUM Sendero years ago, that an 110gn V-max goes so fast that it just turns into a grey streak that ends at about 30-40m.
So you can go too far.
But I think it's all about having fun doing it, not purely doing the job just adequately or economically, surely?

[Wapiti]

According to the ADI online reloaders guide, with 2208 I can expect over 3500fps from any of the 125gn bullets. In that fat little shortarse case.
I do remember Win 760 was very fast with 150gn bullets, I suppose I'll have to check an old version of Uncle Nick's manual.

I wonder why I have used magnum primers in the past. That case is the same length as 308 Win, so hmmmm.

[Damo300]

According to the ADI online reloaders guide, with 2208 I can expect over 3500fps from any of the 125gn bullets. In that fat little shortarse case.
I do remember Win 760 was very fast with 150gn bullets, I suppose I'll have to check an old version of Uncle Nick's manual.

I wonder why I have used magnum primers in the past. That case is the same length as 308 Win, so hmmmm.

Haha...creature of habit.
I was using LR primers in my 300wm about 2 yrs ago when you couldn't get magnum primers.
No shift in grouping, just 50fps difference in barrel speed. That's when I founded the white river primers.
I may even just keep using them when the magnums run out. Cheaper. Same effect on animals at 200yds.


3500 is moving for sure.
Looking forward to the results.

[bigrich]

I though my suggestion of 270Win was excessive for a Varmint cartridge....300SAUM.. I guess it comes down to the size of your Varmints!

Yeah true... But it's all I've got that fits the bill at this moment mate.
I have other heavy stuff but it's way more extreme.
The lighter for calibre bullets in .30 will be screaming out, so making sure the game isn't too big in that case is really something I'll have to watch for.

I know from trying in a 300 RUM Sendero years ago, that an 110gn V-max goes so fast that it just turns into a grey streak that ends at about 30-40m.
So you can go too far.
But I think it's all about having fun doing it, not purely doing the job just adequately or economically, surely?

christ mate , are you trying to scare ferals to death by sending meteors in their direction ! grey streak , probably over 4000fps hey ?
barrel might foul up quick as well methinks

[Wapiti]

Well, the old "Shootin' Chrony" (don't laugh, that was what it was called), the dark green metal box things you folded open with the wire sticks and the white plastic screens - would read "error" every shot so I could not get a velocity.
We were at Belmont SSAA rifle range and I remember being dobbed in to the RO that we were doing something dangerous, nobody asked us though, so dobbing was the next step for that kind of personality. Luckily it was Bernie (RO on the day) and he'd set them straight, basically to mind their own business.
Then, they'd run to the shop and whinge about the RO.
We always copped it, especially with the big rifles and especially with brakes. It brought out the small people and gave them a reason to squeal.
The worst thing SSAA did when revamping those range benches was not reinstalling the divider walls between shooters, so it was easier to see people playing up.
Blasts from men's guns upset the little girls on the next bench after that.
But seriously, in the field, nobody with a brain sits right next to you in real world shooting and has to cop that blast, whether from brake or just a large fun cartridge, but at this range, you are forced to. Typical decisions made for the lowest common denominator, by a committee.
Which exposes people at a rifle range, to cop rifle range noises. Oh, heavens!

[Wapiti]

About two years ago, I got back into chrono'ing ammo as I was doing new stuff, and was sick of just doing field culling stuff cos I had to. So I dragged the old "Chrony" out and when I removed it from the toolbag we stashed it in, the clip-together plastic screens disintegrated into crumbled white crap.
I stuffed around with making substitute screens from opaque sheet, but although it worked, the whole thing became annoying.
So the Garmin was bought.

[Wapiti]

I though my suggestion of 270Win was excessive for a Varmint cartridge....300SAUM.. I guess it comes down to the size of your Varmints!

Yeah true... But it's all I've got that fits the bill at this moment mate.
I have other heavy stuff but it's way more extreme.
The lighter for calibre bullets in .30 will be screaming out, so making sure the game isn't too big in that case is really something I'll have to watch for.

I know from trying in a 300 RUM Sendero years ago, that an 110gn V-max goes so fast that it just turns into a grey streak that ends at about 30-40m.
So you can go too far.
But I think it's all about having fun doing it, not purely doing the job just adequately or economically, surely?

christ mate , are you trying to scare ferals to death by sending meteors in their direction ! grey streak , probably over 4000fps hey ?
barrel might foul up quick as well methinks

I think, well over 4000 mate.
But it didn't happen in the barrel, it happened/started about a few metres? in front of the barrel.
No abnormal fouling, no difference between a humble 308 and the same bore size burning more than twice the powder each shot.
How much fun is that!

[Fester]

According to the ADI online reloaders guide, with 2208 I can expect over 3500fps from any of the 125gn bullets. In that fat little shortarse case.
I do remember Win 760 was very fast with 150gn bullets, I suppose I'll have to check an old version of Uncle Nick's manual.

I wonder why I have used magnum primers in the past. That case is the same length as 308 Win, so hmmmm.

Haha...creature of habit.
I was using LR primers in my 300wm about 2 yrs ago when you couldn't get magnum primers.
No shift in grouping, just 50fps difference in barrel speed. That's when I founded the white river primers.
I may even just keep using them when the magnums run out. Cheaper. Same effect on animals at 200yds.


3500 is moving for sure.
Looking forward to the results.

They may work fine, but a pierced primer can burn your face, how do I know, lol
Cheek is better than the eye, I guess.

There must be a reason for magnum primers, be it the stronger spark, cap, or both.
The one I would choose would be the Indian #34 LR primers as they are hotter than the other LR std primers.
Likely stronger as well, but I can't be sure of that.
Shops should be keen to sell their stocks on sale by now.

I actually got a big velocity increase in a particular load, and still use them for that warm deer hunting load.

A good bloke I met on the first testing day also found them hotter and suited to his 7mm Rem mag.

I bought a second box of those, but back to CCI now.

[Wapiti]

there's a bloke on YouTube, who is self-termed "The Real Gunsmith" who makes some unreal custom rifles and is highly regarded.

He did a video on primers available in the US, and one thing of much interest was that the standard old lowly-regarded Winchester Large Riflr WLR primers had a hotter, longer flame than many big name LR magnum primers.
Not as hot as the big names that are essential in the RUMs, 300-378 and 338-378 Weatherbys and the 338 Lapua like Fed 215 magnums etc, but apparently, very close.
The Win LRM's are hotter !!!!

[ButchDDG41]

I though my suggestion of 270Win was excessive for a Varmint cartridge....300SAUM.. I guess it comes down to the size of your Varmints!

Yeah true... But it's all I've got that fits the bill at this moment mate.
I have other heavy stuff but it's way more extreme.
The lighter for calibre bullets in .30 will be screaming out, so making sure the game isn't too big in that case is really something I'll have to watch for.

I know from trying in a 300 RUM Sendero years ago, that an 110gn V-max goes so fast that it just turns into a grey streak that ends at about 30-40m.
So you can go too far.
But I think it's all about having fun doing it, not purely doing the job just adequately or economically, surely?

I have seen that with my 22-250 before. Must have been moving because it spun apart around 50 meters from the barrel. One reason why I am shying away from a much faster twisting barrel for that rifle.

But you are right. Some things we do just for fun.

[Wapiti]

Absolutely mate. Have fun!

How clearly I remember the blokes with whatever rifle they have, at Belmont, each time they come out they have tweaked something else with their rifle, usually an "everyone's got one" safe-choice rifle, testing some loads with such seriousness.
Nothing wrong with that!
But then, when we put some big guns next to them, and have a bit of a laugh doing the same thing old mate next door bench is doing, but with a bit more noise or a more niche rifle, they get all wound up and scuttle off to dob us in to the RO.
For god's sake, people need to have more fun. Or some of us suffer from that disease, anyway.

[Damo300]

Absolutely mate. Have fun!

How clearly I remember the blokes with whatever rifle they have, at Belmont, each time they come out they have tweaked something else with their rifle, usually an "everyone's got one" safe-choice rifle, testing some loads with such seriousness.
Nothing wrong with that!
But then, when we put some big guns next to them, and have a bit of a laugh doing the same thing old mate next door bench is doing, but with a bit more noise or a more niche rifle, they get all wound up and scuttle off to dob us in to the RO.
For god's sake, people need to have more fun. Or some of us suffer from that disease, anyway.

Belmont is very strict.
No loading of magazines.
Single shot only on under and overs on clays...WTF?.....Pay full price for clays and you can only load one barrel???
My goodness me.

And you're not allowed to shoot 300wm at SSAA Belmont anymore. 7remmag is okay, but 300 isn't. Something about energy down range.
Plus the whole joints on a downhill lean, unless you're in the concrete box.
Whinging bitch I am....haha

Edit...but I was never a dobber ..

[Fester]

there's a bloke on YouTube, who is self-termed "The Real Gunsmith" who makes some unreal custom rifles and is highly regarded.

He did a video on primers available in the US, and one thing of much interest was that the standard old lowly-regarded Winchester Large Riflr WLR primers had a hotter, longer flame than many big name LR magnum primers.
Not as hot as the big names that are essential in the RUMs, 300-378 and 338-378 Weatherbys and the 338 Lapua like Fed 215 magnums etc, but apparently, very close.
The Win LRM's are hotter !!!!

I used to watch a few of the old gunsmiths vids, but haven't seen any for a while now; I almost clicked on him the other week, but didn't. It was about a hunt, so he must still be doing it.

He did seem to build some good rifles, then loaded to get the best from them.
Also staunchly pushed the "use a projectile designed for hunting" on game.
It had me wondering about boat tails and stuff, as they could let the jacket separate more easily, when you think about it.

I must have tried about 6 different primer brands during the great primer shortage.
Just fear as I was buying a box of CCI every gun shop visit during the lead-up years.

Those #34s were the only real change for my loads, and only that Swede 2213sc load really.
It shot about an inch higher at 100m and got close to 100fps more velocity.
Still do them to take that advantage.

It's funny, but the other 6.5 in Gaylord, shooting 140 target pills, didn't show much change regarding where the group hit on the 500m big plate. That is just your std 41gr of 09, like most blokes' load.

Sort of shows a primer can make a difference, but only sometimes: a longer case loaded with more, and slower powder.
Sort of makes sense to me, and makes me not jump away from magnum primers for their recommended uses.

Just my view, and other stuff sure does work as well.

Sadly, primers don't cost 7c anymore.

[CJRBOLTGUN1]

there's a bloke on YouTube, who is self-termed "The Real Gunsmith" who makes some unreal custom rifles and is highly regarded.

He did a video on primers available in the US, and one thing of much interest was that the standard old lowly-regarded Winchester Large Riflr WLR primers had a hotter, longer flame than many big name LR magnum primers.
Not as hot as the big names that are essential in the RUMs, 300-378 and 338-378 Weatherbys and the 338 Lapua like Fed 215 magnums etc, but apparently, very close.
The Win LRM's are hotter !!!!

I watch some of his stuff, very knowledgeable fella, but what he claims about primers didn't really hold true for me and my findings,

I've chrono'd the Winchester large rifle and found them to be on par with what I use, mainly cci br2 in large rifle and agreed the 215 are hotter but I wouldn't consider a 50fps average increase over the Winchester as very close, that's my findings in some 308w loads

[bigrich]

there's a bloke on YouTube, who is self-termed "The Real Gunsmith" who makes some unreal custom rifles and is highly regarded.

He did a video on primers available in the US, and one thing of much interest was that the standard old lowly-regarded Winchester Large Riflr WLR primers had a hotter, longer flame than many big name LR magnum primers.
Not as hot as the big names that are essential in the RUMs, 300-378 and 338-378 Weatherbys and the 338 Lapua like Fed 215 magnums etc, but apparently, very close.
The Win LRM's are hotter !!!!

i found a list on a yank forum rating primer burn heat , and win LR were the hottest out of LR primers . i use the win primers in most of my loads , especially when i'm getting close to burning 60gn of powder . in most cases win LR primers give best accuracy , but the win LR primers i have are soft cups and don't seat in the brass as tight as remington primers . that's what i've found anyway

[Wapiti]

We must all not forget that a hotter primer doesn't necessarily mean a faster chrony result. It just means a bigger/longer/hotter flame that is meant to ensure there are no hangfires with el-largo cases full of powder.

I did a test once with the Federal 215M primers meant for the 338 Lapua, 300RUM, 338-378 Weatherby etc and tried them in my 300 Win Mag Sako TRG.
No difference in velocity, no change of impact with the 178gn ELD-M match bullets I was throwing across the hills.
I'm sure someone will try and correct me and say that they do, well maybe that does happen but didn't in that example I just gave. So I didn't try that in anything else, FFS there are enough variables and combinations already to iron out!

[Wapiti]

there's a bloke on YouTube, who is self-termed "The Real Gunsmith" who makes some unreal custom rifles and is highly regarded.

He did a video on primers available in the US, and one thing of much interest was that the standard old lowly-regarded Winchester Large Riflr WLR primers had a hotter, longer flame than many big name LR magnum primers.
Not as hot as the big names that are essential in the RUMs, 300-378 and 338-378 Weatherbys and the 338 Lapua like Fed 215 magnums etc, but apparently, very close.
The Win LRM's are hotter !!!!

i found a list on a yank forum rating primer burn heat , and win LR were the hottest out of LR primers . i use the win primers in most of my loads , especially when i'm getting close to burning 60gn of powder . in most cases win LR primers give best accuracy , but the win LR primers i have are soft cups and don't seat in the brass as tight as remington primers . that's what i've found anyway

Yeah, that "The Real Gunsmith" isn't the only source I've seen that said too, blokes were using them in some pretty large cases with 100gns or more of powder when they couldn't get Magnum primers during the Covid experiment.
People tried many other LR primers of different big names and all caused hangfires (Bad, M'k?) but the plain jane old Win WLR primers showed they had the extra juice.

[bigrich]

there's a bloke on YouTube, who is self-termed "The Real Gunsmith" who makes some unreal custom rifles and is highly regarded.

He did a video on primers available in the US, and one thing of much interest was that the standard old lowly-regarded Winchester Large Riflr WLR primers had a hotter, longer flame than many big name LR magnum primers.
Not as hot as the big names that are essential in the RUMs, 300-378 and 338-378 Weatherbys and the 338 Lapua like Fed 215 magnums etc, but apparently, very close.
The Win LRM's are hotter !!!!

i found a list on a yank forum rating primer burn heat , and win LR were the hottest out of LR primers . i use the win primers in most of my loads , especially when i'm getting close to burning 60gn of powder . in most cases win LR primers give best accuracy , but the win LR primers i have are soft cups and don't seat in the brass as tight as remington primers . that's what i've found anyway

Yeah, that "The Real Gunsmith" isn't the only source I've seen that said too, blokes were using them in some pretty large cases with 100gns or more of powder when they couldn't get Magnum primers during the Covid experiment.
People tried many other LR primers of different big names and all caused hangfires (Bad, M'k?) but the plain jane old Win WLR primers showed they had the extra juice.

win primers are also good in the cold . we have a yearly comp between ADA and SSAA at ripley . one year i noticed my loads seeming soft on recoil and report , accuracy was terrible . was using FED 210 primers at the time , others reported similar results . now i use win primers and have my ammo sit next to a ally water bottle filled with hot water . never had that problem since .
it would also explain poor results when using RE22 and fed primers up on mount mckenzie years ago on goats . all my shots were going really low . i put it down to RE22 having a reputation for load sensitivity due to temperature . bin using ADI ever since

[Damo300]

We must all not forget that a hotter primer doesn't necessarily mean a faster chrony result. It just means a bigger/longer/hotter flame that is meant to ensure there are no hangfires with el-largo cases full of powder.

I did a test once with the Federal 215M primers meant for the 338 Lapua, 300RUM, 338-378 Weatherby etc and tried them in my 300 Win Mag Sako TRG.
No difference in velocity, no change of impact with the 178gn ELD-M match bullets I was throwing across the hills.
I'm sure someone will try and correct me and say that they do, well maybe that does happen but didn't in that example I just gave. So I didn't try that in anything else, FFS there are enough variables and combinations already to iron out!

Yeah, I reckon the differences I saw between LR and MR were just the ES of the loads.

I don't have the info saved from back then to compare, but the difference in speed was insignificant, however from memory it was only to the effect of 50fps at times.


Interesting regarding holes in LRs Fester...thanks for the heads up.
I've loaded a few in the past with no failures, not to say they won't fail that is.
I'll be prepared.
I am going to load up some LRs in the 7 and 300, and take them out next time and run them over the chrono.

[straightshooter]

there's a bloke on YouTube, who is self-termed "The Real Gunsmith" who makes some unreal custom rifles and is highly regarded.

He did a video on primers available in the US, and one thing of much interest was that the standard old lowly-regarded Winchester Large Riflr WLR primers had a hotter, longer flame than many big name LR magnum primers.
Not as hot as the big names that are essential in the RUMs, 300-378 and 338-378 Weatherbys and the 338 Lapua like Fed 215 magnums etc, but apparently, very close.
The Win LRM's are hotter !!!!

i found a list on a yank forum rating primer burn heat , and win LR were the hottest out of LR primers . i use the win primers in most of my loads , especially when i'm getting close to burning 60gn of powder . in most cases win LR primers give best accuracy , but the win LR primers i have are soft cups and don't seat in the brass as tight as remington primers . that's what i've found anyway

Yeah, that "The Real Gunsmith" isn't the only source I've seen that said too, blokes were using them in some pretty large cases with 100gns or more of powder when they couldn't get Magnum primers during the Covid experiment.
People tried many other LR primers of different big names and all caused hangfires (Bad, M'k?) but the plain jane old Win WLR primers showed they had the extra juice.

win primers are also good in the cold . we have a yearly comp between ADA and SSAA at ripley . one year i noticed my loads seeming soft on recoil and report , accuracy was terrible . was using FED 210 primers at the time , others reported similar results . now i use win primers and have my ammo sit next to a ally water bottle filled with hot water . never had that problem since .
it would also explain poor results when using RE22 and fed primers up on mount mckenzie years ago on goats . all my shots were going really low . i put it down to RE22 having a reputation for load sensitivity due to temperature . bin using ADI ever since

Why is any of this such a surprise to seasoned reloaders?
Winchester primers from years ago used to state "for Standard and Magnum loads".
Think about it, their primers had to reliably ignite ball powders which can be hard to ignite due to being covered in a deterrent coating and having no sharp corners like extruded or flake powders which facilitate relatively easy ignition.
Despite the label changes I doubt if the formulation of the primer has changed.