Lately I have been working on the Pawn Shop Precision Mauser. I basically took a decent commercial Mauser from a pawn shop that didn't shoot very well and had a few issues and I'm making it shoot. The other day I went to the range and got some very good results.
The first target here is of my latest adventure to the range. I think I found a winning load! To date, I have done a re-crown to the barrel, floated the barrel, and ran some JB bore Polish through the bore to try and help with copper fouling. These were 105 Hornady A-Max's. I'm not sure of the speed but I'm guessing in that 2,850 fps range. I did get a flier, but the 4 shots went in under 0.330". That's pretty good for a stock rifle. I am going to do a little more testing with this load to prove it.
This group was the very first time I shot it with some 85 gr Sierra's. As you can see minus our one flier, it initially shot these lighter bullets pretty good. However we are working with a 1-8" twist barrel. They do have the ability to shoot lighter bullets good, but usually shine with heavier bullets. There is more to it than just the weight of the bullet, but I'm keeping things simple here today.
This was the 1st and 2nd round testing results. 13 and 14 were 1st with 85 gr sierra's. The group under #12 were with another rifle I have. #15 and 18 were the 2nd time out with a new crown and 85 gr sierra's. #16 was some 90 gr Noslers which didn't shoot, that day but that was before the barrel float, I might come back to these. The bottom left group was a lighter load with the 105 A-Max before the barrel float and after a crown job.
This was the first group with 85 gr Sierra's after the barrel free float. I only shot one 5 shot group, and decided a second group wasn't going to tell me anything other than what this one did. I've since moved away from the 85 gr sierra's with this rifle. Typically these bullets shoot very well in many 6mm caliber rifles, and for sure in 10 twist barrels.
I next tried some 95 gr Hornady SST's. This was an interesting group due to the face that my vertical dispersion was very little, but my horizontal was quite a bit. I did have a bit of wind that day, but I would like to try this group again. This again was after the float and crown.
We still have a bit to do with this rifle to try and get everything we can out of it. I was using a Leupold VX-II 6-18x40 scope. All these groups were shot at 100 yards off a bench with a bi-pod and rear rest.
