A Pair Of 30s To Draw To
A look into two worthy varmint/target cartridges Norman E. Johnson
the bigger bores or cartridges, even those that give you a good rap on the shoulder and the noise that goes with them. How- ever, these cartridges must rise to the task in accuracy along with an equally good target/varmint velocity or these rifl es will fi nd a new home. I continue to enjoy the challenge of shooting winter’s predators at long ranges with any rifl e and cartridge, including larger calibers, as long as it will send a bullet on a most accurate path to a distant target. Back in July 1996, The VARMINT
W
The exciting new cartridge to the author’s arsenal – the .30-06 Improved Ackley 40-degree – shoots incredibly well for a moderate recoil .30 caliber. These groups were made with Sierra and Berger bullets. Lapua cases were used to shoot these groups, which averaged 0.374" at 100 yards. Quite a nice varmint/target cartridge.
HUNTER Magazine®published my article on the 98 Mauser chambered for the .300 Winchester Magnum. It was a great long- range, winter fox and coyote rifl e with its heavy, varmint-target barrel. This rifl e came into my hands as a .308 Winchester and I granted it renewed power as a re- chambered .300 Winchester Magnum. My rifl e rack has other stompers that most wouldn’t dream of using as varminters. So in keeping with this tradition, I
recently added a couple of more .30s that initially were sort of stepchildren to my arsenal … but no more. They are now worthy cartridges of renowned stature. One is a .300 Winchester Short Magnum and the other a .30-06 Springfi eld Ackley Improved with 40-degree shoulder. I’ll briefl y describe these two cartridges be- fore I further discuss the rifl es each one is used in. Now, each time I use them I become more impassioned by them. This by no means lessens my interest in the smaller caliber, milder, cartridges. I share an equal fervid interest in them all, right down to the lowly .22 Long Rifl e. Somehow I liked the looks of the
These very excellent fi rst-shot groups were shot at 100 yards with the .300 Winchester Short Magnum cartridge. Groups were made using a few different match grade bullets including Sierra, Berger, and Nosler. (More to follow later.) The upper right group includes 10 shots into 0.375 inch using 168-grain Sierra Match King bullets. A few quarter-inch groups are shown here. Performance like this from a .30-caliber Magnum cartridge is rare.
Page 180 October — December 2011
.300 Winchester Short Magnum cartridge, even though I worked almost feverishly with Winchester’s Super Short Magnum series. It was the .300 Winchester Short Magnum cartridge that got me into a pretty serious bet that I could get my Win- chester Model 70 Stealth II rifl e to deliver half-minute-of-angle groups, and we will see a bit later how things played out here
hen it comes to shooting, I have never shied away from
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