wallacem, 2 years ago I was wandering, looking for an Encore on the rack that might be interesting. I found one with a 28" Pro Hunter bbl in 338 Federal. It followed me home. I put a T/C 4x rifle scope on it with Warne High rings. It seemed to be an appropriate rig.
I seem to like chamberings that I can load for making up the brass from something else, ie: 7-30 Waters from 30-30, 256Win Mag from 357 mag........
So the 338 Federal seemed to fall right in with that line of thought.
I bought 500 pcs of once fired military 7.62x51 [NATO] brass, and worked very hard at prepping those cases. Mil brass, as it turns out has a few extra steps to be done. First, it was VERY dirty, and needed cleaning with Birchwood-Casey Case Cleaner. This is a "weak" acid that makes a few gallons from the bottle, and does a nice job. But first I deprimed with a universal deprimer die from LEE, as I wanted the primer pockets to be exposed to the cleaner. After depriming, I reamed the primer pockets with a tool from LYMAN to remove the "primer crimp" common to mil brass.
Now it is ready to size. Using a set of RCBS 338 Federal FL Dies, and plenty of LEE case lube, I still BROKE a LEE Challenger alloy press.....well I wanted a Rock Chucker anyway. Looking back, for the next batch of 1k NATO brass, I am going to anneal [heat soften] the brass before resizing. This is because after 1x firing, approx. 7/100 showed cracks in the middle of the case neck.
I decided to pursue the Hornady 200gr 338 cal Interlock bullet as I was looking for standard velocities, useful out to 200yds with powders I have on hand, AA2230, AA5744.IMR3031,AA2495. I did not want to start with premium bullets, though I hope to work up some Noslers for that probably will never happen dream hunt. The Hornadys come 100/box. I also got 6 boxes of 200gr "Blems" from Midway with the likelihood they are Hornady mfr'd.
By the way, the Nosler manual has load data for their bullets in 338Fed.
I did buy 2 boxes of 225gr Hornady Interlocks from a store closing for retirement. I am now glad I did that, at $15/ box, enabling me work up an elk/moose load.
My 100yd range time here in CT is expensive, and severely limited by my personal schedule, so I am still working up loads, since the Fall of 2008. I did like the way IMR 3031 shot in the Encore, the recoil seemed "smoother" than that from AA2230 and AA2495. I have not fired the AA5744 loads yet, as I only recently got that for my 45Colt.
I almost got into trouble with the AA2230, as I had originally ignored published warnings to reduce start loads by 10% with mil brass, as case capacity is less and pressures are higher. The midrange loads with that powder showed excessive pressures in that it was VERY hard to open the action. I stopped trying that load after 2 rounds.
Also, I was encouraged but not yet happy with the groups I saw with IMR 3031 and AA2495. The 2nd time out with these loads I was not able to get the 1 to 1.5" groups I saw the first time out. Maybe it was just a bad day.
Anyway, I have gone back to the drawing board as it were, and started over with 10% reduced loads to work up. I was not able to Chrony any of the previous loads, but I will be sure to do that this time around.
I want to get 1 to 1.5" groups at 2400fps for the 200gr Interlock. At 2" high at 100yd this will give me a 3" drop at 215yds.
With my 2nd trip out with [my 3rd with this rifle, the 2nd was to try cast bullets...another story....], I began to wonder if the 28" bbl may be part of the problem, being a little "whippy". The proper way to group with an Encore can take all day, not the 2 hours I had available, to allow the bbl to properly cool. So now I plan to work more diligently and regulary on this this year [resolution?], so I can develop a dependable load to have on hand.
I have no real urgency to get this done, as I hunt on State land, where only non-magnum rimfire, shotgun, and shotgun slug are permitted at certain seasons. Centerfire hunting is allowed on private land, but I don't currently have access to any.
My mind started wandering in regard to a different shorter, stiffer bbl for the Encore, and I was looking at MGM's offerings.
What bbl length did you get, what scope are you using with it?
Let us know how things are moving in regard to your load work up!
