A trip to the range last week with my Topper 30-30 reminded me how sensitive many of my H&R/NEF rifles are to cartridge overall length. Seated to a more "standard" length, accuracy was so-so at best. Seated way out to where the bullet was just short of the lands, the Topper became one of my best shooting big game rifles of any action type.
Of course this is due to the fact that (at least with most of my bottleneck chamberings), the Handi's (and this Topper) often have very long throats and in many cases, generous sized chambers (another challenge).
This week at the range with my new Handi .308 it happened again. My initial loadings were seated to the recommended C.O.L.. Accuracy was not good. So I went back and measured the throat length and seated the same bullet just short of the lands. Cartridge OAL went from about 2.75" to just short of 2.9 inches (about as far out as I could seat it). My first 2 shot group was with the original seating depth. Accuracy was the same, 2.2 inches. My next three two shot groups were with the same load/bullet seated out to the lands and accuracy improved to just under .6 inches averaqe.
I know the 2-shot group critique but its a start. I have started using this method (two shots fired as fast as I can reload and settle in) for my big game Handi's.
As a side note, if you have a bottleneck chambered Handi, especially one based on the .308 and accuracy is poor or in the case of several of my .243 Handis, terrible, try seating the bullets as as close to the lands as you can get and see if that helps. With the .243 this is a must sometimes if you're already using lighter, usually shorter bullets to make sure they stabilize properly. I rarely find accurate .243 factory ammo for my Handis due to the long throat and "freebore" issue.
