Range day with the 81 .30 Rem

Posts about the Model 81~Woodsmaster~
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9.3shooter
Posts: 154
Joined: Mon Mar 08, 2021 10:08 am

Range day with the 81 .30 Rem

Post by 9.3shooter »

Loaded up a couple boxes of loads and off I went. First load was 170 Speer FN bullets over Varget powder, mostly because I have a lot of it. First shot at 50 yards with a sight in load of the same bullet and 28 grs of 3031 landed near center. Seems like a good start, a second round however landed about 3 inches higher.
Put it out to 100 yard with the same sighter load and it hit the target low but this is without any sight changes. Proceeded to shoot that load by 4 shot groups and upping the charge. Rifle seems not to care too much for this combo. I was however struggling big time with the open sights today and my 67 year old eyes, so that is part of it.
I had loaded up another load using a Midway Remington 165 gr spitzer over IMR 4895 and at 50 yards, 3 of the 4 shots were under an inch! Took the next group to 100 and while I lost one, simply couldnt find it on the target already full of holes: 3 of the 4 went into 3 inches, a whole lot better than the first load which printed patterns not groups.
Of prime importance though is that the rifle worked perfectly, no function issues of any kind and I never touched the sights though I had expected to. I like that the rifle doesnt fling brass into the next area code too, they pop up, bounce off my noggin and land on the bench.
Will finish up the spitzer load next week and maybe another load as well.
These are neat rifles, glad I got this one and in another thread you can read that I have another one coming!
MinnesotaDan
Posts: 170
Joined: Sun Jul 21, 2019 4:17 pm

Re: Range day with the 81 .30 Rem

Post by MinnesotaDan »

Nice work! Looks like that spitzer bullet flies a bit better than the flat nose.
9.3shooter
Posts: 154
Joined: Mon Mar 08, 2021 10:08 am

Re: Range day with the 81 .30 Rem

Post by 9.3shooter »

Thanks! On the other hand my rifle just might not like Varget, though it usually works well in .30 caliber. I chose it mostly because I have a lot of it, and much less or almost nothing of 4895 or 4064, what with the shortages right now.
Still have nearly a pound of 3031 which is classic powder for such loads.
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