icebear
Sako-addicted
Took a few of my favorite toys to the range yesterday for some exercise and ammo testing. I had seen some promising results with Winchester 40-grain ammo in a couple of rifles and wanted to see how it did in various rifles, and I wanted to get some exercise with a couple of guns that I hadn't fired in a very long time. The selected toys are all chambered in .222.
L46 Heavy barrel - Custom, attributed to Al Biesen
L461 Sporter - Custom, signed by E.O. Audette
L461 Full-length Mannlicher rifle
L461 Mannlicher carbine
In addition to the Winchester 40-grainers, I had an assortment of ammo from Remington, Federal, and Lapua. Most of the day was pretty routine, with groups running around an inch most of the time. There were, however, a couple of surprises. I started each gun with a three-round group from an ancient box of Remington 50-grain soft points, just to check the zero and foul the barrel. This ammo was so old that it came in a green and red box and had domed primers! If anybody knows how long ago Remington stopped using green/red packaging, please post - I'm curious. The very first group I fired from the heavy L46 was the best of the day - a single figure-8 shaped hole measuring about 5/16" center to center. It doesn't get much better than that, especially with antique ammo. The next surprise was a half-inch group out of the carbine with the 40-grain ammo. That bears some follow-up; I'll see if I can repeat that and maybe try some other brands or load some 40-grain bullets myself. And the Mannlicher-style long rifle produced a group under 3/4" with Federal 55-grain FMJ ammo. Why anybody even makes military-style ball ammo for a .222 is a mystery to me, but I picked it up cheap at a show and plinking ammo is where you find it. I've got some other 55-grain ammo around and I'll see if the full-stock rifle likes it. That rifle normally shoots around an inch or a bit over, so the improvement with the heavier bullet may be significant.
I had several groups with two rounds touching or nearly so, and the third one well off. I think that shows that I need more practice! My aging eyesight isn't helping any, either. Might be time for another new pair of glasses.
The Winchester 40-grain ammo didn't fit in the L46 magazine, so it had to be single loaded into the L46. It turns out that the long plastic tip puts the cartridge well over SAAMI spec for .222. Max OAL is 2.130"; the Winchester ammo measures 2.20". The L46 mag measures about 2.160 so it will take SAAMI spec ammo but not the extra-long Winchester. The L461's internal magazine feeds the over-length ammo with no problem.
Here are the guns, with some pics of ammo and targets.
Custom L46 Heavy barrel and 6.5-20x Leupold (top):
Target:
Very old box of Remington ammo:
L461 Carbine with 3.9x Zeiss Diavari-C:
Target (group is at upper right edge):
L461 Mannlicher rifle (shown with 12x Burris; gun now has a Zeiss 10x Diatal-C):
E.O. Audette custom L461 with 4-12x Burris Mini in Conetrol mounts:
L46 Heavy barrel - Custom, attributed to Al Biesen
L461 Sporter - Custom, signed by E.O. Audette
L461 Full-length Mannlicher rifle
L461 Mannlicher carbine
In addition to the Winchester 40-grainers, I had an assortment of ammo from Remington, Federal, and Lapua. Most of the day was pretty routine, with groups running around an inch most of the time. There were, however, a couple of surprises. I started each gun with a three-round group from an ancient box of Remington 50-grain soft points, just to check the zero and foul the barrel. This ammo was so old that it came in a green and red box and had domed primers! If anybody knows how long ago Remington stopped using green/red packaging, please post - I'm curious. The very first group I fired from the heavy L46 was the best of the day - a single figure-8 shaped hole measuring about 5/16" center to center. It doesn't get much better than that, especially with antique ammo. The next surprise was a half-inch group out of the carbine with the 40-grain ammo. That bears some follow-up; I'll see if I can repeat that and maybe try some other brands or load some 40-grain bullets myself. And the Mannlicher-style long rifle produced a group under 3/4" with Federal 55-grain FMJ ammo. Why anybody even makes military-style ball ammo for a .222 is a mystery to me, but I picked it up cheap at a show and plinking ammo is where you find it. I've got some other 55-grain ammo around and I'll see if the full-stock rifle likes it. That rifle normally shoots around an inch or a bit over, so the improvement with the heavier bullet may be significant.
I had several groups with two rounds touching or nearly so, and the third one well off. I think that shows that I need more practice! My aging eyesight isn't helping any, either. Might be time for another new pair of glasses.
The Winchester 40-grain ammo didn't fit in the L46 magazine, so it had to be single loaded into the L46. It turns out that the long plastic tip puts the cartridge well over SAAMI spec for .222. Max OAL is 2.130"; the Winchester ammo measures 2.20". The L46 mag measures about 2.160 so it will take SAAMI spec ammo but not the extra-long Winchester. The L461's internal magazine feeds the over-length ammo with no problem.
Here are the guns, with some pics of ammo and targets.
Custom L46 Heavy barrel and 6.5-20x Leupold (top):
Target:
Very old box of Remington ammo:
L461 Carbine with 3.9x Zeiss Diavari-C:
Target (group is at upper right edge):
L461 Mannlicher rifle (shown with 12x Burris; gun now has a Zeiss 10x Diatal-C):
E.O. Audette custom L461 with 4-12x Burris Mini in Conetrol mounts: