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Greetings,

I already asked this question on a Danish discussion board, but I was suggested by another member to ask a the question here also. Let's try!

So I have this Howa 1500 rifle i bought for building a long range capable rifle.. I will try to make my story short at to the point.

First I bedded this stock hunting rifle using the principles of stress free pillar bedding:



I only shot few rounds, however, accuracy was definitely submoa with 308w Norma factory ammunition.

Then I build my own AICS style chassis, and I bedded the rifle like this:





Only places of contact between chassis and action are in the spherical front of the recoil lug, the vertical plane in the back for the recoil lug and the horizontal plane at the rear action bolt. First I tighten the bolt in the recoil lug to wedge the recoil lug in the bedded cavity. Afterwards I tighten the rear action bolt gently.

Knowing that I wanted to get a new barrel chambered in a new caliber better suited for LR, I only shot a few rounds with the stock barrel and factory ammunition (still Norma Golden Target 308w). Accuracy was now 1/2 moa or better and that was even shooting the chassis raw without skins to grip.

Now I have got the barrel changed to a 23" Lothar Walther heavy barrel chambered in 7mm-08 with 1-9 twist and completed the rest of the rifle in a new and better home made chassis. Unfortunately the accuracy has disappeard for a while. I'm reloading my own rounds now and therefore there are several new factors in the equation.

I load 162gr Hornady A-max in necked down 308w Norma brass with Reload Swiss 60 powder. I'm very thorough and pernickety when reloading, and having read lots of great stuff abouts 162gr A-max in 7mm-08 I had great expectations.

First I have tried 6 different powder loads from 42 to 45,5 with the same COAL on 72,5mm. All of them grouped between 50 and 30mm. I now measure max COAL to 75,2mm and therefore made the next test loads with variable COAL and two different charges for each COAL. All of them grouped between 30mm and 50mm.

Now I ask the question of what you would do next in the pursuit for accuracy. I build the rifle to go below ½ moa, but there are some road left.

Would you continue with different ammunition (different powders and bullets) or do you see any red flags regarding my chassis/bedding/barrel setup? You can see more photos of my rifle project on this page:

http://nordisk-forum.dk/viewtopic.php?f=49&t=53710

Thanks in advance!

Søren from DK