Pennsylvania Game News - August 2010 - 63

found that the Savage and Browning were consistently uniform and very smooth, while the Enfield and Garand showed evidence of machine markings. This further solidifies that the velocities of this combination of brass, bullet, primer and powder were determined by chamber headspace, throat and FROM TOP TO BOTTOM using .30-06 factory Winchester barrel condition rather 150-grain Power Point bullets: Browning A-Bolt, 3,004 fps than barrel length. muzzle velocity; Savage Model 114, 3,060 fps; M1 Garand, Another variable 2,987 fps; Enfield 1917, 2,933 fps. could be the cartridge jammed the bullet into the lands far case volume. Many think that case weight enough to where it pushes the bullet far- goes hand in hand with case volume. ther into the case and your pressures will Which may translate into the heavier cases really peak. having less volume, therefore they should Land touching is used by many reach pressures faster, and the lighter ones benchrest and target shooters to milk ev- have more volume, which would reach ery possible bit of accuracy that they can pressures later. (they are talking about 1/4-MOA or That isn’t necessarily so. The only real smaller). But for all practical hunting pur- way to measure volume is to weigh an poses, it really serves no purpose. empty case, then weigh it again filled with A lot of regular factory ammo will shoot water and subtract the difference, which around 1 MOA or better, and premium will give you its true volume. For example, factory ammunition will often better that. my military cases empty weighed in at Carefully reloaded ammo that is at factory 199.5 grains, with water they were 269.6 spec length will shoot as good if not better grains, so the true volume is 70.1 grains. than premium ammunition. The Remington Peters cases dry weighed Another variable to consider is barrel 204.7 grains, wet they were 273.7, so the length. The Garand and Enfield barrels are true volume was 69 grains. The true vol24 inches long, the Savage is 22 inches and ume difference between cases is only 1.1 Browning has a 22-inch barrel (three grains as compared to the 5.2 grains differinches of that is the BOSS attachment, so ence between the dry cases. The lighter it is really 19 inches). We are lead to be- case certainly has less brass, but not that lieve that the longer barrels give faster ve- much more volume to affect the velocities locities, but in this case longer barrels have (at least in this case). comparatively no bearing. Looking further There are other variables that I can into the interior condition of the barrels, I think of that I didn’t cover, such as a change in primers, powder, or even comparing neck sizing versus full-length resizing Fun Game answers: with all the same components. If this arBLOOMS; witch hazel, mountain laurel, ticle has perked your curiosity, I look fortouch-me-not. ward to hearing from you. Just write me care of Game News.
AUGUST 2010 63

Pennsylvania Game News - August 2010

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