Thread: Practice make perfect 300prc load development

I went home and loaded up 2 lots of test loads 8 rounds each....
78gn and 78.5gn
Then went back to the range.
Shot 7 of the 8 78gn loads (I had 1 primer fail to fire) accuracy was not stellar but not rubbish no pic but explanation coming.....
Shot 3 rounds of the 78.5gn load and was looking through the scope decidedly unimpressed, between the 2 groups I corrected the scope left 2" and down 3" however my poi had only shifted down 3" and despite the change in poi the group was shit house
Then I cycled the bolt to eject the spent case and that's when a small stainless screw fell from the rifle onto my shooting mat
Hadn't noticed any stainless screws when I stripped the rifle a week earlier, immediately began investigating where it had come from....nope all 12 scope ring screws present and correct (also not stainless), screws holding cant bubble all present and correct (not stainless either), even though I new there was no stainless screws in the saftey and trigger system I gave them both a good wiggle and tested function (nope no issue there either), finally a gave the scope a bit of a wiggle holding the front objective bell (seems ok there) then went to wiggle the rear occular bell when it became obvious where the screw Had left the chat from
Yup the rear most rail screw was missing and the second rear rail screw was only held in by the fact the ring was clamped over it.....mutter mutter expletive etc.....pack my shit up knowing full well the first ladder was likely a wasted exercise due to loose rail.
Thankfully I only shot 3 of the second charge weight.
Got home stripped the scope and rail off, threw the stainless screws away, replaced with some base screws I pinched off a set of talleys, there was no loctite or epoxy used when this rail was fitted by the previous owner so was a recipe for failure
I refitted using red loctite and torqued everything back up. Then went and loaded up enough rounds to re do my 2 test load charge weights 8 shots each, packed my shit back into the car and returned to the range.....tbc