Interesting find in the ammo stash.

I was looking for a box of oddball ammo that a friend was interested in and I was digging through a 20mm ammo can of various jacketed ammo trying to find it. No luck, but way down at the bottom I found something strange. It was an old green mtm 50rd box with just a tiny label that said "8x57 tests/4064". It's my handwriting. No clue, so I open it. Inside I find a little slip of paper with the charge data for three incremental tests, thirty loaded rounds of Sierra 150's and twenty empties. There is no lot number and no date on this test and I have no memory of loading them because I started keeping track of every round I loaded and notes on my tests sometime in the mid-80's. So as far as I can figure I loaded them about forty years ago and was happy enough at the time with my now-standard loading that I never bothered to shoot them. Note: my GoTo jacketed 8x57 load uses a mild charge of 3031 under a 150gr Sierra PH at somewhere around 23-2400fps and is good for just under 2MOA. I have no records of the tests and workups, just the load data that I have been using ever since in both my own and my bro's sporterized Mausers.

So, yesterday I brought them to the range and shot some groups with two of the three loads. One of them gave me a pair of 5rd 100yd groups of less than 3". Next time I will shoot the third and see if load #3 tightens up some more. If nothing else it gives me fifty more cases to load up with the cast bullets I shoot in the old girl, but if it works I might have had a decent load sitting undiscovered in the ammo stash for all these years at a good bit more velocity, not that I need it but hey it never hurts. Never did find the oddball rounds I was looking for. Go figure. But you know, every time I shoot this 99 year old lady I fall in love with her all over again. :mrgreen:

I have "found" 6 ziplocks with 300wm different loads from 15 years ago recently.
I'll have to liberate them from their neglect!

Shot the third test load today, not the sub-2" I get with the 3031 load I use in it, but 2.5" & 3" 100yd groups are not too shabby for a 99 year old lady and at estimated 300fps faster than my standard. I will make a note of it. Beautiful sunny day, might have gone over 60, bit breezy so we had to get creative with the targets as though mostly snowless the ground is still frozen and we can't push in our usual holders that even work in snow.

I have a 30+ yr old undated (first of my loading logs starts in 85 and I mark every load with a lot number) slip of paper stuck into the 50rd box with the bullet, primer, and test loads' weight increments of which there were only three. I want to know why but my loading manuals are in storage. Please anyone with a Sierra manual, what are the 4064 charge increments/mv estimates with the 150gr Pro Hunter spitzer flat base. I'm sure I will find these exact increments in my two-editions-ago copy I used back then but it is in storage too and I would like to know the current published numbers and how they compare with these to consider additional tests and maybe a chrono session when I have all the best cast loads to check. Sierra's test gun shot my 3031 load about 100fps faster (shorter barrel), interesting to see if the same for the 4064.

Shoot the .300's yet Clayt?

Versifier, here's what I have:
Sierra Reloading manual 5th Edition
IMR 4064 tested 45.1 gr. @ 2400 fps, 46.6 gr. @ 2500 fps, 48.1 gr. @ 2600 fps, 49.6 @ 2700 fps, 51.1 gr. @ 2800 fps
Sierra says they got the best accuracy with 50.8 gr. Varget @ 2700 fps, best hunting loads with 50.5 gr. IMR 4895 @ 2611 fps.

I thank you sir. Someone is sleeping in the room I left my shooting bag. When they get up I will dig out the paper, compare the numbers, and figure out what I did. I'm thinking these were low end loads as I have never felt like shooting anything hot in the old girl, and I do know none of them were up to 50gr. I do remember that in the early days I would simply go with the manual's increments whatever they were. It wasn't until later when I got a really accurate rifle that I started to test between. The increments don't always change from one manual to the next edition, but when they do it will help me narrow down the interval during which I loaded them.

I'm waiting until mud season is over

They were the low end loads. 45.7/2500 through 49.1/2700. There are twenty unloaded cases in the box. I figure a) I ran out of powder, b) I ran out of bullets, or c) I didn't want to push the old girl. With 3031 she started showing primer flattening about halfway up the charge table. This winter is really the first jacketed loads I've shot in it for over twenty years. I have worn out two Lee 2cav moulds loading for four of these old girls, but only one of them is mine.

If we're not careful Clayt, mud season will last longer this year than winter did.

Mud Season Whats that:mrgreen:

You are quite welcome. Glad I could help.

Drives me nuts having my reference library in storage while we sell this house. My daughter rolls her eyes and says "Why can't you look things up on the internet like everyone else does?" I said "I do. I post on the internet and one of my friends looks up what I need in HIS library and posts it back to me."

You can't just google this stuff, at least not yet. Or more honestly finding it that way is often either not within my skills set or it never occurs to me that information should be found anywhere but in an actual solid readable book. The current system is way faster than writing a letter and waiting three or four weeks to maybe get a reply though. When I started loading my mentor lived two states away and neither of us had phone service. I'm happy with the improvement. And I still remember what book the info I want is in, usually, even if I can't remember where I left the book. :mrgreen:

I'm ignoring you Mark. I'm betting the extreme lack of snow cover is going to cut short blackfly season considerably. Depends on if we get another spring monsoon. There was three feet in my yard last St Paddy's Day, this year I'm expecting robbins any day, weeks early, still a bit of winter in the higher elevations, but I'm just waiting for the ground to finish thawing to get the yard neatened up for showing.