MAGAZINE

THE HANDLOADING BENCH308 Winchester Rides Again Part 3By Laurie HollandBTLRsIt appears that SRP cases are notwell suited to chilly conditions withsome powders, Viht N140 and N550both struggling for instance. I’ll goa little further this month in theseside by side tests looking at Palmav standard Lapua brass resultsusing Berger’s 175gn BT Long-Range bullets and a trio of Hodgdonpowders: temperature-stable, easyto ignite Australian made VarGetand H4895 extruded products; USmanufactured ball or ‘spherical’H414 / W760 that is reputedly muchharder to fire up with consistentresults. I’ll then make a start onthe subject of heavy bullets, thatis 190-grains and above. This wasa subject I’d intended to addressanyway, but found it also links into‘Palma’ brass, most top GB F/TRshooters who use ‘heavies’ havingswitched to this case during the2011 season.Mid-weight Berger Long-Range BTs – the very effective175gn (centre) and 185gn ‘Juggernaut’ (right). 155gn SierraMK on the left for comparison.While Berger’s 185gn BT Long-Range (BTLR) modelhas quickly acquired a reputation as a solid longrangeperformer, so much so it’s been nicknamed the‘Juggernaut’ in US long-range circles, its 175gn siblingis less well known here.As with the one-eight-five it offers a higher BCthan the equivalent weight but older Berger 175VLD at 0.264 v 0.255 in G7 values, but note that it’smarginally less efficient than the new 168gn ‘Hybrid’which is rated at 0.266. (The 185gn BTLR is 0.283 forcomparison.) An attraction of the 175, the BTLR’strademark good manners in handloading matters likeCOAL / jump aside, is that a full-house load’s recoilwith this bullet weight is as much as many slingshooterscan take before it affects scores. It’s also wellsuited to the slow rifling twists used in TR / Fullborebarrels, 1-13” being near ideal. An added attraction,for us in the UK anyway, was that it remained availablethroughout 2010-11 while the 185gn model seemedon permanent back-order with our Berger importers,62