The following data was developed in a Browning A-Bolt rifle. It has a 24-inch sporter weight barrel. We installed a Leupold 2.5 – 8 X scope in Redfield rings on a one-piece base.

Imperial brass was used throughout, together with Winchester large rifle magnum primers. We started off with the 100 grain Sierra HP bullet and Hodgdon H 4831 powder. The Hodgdon reloading manual # 26 had a starting charge of 70 grains for a velocity of 3481 fps. Imagine our surprise when our chronograph showed only 2925 fps – That is 556 fps less! We’ve always had a small difference between our results and the loading manuals, but never as much as this. Hodgdon used a 24-inch barrel for their tests too. I suppose this just shows the differences between barrels of different make. Also, we tried 2 lots of H 870, one was quite a bit bulkier than the other, and gave us about 75 fps less with the same charge! Accuracy was about the same.

All groups are 3 shots at 100 yards. All bullets were molly coated.