Author: britrifles
Subject: Light load for a CMP match
Posted: October 23 2018 at 10:16am
Steve, I shoot a fair bit of CMP VMR. My No. 4 shoots very good with the .311 174 gr. SMK and the .312 Hornady 174 gr Match. The bore on my No. 4 slugged at 0.3035. If your bore is a bit on the large size, the .312 Hornady may do better. I'd bench shoot the rifle with a few different loads and see how it does first.
Subject: Light load for a CMP match
Posted: October 23 2018 at 10:16am
Steve, I shoot a fair bit of CMP VMR. My No. 4 shoots very good with the .311 174 gr. SMK and the .312 Hornady 174 gr Match. The bore on my No. 4 slugged at 0.3035. If your bore is a bit on the large size, the .312 Hornady may do better. I'd bench shoot the rifle with a few different loads and see how it does first.
I found Re 15 and Varget does very well with the 174 gr. bullets. I load with 40 grains of either powder, produces velocities a bit lower than the Mk VII service cartridge, about 2370 fps if I recall correctly. I've not actually tried 4895 in the No. 4, but Re 15 and Varget meters better, Varget is less sensitive to temperature change. I don't weight all the charges either, just not worth the effort for this rifle. This load in my rifle shoots about 1.5 MOA off the bench for 10 rounds, just about holds the X Ring on the SR target.
My best scores in the CMP VMR matches were 293-9x and 290-11x with my No. 4 loaded with the 174 gr. SMK and 40 grains of Re 15/Varget. I use a Creedmoor shooting coat and US Military 1907 type sling. I've also reduced the size of the aperture on the Mk 1 sight (allowed by CMP rules), this was critical for me to see the front sight clearly. I also use 1.0x shooting glasses.
If your rifle is a Mk 2, it should have the 1 MOA click adjustable rear sight; and you'll have to adjust the front sight (left or right) to zero the group at 200 yds (or if you shoot the reduced target at 100 yds). No real need to change the front sight height, just record the rear sight elevation setting for the range you shoot at. I find the 174 gr. bullet at a reasonable velocity has very little wind drift out to 200 yards unless your in a fairly stiff cross wind. Then you'll need to apply some "Kentucky Windage".
I've done a bit of cast bullet shooting from No. 4's and I've never gotten close to the accuracy I get with jacketed bullets. Perhaps I didn't experiment enough or used a large enough bullet. The LE barrels groove diameters are typically larger than 0.312 , so I'd think you would need a 0.315 or so diameter; I'd slug the bore to find out. The other benefit of jacketed bullets is that the higher velocities give less wind drift.