I finally made it to the rain...I mean range, in the rain, and wind, and cold and it was one whine short of being totally miserable. But I got the new rifle out for a few sight in shots. 50 yards; 20 shots to sight in with Federal factory loads/ 150 gr flat nose. Also fired 25 rounds of home growns loaded with 125 gr FNHP from Sierra. Not a really pretty bunch of groups but after the first 2 shots with the Federals flew off North to parts unknown, leaving no trace behind of their existence, I stayed on the paper.
However, I cannot with any honesty say what shot where, except the last 5 of the factory loads, and 2 of the homegrown targets because I found a couple targets with either 1 more or one less bullet hole than I intended to shoot at those targets so I cannot say with confidence if there were itinerant bullets nesting on each others targets. But, here are 2 that I can vouch for. (I really do not know where the 2 other bullets from the first target went.) I covered the holes from 13/20 walk in shots with black tape but the target is still messy. The final 5 shots were fired and all were well in side the lines of the 2" bull.
The handloads were loaded thus: 25.5 gr; 26.0 gr; 26.5 gr; 27.0 gr; 27.5 gr of IMR 4198. Not an impressive showing but doable for now. I managed to keep all but the first 2 on paper. Not bad for a one eyed fat man with the shakes.
All in all it was fun though. It is supposed to be nicer weather in the next couple days so I will be back at it with some new loads to try. Reloader 15 this time.
The 4198 did not fill the cases very well so I am hoping for more consistency with the Re15.
PS In the bottom pic that is a 5 shot group. One shot went almost perfectly into a previous hole.
Here is the rifle and a couple target scans: