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This is my Remington model 700 ADL chambered in .22-250REM purchased in December of 2000 from Fisher Firearms on Magill road Norwood, South Australia. Purchased from new as my first firearm and sporting a Simmons 3-9 x 40 scope this rifle was and still is my pride and joy. In November of 2001 I purchased a Tasco MAG 4 -16 x 40  mail order from Shooters Wholesale Warehouse to go atop of the rifle in place of the Simmons which was to find a new home on a 6.5 x 55 Mauser.

     I started off shooting factory loads but before long I moved onto hand loading some loads for it. The main aim of this was for better accuracy and also because of the money saved in loading your own ammunition. Starting with the Winchester brass left over from the factory loads I set out to find a load that would shoot well in my rifle. After trying a few different loads I settled on a load of 33.5 grains of AR 2206 powder produced by ADI  Australia (Australian Defense Industries) pushing a 55gr Hornady soft point projectile that was seated .030" off the lands being ignited by Federal large rifle primers. This group would shoot around an inch group at 100 metres (Shown below is what I would have considered a good group). Since this was my first effort at reloading and punching holes through paper with anything other then a .22 LR I was happy enough obtaining around an inch group at one hundred metres as that's what I set out to do and my personal marksmanship didn't allow for anything better at the time. The soft point projectiles worked extremely well and fragmented on anything even something as small as a rabbit. The damage these projectiles caused on quite a few foxes shot with them was nothing short of devastating producing large exit wounds and putting down every fox hit with them before they could move another step. This load was first grade if all you wanted to do was kill the foxes but was not very pelt friendly. When this load was used on goats the effects and efficiency of a well placed shot was excellent, stopping some of the goats on the spot and most others within a few short steps. 

   I made a decision to stop using the Hornady soft points and opt for a hollow point design projectile. Following some advice from other trusted hunters and some people with a wealth of information from the forums of Australian Hunting Net I brought myself some Taipan Projectiles. As before  I chose  55 grain projectiles. I finally managed to get a nice day and went out and tried some new loads with the Taipan projectiles. The load that worked best was 35.5gr (Max Load so be sure to work up to this load) of AR2206 seated .010" from the lands. In the picture on the left below I have a group shot using my old load of 33.5gr of AR2206 and the Hornady soft points and the picture on the right is the load mentioned above. The lines on the target are spaced at half inch intervals making the black circle one inch across.

The second rifle I purchased was a rifle made by an Australian company called Sportco. The rifle is chambered in .22 Hornet and was purchased with the aim of shooting foxes and keeping the pelts for tanning later.  This rifle was purchased second hand from Prospect Firearms on 222 (What a sweet number for a gun shop) Prospect road in Prospect, South Australia in June of 2001. When purchased the rifle was sporting a 2 and 3/4th zoom Bushman scope but was soon replaced by a Tasco 2.5 -10 x 42 Varmint Tactical Scope with Mil Dot reticle and adjustable objective purchased from Eden Photographic in Glenelg, South Australia. Although not a highly priced scope it was a huge jump up from what was on the rifle and in terms of the difference it made while hunting it is worth every cent. Following the success I had in working up a load for my .22-250 and the fact that factory loaded ammo in .22 Hornet is just up around one dollar a pop  I  made a decision  to skip buying factory loaded ammo for this rifle and  load my own from the start. 

    Following some advice from someone I know who owns a .22 K Hornet I purchased some bulk  Winchester 40gr hollow point projectiles. These projectiles were very cheap and I didn't expect much from them but to my surprise found a load that had them shooting around 3/4 of an inch at 100 metres. Once again ADI powder was used although this time it was 9.5 grains of AR2205, Winchester brass and Federal small rifle primers were there to set everything in motion. When used on foxes the little 40gr projectile packs a great punch out past 100 metres and drops foxes dead in there tracks with well placed chest or head shots. The expansion of the projectile is very rapid upon hitting even very thin skinned animals and makes quite a mess of what ever it hits. I have yet to recover the projectiles from within an animal although I have recovered a few from water bottles or the ground. It seems that sometimes you get complete separation of the core from the  jacket. On large game this would be a problem but because I use this gun only on small game it shouldn't be a problem. Above on the left is a picture of a recovered bullet from some dirt as I have yet to recover one from and game.

    During the middle of October I decided to purchase some 40gr Taipan hollow point projectiles to try in my .22 Hornet. I loaded the projectiles seated well off the lands to allow them to be loaded into the magazine and also to allow them to be ejected properly if unfired. With a maximum load in the current ADI reloading manual showing 10.2 grains of AR2205 being maximum I started my load workup at 9.4grains working up in .2gr intervals. I  loaded 5 rounds with Federal small rifle primers and 5 with Winchester small pistol primers at each charge for my experiments. I also loaded up 20 fouling shots loaded at a mild charge of 9.6gr so I can shoot two of these after cleaning the rifle before my next group. 

Since the day I went out was windy I didn't have a chance to try any of the worked up loads but I did shoot shoot the fouling shots with the following results. The target on the left was a little off line with the new projectiles so the target on the  right is one adjusted allowing a little for the wind on the day it has the 1 flyer in the black circle that I know was me other then that the groups are showing some really positive signs. 

The black circle in the center is 1 inch across with the lines at half inch intervals making this target great for sighting in as you know exactly how many inches you need to move by simply counting the lines.

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Above is a picture of the 6.5 x 55 Mauser I bought second hand from a friend. The rifle was purchased in November of 2001. When purchased I thought this rifle was just an off the shelf gun but upon taking the action out of the stock while I was putting the screws to hold the sling into the stock I found that the action has actually been pillar bedded and the barrel free floated. The job done by the person who completed the work is first class and I would love to know who they are and if they still do work so if I need a rifle worked on I would be able to speak to them about it. On top of the rifle is a Simmons 3-9 x 40 scope originally from my .22-250. This rifle was bought for hunting feral goats and perhaps the occasional deer. My friend also has one and when I saw how it took down goats when I was after a new rifle it seemed like an obvious choice to look for one. Attached to the rifle is my Harris Bi Pod purchased in January of 2002 from Fisher Firearms. The Bi Pod is a series 1A2 in model H. I decided upon the higher one so when shooting around salt bush and high grass I can just sit down, have a steady rest and can still see fine above the salt bush. For my load development I have chosen to go with ADI powder AR2213SC (repackaged as Hodgdon H4831SC for sale in the US) and 120 gr Taipan hollow point projectiles. This projectile weight has a maximum powder charge listed at 49.5gr and so far 48gr has produced some good groups and so has the maximum charge of 49.5gr without showing signs of excessive pressure.

Above is the BRNO .22LR I purchased in July of 2002. As of August 2002 I have not had a chance to try many different types of ammo in this rifle as yet but will do so in due course to determine which will be the most accurate in this rifle. I have also lightened the trigger down quite a bit to help with accuracy.