Originally Posted By: CinchOriginally Posted By: Huckleberry75Originally Posted By: CinchHuckleberry and Orkan have quite a bit of knowledge and experience with this cartridge...
Not sure if I have quite a bit, but I have enough to know that it is bar-none, my favorite cartridge to shoot besides a good old .22lr. It has very mild recoil and is absolutely devastating on the business end of it. I am not caught up on getting every last round out of the barrel, so if I can get 1000-1500rds, I will be plenty happy. With the 80gn class of bullets, my loads carry 1000#kE at 500yds when starting at 3393fps from a 22" 8 twist. The Lapua small primer brass is exceptional on handling pressure, and allows you to lean on it even harder than the Hornady brass if you so choose. JCH and I both run one with the 80.5gn Berger Fullbore with 42.2gns of H4350. He hit a whitetail with it this year and it left a baseball size hole going into the rib cage and jelloed the thoracic cavity. Lilysdad runs the 69gn TMK in his, if I recall correctly, with excellent results as well.
Cinch, Jason said you were running it with great results as well.
In short, build one and don't look back.
I'm running the 75gr Amax in my heavy 26" at 3425 with 40.5gr Hybrid 100V in Hornady brass... that same load in Alpha brass will get you around 3525...
JCH also said that the Alpha brass had smaller capacity. Our standard load of 42.2gns of H4350 in the Alpha brass was causing heavy swipes. Bolt lift and pressure signs. I woukd recommend to anyone going from Hornady or Lapua brass to the Alpha offering to drop down and work back up, because your load might have excessive pressure if not.