Braved the heat and shot the new SMR for the first time. Luckily the humidity is low today but still hot. I started out with 30 grains of Swiss 3F, .350 RB, .018 PT, and Goex 4F prime.
I also used a thin Dawn/water spray for lube, sponging off any excess with a paper towel. Then tried 35 grains of Swiss. I’m pleased for a first outing, still lots of experimenting to do before I touch the sights. The rifle performed perfectly, nice, fast ignition. And what really surprised me was that I had zero fouling problems. I shot a couple of times offhand at my steel targets so a total of 16 shots without swabbing and the last loaded as easy as the first. Was pleasantly surprised to see how little fouling there was on the patch after I finished. Not sure whether it was the bore polish I did or the Dawn/water lube that minimized the fouling, probably a combination of the 2. Picked up a few of the ball patches and they looked fine.
The .018 patches were all I had to choose from. I bought a pack of precut .020, but they compressed to only .016. I’m going to cut out some true .020’s for the next outing. Wanted to shoot some more but the heat finally stopped the fun. Now to get her cleaned up.
