Thanks very much for the great information,Daryl. Sorry I didn't reply sooner but I was on the road and just returned home. I had never heard of the Point Blank software before. I ran it using the same parameters you did, but I entered the .375 ballistic coefficient of the 250 grain Hornady soft point spitzer. I expected a more dramatic difference in trajectory than what it showed. The drop at 300 yards was 17.48" verses the 19.64" with the round nose. The remaining velocity at 300 yards was 1649 fps compared to 1468. There was a fairly substantial increase in the foot pounds of energy. The pointed bullet was 1510 compared to 1196. The velocity and energy differences are enough of an improvement that I'll try the pointed bullets. I was in Edmonton for a few days and picked up a box each of the 250 grain Hornady and 250 grain Speer spitzers to go with the 225 grain bullets I had.

I just weighed the two small ring mausers. Something must be wrong with my scale. According to it the longer barreled rifle reads 6 lbs 3 oz. The shorter barreled rifle weighs even less at 5 lbs 15 oz. I'll have to check the scale. They are light and with a steel butt plate I may not want a heavy load. I don't have any BLC2 or H4895 on hand but I have Varget and 3031. I'll give those a try. Thanks again.

Here are a few photos of the two small rings. It doesn't show in the photos, but the bolt knob is flat and checkered on the underside. Am I right in thinking that these were conversions from military. There must have been many done between the wars. Ay comments on them would be appreciated.