Saturday at the range...

[sundog]

Well, the cast boolits came through with flying colors. Again.

I'm not braggin', I'm reporting (well I do get braggin' rights til next month...) I won my fourth military bolt match yesterday (out of 9 since January with several 2nd and 3rd places) with a 290-8X beating the nearest competion by only 3 Xs. Tim was shooting 168 gr HP (that stands for Heathen Pellets, I think) in an O3A1. He's a good competitor. This is the second time recently we had the same score seperated only by Xs. I was shooting my CMP Rem 03A3 2-groover with RCBS 30-180-SP over 24.0/N120. I did not turn in small groups or high scores on any string, but still had high aggreagte. This happens ocassionally, and it usually happens to a very consistent shooter (and we have several).

I had at least 6 unexplained 'flyers' almost out in the 8-ring. Two each on the group targets at 10 o'clock and both shots 8 and 9 in the ten round string. Then on the first score target 2 more, but at 4 o'clock, shots 1 and 2 in the string. Go figure. Light conditions varied as did the wind. Sure is fun, and the company is great. We had 19 show up with 03s, Mausers, Nagants and who knows what else.

All in all, a good Saturday morning at the range! sundog

[felix]

Sundog, make sure the bases (before checking) are absolutely perfect. N120 probably still has enough force left over to cockeye a boolit at exit. Just speculatin'. ... felix

[sundog]

Felix, well I've been mulling this over all day. Two of the wholes were 'ripped' like the boolits hadn't stablized, both looking like they 'kicked out' at about 5 o'clock. Other than that, the onliest other thing I can think of at this point is lube. Either to soft or too much for the temperature (hot). Granted, this is not a BR gun, but when something like this shows up, something is going on. First 4 rounds on score target three were Xs, just flat 'in there'.

Rained here on and off all day since yesterday p.m., almost 4 inches!. What a relief! Temp was prolly 20d below normal, too. Cast several pissola boolits for awhile, and Leemented several 6 bangers. Boy, they sure are better when the work good! Took'em apart, did the stoning on sharp edges, and D&Td the sprue plate screws, lubricated, etc. Just like using a new mould (and I'm not talking Lee). Got some really nice boolits! When the Lee 6-bangers are cleaned up good and 'tuned' they are as good as any mould out there.

Still mulling over yesterday's results. The boolits were scaled to .1 and used the group buy GCs. Well, there's always next month. sundog

[felix]

Corky, you might, just might, have some hardened lube too close to the chamber. Before shooting any more for further testing, a through cleaning might be what the doctor ordered. For a job like this, with heavy and hardened carbon/lube mixtures present, I use a stainless spiral, pushed one way through the muzzle from the breach. Make sure the spiral has no flat spots, i.e., as in fairly new condition, and clean out the junk after each stroke. Clean the spiral for the next stroke, etc. ... felix

[sundog]

Ooookay. You may be right. This rifle has well in excess of 2500 rounds (maybe close to 5000) with NO cleaning. Entirely possible that there's some burned on goop at work. It looks clean and bright, but that may be deceiving. Even if I clean it there's another local match next before the 'big dance' (state match) in October. Speaking of that, we may have a club from Missouri attend and field a team. Does that now make it a 'National'??? sundog

[buck1]

Good Job Sundog!!! Congrats!!!....buck

[Bass Ackward]

Two of the wholes were 'ripped' like the boolits hadn't stablized, both looking like they 'kicked out' at about 5 o'clock.

Other than that, the onliest other thing I can think of at this point is lube. Either to soft or too much for the temperature (hot). Granted, this is not a BR gun, but when something like this shows up, something is going on.

Corky,

Yep. I bet if you chrono'd those 5 o'clockers you would see surprisingly less velocity. My guess is that the heat is hardening the lube to the point that you get a type of lube purge that is sizing your bullets down enough that gas is getting by. Thus the lower velocity. At least in my 2 groove. If you are using a bore ride design, 5/8ths of the bores surface area has no scraping ability to clean out residuals that the bullet must now pass over. That's how that little cleanout groove can sometimes give you an edge on those wide lands if you have one. Until it fills up anyway. Mine only works reliably this time of year with the 311284. By October, my guess is you will be fine.

From my experience, lube purges go wide to low. Leading wide to high.

[Patrick L]

Sundog, are you the same Sundog that posts on Shooting Sportsman's BB?

Your post didn't mention the type of shooting your matches entail. Is it bench shooting or positions ? We shoot positions in our rifle league, and the slowfire prone is where flyers start to bother me. I mean, in rapid fire or offhand you could easily yank a shot, but slow prone should be steady.

I found that weight segregating my bullets eliminated a lot of those. Yes its a bit of a chore, but with an electronic scale it really isn't too much of a bother. Many think its a waste of time, and they may well be right, but I have found that confidence often produces tighter groups. Its definitely a head thing, for me anyhow. So I do it and at least thats one less thing for me to think about.

I hope this is helpful.

[LAH]

Good job Sundog.

[sundog]

Patrick, no, not the same sundog as on Shooting Sportsman. The match I'm referring to is a bench match shot with 'as issued' military bolt guns.

Rools for military bolt match (http://home.valornet.com/corkyconnell/bam/bam_rules.html)

One strong consideration for shooting cast in these old guns is wear and tear (not wearing out the bbl). Plus, IMHO, cast can be just as accurate, more so, for this kind of shooting.

Only one other boolit has done as well for me in this competition (other than the RCBS 30-180-SP) is the Ly 311291, For some reason these 2 boolits do VERY well for target shooting at a hunert yards in most 03s. Well, I guess I'll mull this over a bit before I decide what to do..., if anything. Can you spell 'obsession'? sundog