A Day In The Life Of A Cast Boolit Shooter

[JohnH]

I've sent some targets to singleshotbuff to scan and send back to me, I'm in the process of emailing em to 45nut so he can post 'em for me, (I'm highly computer illiterate) so this thread is for those pic's. When they all get posted I'll say more about 'em then. In the meantime, I can't express enough thanks to singleshotbuff and 45nut for their help, two fine gentlemen indeed.

[45nut]

And here they are John.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/1003/45nut/misc/100107003.jpg



http://img.photobucket.com/albums/1003/45nut/misc/100107004.jpg


http://img.photobucket.com/albums/1003/45nut/misc/100107005.jpg


http://img.photobucket.com/albums/1003/45nut/misc/100107006.jpg

[JohnH]

Thanks again Ken.

Sometimes it's easy to get hung up on squeezing the absolute last SOA (second of angle) out of a rifle or handgun, but I think that the normal everyday loads and shooting we do tell us a lot more about our firearms, boolits and loads than we may give 'em credit for. I also think it's easy for new folks to come and hang about and think that folks here are shooten benchrest quality groups all the time, as well it is easy for a new caster to get discouraged if all they see from their cast boolits is 2 or 3" groups. fact is for me, I consider 1 1/4" groups to be exellent, 2 to 2 1/2" groups normal and if I can hold 4" for 10 shots when shooting offhand I figure I've done very well.

For the record, I only sort my boolits for visual defects, I don't weigh 'em. I've been casting since the mid 1980's, only put the energy nessicary into it to get boolits out of it. By that I mean that while I may experiment with waterdropping boolits, I don't do that as routine. Currently I'm shooting an alloy of half linotype and 50/50 lead/WW. Makes an alloy of 17 BHN, prolly gonna change that to 1 part linotype to 2 parts 50/50 lead /WW. These boolits are gas check designs.

The 25-06 load load of 18 grains of 5744 shoots like that and better everytime I shoot it. The rifle is an Encore, the barrel a 24" blue. It is scoped with a Simmons 6.5-20 x 50 AO. Mostly I use about 10X. That is the cast bullet load I took Pdog shooten this spring and was getting hits out to 180 yards. It's a load you'd find me shooting most any afternoon you were to show up at my house. So's ya know, the yellow square is 2 1/8". Range is 75 yards off a bench.

The second is from a Springfield 840 (Savage 340) and clocks about 1650 fps, but is not my everyday load. My everyday load is 14 grains of 5744 or 7.5 grians of Unique and both shoot into half that size. There are photo's of those, hopefully to come later, and yeah, you'll find me shootzen those loads most anytime.

Third target is from a Mosin Nagant M44. My eyes don't do the rifle justice. My range is in my backyard and is heavily shaded. As the light changes point of impact changes due to my inability to bring the sights and target into focus. The circle is traced with a 13 oz. coffee can lid, fired 75 yards off bench.

The pig is a tracing of my steel swinger, a regulation size NRA Hunter Pistol sillywet pig. Normally fired with handguns at 50 yards. It is 5" from the hump to the top of the legs and 9" from the back of the ear to the butt. A very good representation of a deers kill zone. I bang on the swinger an average 50 rounds a month, always from standing at 50 and 75 yards.

[IcerUSA]

Well to me they all look like meat getters, nice shootin :drinks:


:castmine: so I can :Fire: