Forrest r
12-24-2017, 05:32 PM
Finely got some time to start using a old 308w puma rifle that I re-barreled again to test a slower twist this time. Installed & tested the new bbl the other day, like what I saw so I bedded the stock.
Had a batch of the lee 160-312tl bullets I cast awhile back. I gas checked all of them and them pc'd part of them and used traditional lube on the rest in a lyman 450 sizer. I used ltb blue and 1 coat of 45/45/10 on the traditional lubed bullets. All bullets had home made al gc's installed and the pc'd bullets were sized to .311" with a lee push thru sizer. The traditionally lube bullets were sized to .311" in a lyman 450.
I didn't spend a lot of time sorting the bullets, was just casting plinking fodder and picked out any obvious flaws.
https://i.imgur.com/dzDCFfV.jpg
The cases used were nothing more than mixed nato range pick-ups, have no idea how many times they've been reloaded.
Used H335 for powder, not the best choice by any means. Figured I was taking the bbl out for it's 1st run and wasn't sure what to expect with the plinking bullets/plinking cases.
Had some magnum large rifle primers laying around, no idea how old they are.
Used a filler (pillow stuffing)with all loads, the filler was up to the start of the necks of the 308w cases loosely packed on top of the powder.
Was 30* out with 7mph winds out of the west. Did 10-shot groups that were actually pretty surprising. As the velocities went up the sd's and es's shrank and so did the groups. The 37gr/2679fps load was 2 1/4" outside edge to outside edge. I'm sure with a little tuning/tweaking it wouldn't be hard to shave a little off that group.
https://i.imgur.com/tEeK5wb.jpg?1
Pretty impressive for the 1st time out with the new bbl actually testing loads with only 4 fouling shots from a clean bbl. Need to re-test the 37gr load and do a 38gr string just to see if the groups keep tightening up.
Anyway, not a lot of people shooting pc'd bullets in the 2500fps+ range. So far 2650fps+/2" 10-shot groups are doable.
Had a batch of the lee 160-312tl bullets I cast awhile back. I gas checked all of them and them pc'd part of them and used traditional lube on the rest in a lyman 450 sizer. I used ltb blue and 1 coat of 45/45/10 on the traditional lubed bullets. All bullets had home made al gc's installed and the pc'd bullets were sized to .311" with a lee push thru sizer. The traditionally lube bullets were sized to .311" in a lyman 450.
I didn't spend a lot of time sorting the bullets, was just casting plinking fodder and picked out any obvious flaws.
https://i.imgur.com/dzDCFfV.jpg
The cases used were nothing more than mixed nato range pick-ups, have no idea how many times they've been reloaded.
Used H335 for powder, not the best choice by any means. Figured I was taking the bbl out for it's 1st run and wasn't sure what to expect with the plinking bullets/plinking cases.
Had some magnum large rifle primers laying around, no idea how old they are.
Used a filler (pillow stuffing)with all loads, the filler was up to the start of the necks of the 308w cases loosely packed on top of the powder.
Was 30* out with 7mph winds out of the west. Did 10-shot groups that were actually pretty surprising. As the velocities went up the sd's and es's shrank and so did the groups. The 37gr/2679fps load was 2 1/4" outside edge to outside edge. I'm sure with a little tuning/tweaking it wouldn't be hard to shave a little off that group.
https://i.imgur.com/tEeK5wb.jpg?1
Pretty impressive for the 1st time out with the new bbl actually testing loads with only 4 fouling shots from a clean bbl. Need to re-test the 37gr load and do a 38gr string just to see if the groups keep tightening up.
Anyway, not a lot of people shooting pc'd bullets in the 2500fps+ range. So far 2650fps+/2" 10-shot groups are doable.