Tripplebeards
08-08-2018, 04:05 PM
If you have been following my past testing I was on a quest for MOA or better with this rifle and cast boolit combo. I ended up finding a load last time and posted it that shot .8" at a 100 yards using 21 gr of h110 and an alloy of 7.5 BH consisting of 16:1 lead flooring and pewter mix.
After testing a couple other alloys in water jugs and totes I Caught a perfect looking 155 gr mushroom. The alloy was a mix of 80/20, lead flooring and ACCOWW that I added an additional 12% pewter to the mix using a full max load consisting of 23.8 gr of w296. My plan was to try 6% pewter but I didn't do my math correct the day I mixed it and doubled the dose. I load tested the alloy the same day. The best groups that session came from 23.8 gr of w296 at 1.24" and 23.8 gr of h110 at 1.3". Both groups were shot at a 100 yards. I tried both loads again a day or two after again and had 2 stuck casings in my rifle out of about 60 max loaded rounds. In both scenarios I had to bang my bolt open pretty hard with my hand to eject the stuck spent casing.
In the mean time I ran out of the original 80/20 mix and boolits so I mixed up a 30 pound batch of ignots and some boolits a few weeks ago so could retest to figure out why I had a couple random high pressure loads. I was leaning towards the blame on my scale and recalibrated my 18 year old RCBS charge master as it was jumping around in weight increments while I've been weighing charges the last couple of sessions more than it usually dose. I called RCBS and they walked me through testing my scale to see if it was time to replace it and had me wipe my scale down with a bounce fabric sheet to kill the static build up. The scale sat on HOLD forever and wouldn't calibrate but after wiping it down with bounce it almost calibrated as fast as it did when I first bought it. RCBS said if if calibrates it will work...it's just getting old and slow. After I did the above It doesn't jump around hardly at all now and doesn't jump weight any more when I put my finger near it.
Some other posters thought my high pressure loads could have been caused by a thick PC build up or the heavy crimp I used. I switched from a multicolored coat of PC to a nice even,smooth coat of clear. I tried to crimp lighter this time around but it looks about the same to me.
Anyways, back to my range test today. I ran out of w296 which is the same as h110 so I loaded up a dozen 23.8 gr of h110. I shot 3,4 shot groups. The grouping for some reason opened up. My best 100 yard group was 1.8". There was no indication of high pressure signs but for some reason my rifle dose not favor this load anymore. Any one have any ideas why? The only 2 things changed was using a different PC color(clear) which it's a little thinner and smoother that the original boolit coverage and the new batch of alloy which I tested the BH. Both the new batch and original batch both tested 15.4 bh.
Then I tested 22.7gr of h110. I wanted to try this load being I shot a 1.449" group with 22.5 gr of h110 last session and was hoping I tighten the group and stay away from max loading above. I shot two three shot groups. Both measured 1.6". Guess I should have tried 22.3 gr?
Next I tried five loads of lil gunpowder with the same alloy. Started with 20.5,20.8,21.0,21.2, and 21.5gr.
I didn't measure my 21.5 gr loads both three shot groups were I would guess just under 2".
I then tried a three shot group of 21.2 gr. It shot 1.273" at a 100 yards. Guess this is my new load and it's under max so I won't have to worry about pressure spikes. I am guessing this is quite a bit less in velocity than the 23.8 gr w296 thumper load. The slower velocity should give my alloy a little better weight retention than the 155 gr slug from w296.
My honorable mention load was 1.5" with 20.8 gr of lil gun.
Can anyone tell me why my rifle grouped tighter with the 23.8 gr h110 a few weeks ago?
After trying 2 different powders with this alloy and can't get tighter groups with the harder 15.4 BH boolit I would have to say my rifle likes the softer 7.5 BH softer boolits. I might have to try out my 50/50 mix next to see how it groups. I think I'll try 21.1gr and 21.3gr of lil gun to see if it will shoot MOA with this alloy.
http://i.imgur.com/3YOof7U.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/8bQrent.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/EX8QKr1.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/0vznEHK.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/gfTCfsl.jpg
After testing a couple other alloys in water jugs and totes I Caught a perfect looking 155 gr mushroom. The alloy was a mix of 80/20, lead flooring and ACCOWW that I added an additional 12% pewter to the mix using a full max load consisting of 23.8 gr of w296. My plan was to try 6% pewter but I didn't do my math correct the day I mixed it and doubled the dose. I load tested the alloy the same day. The best groups that session came from 23.8 gr of w296 at 1.24" and 23.8 gr of h110 at 1.3". Both groups were shot at a 100 yards. I tried both loads again a day or two after again and had 2 stuck casings in my rifle out of about 60 max loaded rounds. In both scenarios I had to bang my bolt open pretty hard with my hand to eject the stuck spent casing.
In the mean time I ran out of the original 80/20 mix and boolits so I mixed up a 30 pound batch of ignots and some boolits a few weeks ago so could retest to figure out why I had a couple random high pressure loads. I was leaning towards the blame on my scale and recalibrated my 18 year old RCBS charge master as it was jumping around in weight increments while I've been weighing charges the last couple of sessions more than it usually dose. I called RCBS and they walked me through testing my scale to see if it was time to replace it and had me wipe my scale down with a bounce fabric sheet to kill the static build up. The scale sat on HOLD forever and wouldn't calibrate but after wiping it down with bounce it almost calibrated as fast as it did when I first bought it. RCBS said if if calibrates it will work...it's just getting old and slow. After I did the above It doesn't jump around hardly at all now and doesn't jump weight any more when I put my finger near it.
Some other posters thought my high pressure loads could have been caused by a thick PC build up or the heavy crimp I used. I switched from a multicolored coat of PC to a nice even,smooth coat of clear. I tried to crimp lighter this time around but it looks about the same to me.
Anyways, back to my range test today. I ran out of w296 which is the same as h110 so I loaded up a dozen 23.8 gr of h110. I shot 3,4 shot groups. The grouping for some reason opened up. My best 100 yard group was 1.8". There was no indication of high pressure signs but for some reason my rifle dose not favor this load anymore. Any one have any ideas why? The only 2 things changed was using a different PC color(clear) which it's a little thinner and smoother that the original boolit coverage and the new batch of alloy which I tested the BH. Both the new batch and original batch both tested 15.4 bh.
Then I tested 22.7gr of h110. I wanted to try this load being I shot a 1.449" group with 22.5 gr of h110 last session and was hoping I tighten the group and stay away from max loading above. I shot two three shot groups. Both measured 1.6". Guess I should have tried 22.3 gr?
Next I tried five loads of lil gunpowder with the same alloy. Started with 20.5,20.8,21.0,21.2, and 21.5gr.
I didn't measure my 21.5 gr loads both three shot groups were I would guess just under 2".
I then tried a three shot group of 21.2 gr. It shot 1.273" at a 100 yards. Guess this is my new load and it's under max so I won't have to worry about pressure spikes. I am guessing this is quite a bit less in velocity than the 23.8 gr w296 thumper load. The slower velocity should give my alloy a little better weight retention than the 155 gr slug from w296.
My honorable mention load was 1.5" with 20.8 gr of lil gun.
Can anyone tell me why my rifle grouped tighter with the 23.8 gr h110 a few weeks ago?
After trying 2 different powders with this alloy and can't get tighter groups with the harder 15.4 BH boolit I would have to say my rifle likes the softer 7.5 BH softer boolits. I might have to try out my 50/50 mix next to see how it groups. I think I'll try 21.1gr and 21.3gr of lil gun to see if it will shoot MOA with this alloy.
http://i.imgur.com/3YOof7U.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/8bQrent.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/EX8QKr1.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/0vznEHK.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/gfTCfsl.jpg