Giving up on Lil Gun for Beowulf

[Al_Bundy]

after the 3rd trip im still getting burn marks on the casings, splatter being spit out from the brake towards my 4 o'clock and 8 o'clock (possibly unburned powder being shot through the barrel), bad accuracy. Using the lee 440gr and lil gun 28-30gr. I may try one more time with the suggested magnum pistol primers to see if theres any difference but ill be transitioning to RL7 as soon as i get back to the range, already have 40-43gr loads of that ready.

If that doesn't work as well then another option is going down to the 300-350gr mold range where lil gun appears to excel at. I'd prefer not to go this route as those molds are over $100 yikes. Good news came from all these range trips, i was also loading for my dads new 458 socom and everything went well with his loads using RL7 30gr lee 420gr. Using just normal LPP for this caliber and its all good, so i figured i'd try them also with the beo but i dont know yet if these non magnum have any effect on the beo just yet until i try the mags.

[DAFzipper]

I've had good luck with reloader 7 in my beowulf. Was hoping to use up some Lilgun in it but accuracy is lacking for me.

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[mehavey]

Consider also, Vihtavuori N-110
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?221485-50-Beowulf-440-Lee-Cast-bullets&p=4620240&viewfull=1#post4620240

[lar45]

What is your loaded length?
Looking at Quickload shows the pressure to be way low at 30 gns,18000psi-ish, so you are probably not getting the powder to burn. You could start stepping up a grain at a time and see what you get. What kind of velocity are you getting?
Lil gun can get a little spiky on the pressures, doesn't give a smooth pressure curve like 296 does.
I tried some in my 450 Bushmaster with Speer 350s sized to .452" and it went from normal to way over pressure in 2 grains. I had brass flow back into the ejector pocket. I switched to CFE-BLK and had much better luck running up to 1800fps.
If you have a chronograph, try stepping the powder charge up and watch for a steady regular increase of velocity with each grain increase of powder. If you get a big jump in velocity, then you have probably also got a big jump in pressure.

[Elroy]

Mag primers may,or may not help.There is a chance that your primer is dislodging your bullet before your powder catches.Some folks may try a heavier crimp,but I would just give up on LilGun for it,and save it for something it works well in.You may get a Hornet one day ,and I can speak from experience that it is fantastic in the 22 Hornet with 40s.

[Lloyd Smale]

I once had my beo at the range. Had some ammo loaded with lilgun and some with wc297. 7 round mag dump with lilgun and you could about light a cigarette off the smoking barrel. 7 rounds with 297 and you could still put your finger on the barrel for a second or two. About the only use I have for lilgun anymore is hornet loads in my 77 ruger that I never fire fast and seldom shoot more then a handful a day out of. Ill keep shooting 297 till im out of it then switch to 110 or 4227.

[Al_Bundy]

What is your loaded length?
Looking at Quickload shows the pressure to be way low at 30 gns,18000psi-ish, so you are probably not getting the powder to burn. You could start stepping up a grain at a time and see what you get. What kind of velocity are you getting?
Lil gun can get a little spiky on the pressures, doesn't give a smooth pressure curve like 296 does.
I tried some in my 450 Bushmaster with Speer 350s sized to .452" and it went from normal to way over pressure in 2 grains. I had brass flow back into the ejector pocket. I switched to CFE-BLK and had much better luck running up to 1800fps.
If you have a chronograph, try stepping the powder charge up and watch for a steady regular increase of velocity with each grain increase of powder. If you get a big jump in velocity, then you have probably also got a big jump in pressure.

COAL 2.13, FPS around 1400-1500, even if the pressure is low i dont think i'll want to step it up because as i mentioned and others have, it gets hot, real hot and thumps quite a bit beyond 30gr imo.


So i took the beo out again 2nd time this week to mess around with the rl7 loads. spent most of my loads trying to find a zero, it was completely off paper because of the switch of powder. Tried the 10 yd zero trick to get it near a 50yd zero and i was near the poa i wanted. Accuracy wasn't great but the brass was clean for the most part (one slight burn mark on one side of the brass was the norm) but nothing like the lil gun. I really need to take a cut off wheel to my rifle sled because its a caldwell that has a bar in the way of my grip and where the mag rest, i was just feeding it one by one thru the chamber and resting the grip on the metal bar of the sled. Im thinking this could also be affecting my consistency in testing because its not free floating and the vibration/recoil is affecting it, maybe. Ill try to go back with 10rd loads instead of 4rds for each group. 40-43gr was hitting about 1400 fps.