1894c and Bullseye

[BoolitSmith]

Recently worked up a load using lee 158 RFN over 6 grains of Bullseye for use in my 4'' security six.Tried it in my 1894c.Better results than expected, 1'' groups with open sights at 50 yds. Bullets are ACWW. Anybody else have similar results using Bullseye in a rifle?

[Wally]

I have used Lee's 105 SWC with 4.0 grains of Bullseye & Lee's 140 SWC with 4.5 grains of Bullseye through my carbine and both were very accurate and make good can plinkers.

[fecmech]

I use 4.2 BE and a 158 rn or the rnfp out of both my .357 rifles a Rossi single shot and a Mod 94 Winchester. They both run in the 1-1.5" range at 50 yds and clock around 1100 fps out of the rifle and 900 fps out of my K38. The same BE load with the discontinued Lee 150 2r rn will stay under an inch at 50 in the Rossi and is my silhouette load at our local club. For some reason a lot of people have gone away from BE but used in the .38 and .45 I've not found anything better.

[Larry Gibson]

I use bullseye in not only handgun cartridges in rifles but also in many rilfe cartridges. It is the best powder for light cast bullets loaded as plinker, squib, cat's sneeze or small game loads at 1200 fps and below.

Larry Gibson

[jdgabbard]

I got away from using bullseye because of small charges (volume wise). There just isn't much volume taken up by 4.0g of bullseye. However, now that I'm starting to load for 9mm, I have pulled my can of Bullseye from the powder locker and am taking it back up to Tulsa with me. I figure that since I'm using a smaller case it should be much easier to verify that I do not have a double charge.

[Wally]

One should be very cautious when loading with Bullseye. A good, proven technique is to place all charged cases in a loading block & inspect it for double charges before bullet seating. However I utilize this technique for any powder loading and as long as one is vigilent, you'll have no problems.

[jdgabbard]

Another would be to charge the case, then seat the boolit. Charge a case, then seat the boolit, ect. But, Bullseye doesn't meter well either, at least not from my Lee Powder Dispenser.

[Wally]

Bullseye meters very consistently through my powder measure. To charge a case with powder then seat a bullet, and repeat would be very time consuming and ones fingers would get coated with bullet lube, so it'd be messy as well.

[KCSO]

I use a lot of Bullseye as the same 4.2 setting on my measure is good for 38 Special, 45 Acp and a couple of others. I also get excellent groupiing with BE in the 20" Rossi.

[AZ-Stew]

BoolitSmith,

Since your carbine is chambered for a pistol cartridge that's available as a factory load, one would expect it to perform well with a handload charged with a pistol powder. Kind of a natural outcome.

Wally,

I don't own a loading block and I've been handloading for 35 years. I've always used the "charge - inspect - seat, charge - inspect - seat" technique. I don't tumble lube, I use a lubricator/sizer and I handle my boolits by their noses, so I don't get a lube mess on my fingers. It's not really slow and it prevents double charges and mass powder spills, should one accidentally bump the loading block. Also, keep in mind that when using a progressive press, the loading block is pretty much useless.

Each of us develops his own techniques. As long as it produces a safe, accurate product, who's to say anyone else's handloading style is "wrong"?

Regards,

Stew

[Wally]

Glad that your method works so well for you--one cannot argue with success. I only use a single stage press, so my method is a bit different than is yours.

Wally

[jdgabbard]

I use a single stage press as well. I size in on batch, prime in one batch, expand in one batch, then charge and seat, charge and seat, charge and seat, ect. Then go back and crimp separately. Just a habit I guess, but last time out on the range with 125 XTP-HPs in my 357mag left me with nice cloverleafs. I guess it is just what works best for "you".

[35remington]

jdgabbard, Bullseye is one of the finest metering powders available.

If you can't drop charges of this powder with low deviation consistently, something is wrong.

[Wally]

Some powder measuring devices do poorly with very small powder charges. The only option is to get another that works more favorably.

[Echo]

I use a loading block, and charge all cases in the block with my Pacific Pistol Powder measure. Fairly impossible to get a double charge, as long as the process isn't interrupted. If interrupted by SWMBO, or whoever, or whatever, then a careful inspection of the charged cases shows where to start up again. And I have had no problem with BE & the Pacific measure.

[35remington]

The Lee Pro Auto Disk does poorly with very light charges of large flake powders under 3.5 grains in weight like Clays or Unique, but this doesn't apply to Bullseye and its very small granulation. It should meter well from the Lee Perfect measure also. Static buildup might be causing problems, so check that out.

It should work fine in virtually any cavity size to nearly the very smallest.

Some measures like the Lyman 55 may allow the user to develop the wrong cavity dimensions with the poor selection of the wrong cavity slides.

[jdgabbard]

I have had poor luck with getting it to meter correctly with the lee powder measure. However when I had this same problem with Unique I tried out a powder baffle and it worked wonders. However since I have been using powder dippers and a trickler on a digital scale. It takes a little long, however it works just fine. I will give it a try again when I start loading bulk 9mm. But that is going to be a little while, so until then I'll just continue doing it the way I am.

[Jack Stanley]

I tried some using four and a half grains of Bullseye but the accuracy just wasn't there . I reduced the powder charge to three point three and it worked OK . The bhn of the lead was about nine so that may be why .
I'm still looking for a great .38 load for the carbine/revolver and right now I think my scopes parallax is holding me up . I don't have a lot of time to fool with it though .

Jack

[35remington]

If you can meter Unique with low deviation, Bullseye will be a slam dunk and better yet. There is no reason why a measure will drop Unique more consistently and with less deviation than Bullseye (it won't) unless there is something that's been overlooked.

[Sprue]

Recently worked up a load using lee 158 RFN over 6 grains of Bullseye for use in my 4'' security six.Tried it in my 1894c.Better results than expected, 1'' groups with open sights at 50 yds. Bullets are ACWW. Anybody else have similar results using Bullseye in a rifle?

I never reload 357 cases with cast. I only reload 38 spl lswc for my 1894. But 6 grain of BE seems kind of a hot load even though the manual shows a max of 6.5 BE for lead. Just wonder if there's any leading going on since you don't mention the use of gas checks.

As for Bullseye not metering through a Lee Powder measure, I have a Lee dedicated for BE use, and it does a fantastic job.

[BoolitSmith]

I also use a single stage press,and charge and seat each one as I go.As far as a good 38 load,I have some of the 158 RFN loaded with 3.5gr of bullseye.These are mostly for cheap target practice,but they also shoot very well in my rifle.I love my 1894c.

[jdgabbard]

It might meter fine with the baffle, but I can tell you this. Without the baffle it wouldn't meter at all. However, I will say that the dispenser that I used with the Unique is a different Dispenser I used with the bullseye. So maybe that particular dispenser was just *****. The Unique didn't meter that well until I made a baffle for it. Afterwards it would throw charges +/- 0.1 grain. Before it would throw charges +/- 0.3 grains. Now that is not very accurate, in my opinion. When I tried using the Bullseye before it would throw charges to +/- 0.3 grains. So maybe they just need a baffle?

[AZ-Stew]

Wally,

Sorry. I didn't mean for you to misunderstand my loading procedure.

I have had a progressive (Dillon RL-550B) for a number of years and now load all my handgun ammo on it. As I said, the loading block wouldn't be useful with it. On the other hand, in the years B.D. (Before Dillon), when there were no progressive presses of the type that have proliferated since, I loaded tens of thousands of rounds on a single-stage press (Rockchucker) using the same technique jdgabbard has described. Size a batch, mouth expand the batch, prime the batch, then powder and seat, powder and seat, powder and seat. It's as fast as anyother method and has the advantages described earlier.

I still load all my rifle ammo using the single-stage press and the same technique. I prefer the control I have using the single-stage press for rifle ammo.

Regards,

Stew

[35remington]

jd, I find that it's more the technique that causes the charge to vary rather than a baffle or the presence or absence of one.

I also let the powder settle in the measure after filling it and throw up to a dozen charges or more through the measure to give it consistent "head" pressure and ensure it's throwing true. Only then do I charge. If I'm checking charge weight variation I do it before or after I throw the charges in the batch of cases I'm loading, not during.

When I throw powder, that's all I do, and don't interrupt the sequence of powder charging with anything else like immediately seating a bullet. Vibrations of the powder measure when doing something else cause the powder to settle/compact in the powder measure differently, causing charge weight variations.

Rest assured - Bullseye is one of the finest metering powders present, and better than Unique in that respect. If you're metering Unique better than Bullseye, you're overlooking something.

[jdgabbard]

35remington, don't worry. This conversation has spur'd me on to pull out my can of Bullseye. I'm going to take it back up to Tulsa with me and see what I can do with it. I plan on giving it another shot with the Lee Dispenser.

On a side note, I've been thinking of buying a Turret Press. As you said, Vibrations tend to compact the powder. With that in mind how do you think that would effect the Lee Auto in a charge/neck expander die? Everytime that thing spins its going to vibrate the heck out of that Lee Auto. Any thoughts on this?

[35remington]

I have the Lee Turret press you're probably thinking about. As long as everything is done consistently, reasonably uniform charges should still result. After all, you're doing the same thing each time, so just make an effort to do it consistently.

Velocities will be higher with your loads when when the measure is spinning around on top of the press. That's because the thrown charges are heavier than when the measure stands alone.

[Boerrancher]

I shoot a lot of Bullseye powder in my 1894c and Ruger GP100. The technique I have developed for bullseye consists of keeping all the cases turned upside down until they are charged. Once the case is in the block right side up, it doesn't get picked up again until after I set a boolit on top of it. Once I have a boolit sitting on top of the all the cases I then start picking them up and seating/crimping them.

I have found BE to be very accurate, and I would not hesitate to take a Whitetail with it inside 100 yards out of my 1894c. My good friend who pretty much taught me everything about guns, ammo and casting, never used anything but BE in his Colt Python. His pet load was 4.5 grains of BE with a 158 gr SWC over it. I ask why he didn't load a hotter load, like 10 gr of Blue dot like I was using at the time out of Dad's Blackhawk and my 94c. He told me something that at the time didn't make a lot of sense at the time to a 14 year old boy. He told me, "If I need a hotter load out of my pistol than what I am shooting, I don't need a pistol, I need a rifle." Now that he has long passed on, I fully understand what he meant.

Best wishes from the Boer Ranch,

Joe

[fecmech]

On a side note, I've been thinking of buying a Turret Press. As you said, Vibrations tend to compact the powder. With that in mind how do you think that would effect the Lee Auto in a charge/neck expander die? Everytime that thing spins its going to vibrate the heck out of that Lee Auto. Any thoughts on this?

I've been spinning a Lyman Spar T turret with a Redding powder measure on it for over 30 years. The only thing that happens is you get 0 variation in powder charges with Bullseye and with the fluffier stuff like Unique or Red Dot you might vary at the most 1/10 gr. I think the vibration helps in regards to uniform powder throws.

[jnovotny]

A year ago I had the oppertunity to purchase a 5 gal pail, yes a 5gal pail, of this wonderful powder. I load everything from 38 special to my 44 mag. Buy the way the price was to good to pass up, 50.00!!!!