HABCAN
02-14-2009, 02:37 PM
While attempting to find a load that would stabilize the RCBS cruise missile in my 7x57 ’98 (http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=45031) a friend lent me the mold for the Lyman 7mm boolit #287641 to try. So far it hasn’t shown promise, BUT…………………………………………
Writing over at WRSA last December 10, (http://westernrifleshooters.blogspot.com/2008_12_01_archive.html)
I mentioned that a desperate reloader could paper-patch a boolit sufficiently to use in a larger-caliber firearm. Along that line, we have already PP’d a LEE TL452-230-TC up to .458 and shot it from a .45-90 to minute-of-dead-deer @ 100 yds., so I wanted to try something extreme.
Now, the purists will decry my purposefully sloppy methods, but I was trying to duplicate desperation in a SHTF situation, OK?
Paper-patching boolits seems to be as much art as science, so I used a lot of art and very little science, LOL!
Boolits were the Lyman #287641 as cast.
Paper was cheap no-name 2-ply toilet paper. You can get four strips the proper length from one sheet and soak them in water.
Set the boolit on the wetted paper on a hard surface with the paper just over the ogive point, and roll with sufficient pressure to squeeze out water. Roll it quite a few times. Twisting off the paper tail leaves the center of the boolit base bare. Set it aside to dry for at least 24 hrs.
To see if the plan was going to be practical, I repeated this process with another wetted strip for three more days running, and ended up with a cast 7mm boolit that now measured ~.324” diameter, quite ‘hard’ to the touch, and its base was now covered with the subsequent paper wraps. I lubed it with wiped-on LLA (LEE Liquid Alox) which really soaked in. When dry, I sized to .314, then to .311 in LEE push-thru dies, and lubed again with LLA as before.
I used WW .303 Brit cases neck-sized in the LEE Collet Die, and then gave the case mouths a good flair and primed with WLR standard primers.
Powder charge was 16.1 grns. of WW 296 and the PP’d boolits were seated to the bottom on the case neck.
When fired in my L/E #5, the PP ‘confetti’d’ from five to ten feet in front of the muzzle, and the 7mm boolit made a nice clean hole in the target. YAY stability! POI = POA. Estimated velocity is in the neighborhood of 1500fps. with that 162gr. Boolit. I’ll check that out when the weather warms enough I can get outside and chrono it.
Because WW 296 and IMR SR4759 are right beside each other on the Burning Rate Charts, I expected similar performance from the latter and such proved to be the case. Substituting WW WLP primers in the 296 load showed no marked differences at the target, but with the SR4759 load there was some incidence of vertical stringing so I suspect insufficient ignition in some. I would assume WW WLPM primers could be used with that powder successfully.
I have a plan to PP a Lyman #31141 up for use in a .32 Special, and have a LEE C312-185-1R set up for an 8mm, .35, or .338. There seems to be no limit to what can be done for ‘expedience’!
Next episode will be to see how fast these PP’s can be driven accurately enough to be ‘practical’!
HABCAN.
Writing over at WRSA last December 10, (http://westernrifleshooters.blogspot.com/2008_12_01_archive.html)
I mentioned that a desperate reloader could paper-patch a boolit sufficiently to use in a larger-caliber firearm. Along that line, we have already PP’d a LEE TL452-230-TC up to .458 and shot it from a .45-90 to minute-of-dead-deer @ 100 yds., so I wanted to try something extreme.
Now, the purists will decry my purposefully sloppy methods, but I was trying to duplicate desperation in a SHTF situation, OK?
Paper-patching boolits seems to be as much art as science, so I used a lot of art and very little science, LOL!
Boolits were the Lyman #287641 as cast.
Paper was cheap no-name 2-ply toilet paper. You can get four strips the proper length from one sheet and soak them in water.
Set the boolit on the wetted paper on a hard surface with the paper just over the ogive point, and roll with sufficient pressure to squeeze out water. Roll it quite a few times. Twisting off the paper tail leaves the center of the boolit base bare. Set it aside to dry for at least 24 hrs.
To see if the plan was going to be practical, I repeated this process with another wetted strip for three more days running, and ended up with a cast 7mm boolit that now measured ~.324” diameter, quite ‘hard’ to the touch, and its base was now covered with the subsequent paper wraps. I lubed it with wiped-on LLA (LEE Liquid Alox) which really soaked in. When dry, I sized to .314, then to .311 in LEE push-thru dies, and lubed again with LLA as before.
I used WW .303 Brit cases neck-sized in the LEE Collet Die, and then gave the case mouths a good flair and primed with WLR standard primers.
Powder charge was 16.1 grns. of WW 296 and the PP’d boolits were seated to the bottom on the case neck.
When fired in my L/E #5, the PP ‘confetti’d’ from five to ten feet in front of the muzzle, and the 7mm boolit made a nice clean hole in the target. YAY stability! POI = POA. Estimated velocity is in the neighborhood of 1500fps. with that 162gr. Boolit. I’ll check that out when the weather warms enough I can get outside and chrono it.
Because WW 296 and IMR SR4759 are right beside each other on the Burning Rate Charts, I expected similar performance from the latter and such proved to be the case. Substituting WW WLP primers in the 296 load showed no marked differences at the target, but with the SR4759 load there was some incidence of vertical stringing so I suspect insufficient ignition in some. I would assume WW WLPM primers could be used with that powder successfully.
I have a plan to PP a Lyman #31141 up for use in a .32 Special, and have a LEE C312-185-1R set up for an 8mm, .35, or .338. There seems to be no limit to what can be done for ‘expedience’!
Next episode will be to see how fast these PP’s can be driven accurately enough to be ‘practical’!
HABCAN.