45-70 Wild Flier?

[eddeb3]

Harvested a nice white-tail spike on opening morning.....end to end penetration with a 405 grain cast boolit (Lee 405 hollow base mold - 10:1 lead/tin)...40 grains of Reloader 7 out of a H&R Buff Classic...~85 yards....bang flop!

..decided to shoot a few rounds during the mid-day break. Groups were running ~1.5" at 100 yards...all was well...THEN...fired a round that flew 1+ foot low! ..was shooting from sand bags..follow through was good...hard black land dirt flew up so hard that the targets were knocked down!

Question: What on earth could have caused a cast boolit (from the same batch that has been so accurate) to take such a strange path?

I'm pretty new to shooting cast but I've been shooting rifles from .22 to 375 H&H for 55+ years! This is new to me. :veryconfu

I'm all ears as to what your thoughts might be!

Thanks in advance for your insights.

Ed

[dhansen]

Undercharged load? It happens.................

[kawalekm]

Sorry for your problem Ed. But, you got your deer.

I can suggest a couple of things. Did you look at the brass after firing? Maybe a crack in the neck got started. That would have caused a flier. There could also be a burr on the casemouth that is scratching the bullet.

If it was the bullet instead of the case, it might have been one with an internal void you couldn't see. It might also have had a base that was damaged because that caseneck didn't flare enough.

The biggest question is whether or not you get more fliers or if this was a one time occurance. Might just be that your flier was from the beginning of the casting run and it just LOOKED as high a quality as the rest of your bullets. Keep on trying.
Michael

[Bullshop]

My guess is the HB was the problem. When casting HB boolits until the mold and base pin are hot enougn there will be hidden voids in the base.
Look over your castings sometime. Take a small probe and poke at the inside of the HB, especially the first several castings. You may be surprised at what you find.
When casting HB everything has to be hot and kept that way with a very speedy cadance.
With the info you gave here that is my guess, that there was an unseen void in the base somewhere.
BIC/BS

[jack19512]

Probably of no help to you but I always weigh all of my cast and group them together by weight. The ones that are too low or high in weight are put back into the pot for remelting.

[eddeb3]

Thank you so much for your ideas/comments! I plan to save my loaded boolits for plinking and to re-cast the remainder this weekend.

I plan to inspect each empty case extra closely, make sure the mold is good 'n hot and inspect/weigh each boolit before lubing and loading.

...luv shooting these cast boolits! Paper patching comes next after the deer season.

Thanks again and have a bountiful Thanksgiving.

Ed

[kevbo]

A lazy man would just weigh the unloaded ones...then he'd either know they are not a problem, or find what the problem is.