358318 bullet in the Whelen

[jhalcott]

Well, I tried the 250 grain lyman in my Whelen again! Still no smiling faces here! the powder was 4064, 40, 42 and 44 grains. The best THREE shot group at 50 yards was over 6" with 40 grains. At least they ALL hit the paper this time. I either have to fatten the nose or seat the bullet longer so it LIGHTLY engraves the rifling prior to shooting. I'm concerned about the possibility of pulling the bullet if I have to eject the round without firing it.Would a light coating of LLA help in this regard(fattening the nose)? Or am I better off adjusting the overall length to get bullet /rifling contact? BTW Hawaii was beautiful,even IF I didn't get to hunt there!

[NVcurmudgeon]

Back to basics, have you slugged your barrel and sized accordingly, .001" to .002" more than groove diameter? six inch groups sounds like something is very wrong. I won't bother you with tales of the obselete NEI booolit that I use. but you might consider the RCBS 200 gr. FP, it has been a very accurate booolit in my 16:1 Lilja barrel.

[Bass Ackward]

I'm concerned about the possibility of pulling the bullet if I have to eject the round without firing it.Would a light coating of LLA help in this regard(fattening the nose)? Or am I better off adjusting the overall length to get bullet /rifling contact? BTW Hawaii was beautiful,even IF I didn't get to hunt there!

JH,

The answer to all questions is yes. Not only will the LLA fatten you nose but it will help if you have a fear of pulling your bullets.

I am a jammer, I haven't had this problem to worry about. And I even ream my necks to prevent neck tension. So if it was ever going to happen to somebody, I should be the one.

But Curmey has a point. You have something more wrong than seating depth. Don't be insulted, but is all the copper out?

[Bret4207]

358318 shoots good in my Whelen on a re-bored '03A3. Using 13-15 Red Dot, 16-18 gr 2400 I'm in the 1.5-3.5" range at around 15-1600FPS. What's your muzzle look like? 6" with anything near standard bore dimensions sound like either way undersize boolits, flawed muzzle, or big air voids in the booilt. Another thing to check is to make sure those loooong boolits don't get bent as you drop them from the mold. It can even happen if you water drop them. The longer the booilt, the gentler you have to be with them. That design is a great boolit, but a little harder to work with than the 200 gr jobs as twist and bending the soft boolit become and issue IMHO. Another thing to check would be to take some carefully cast boolits, carefully dropping them on a soft surface from the mould, check them for run out before and after sizing. If they come from the mould oversize, say .363, and you take them down to .359 they sometimes bend in the sizing die, especially with the older style Lyman die and if the nose punch is off center at all. Some of this can be aleviated by loosining the nose punch screw so it floats a bit and sizing half way, then bringing the boolit up, giving it a half turn and finishing sizing. Have you tried shooting them unsized with Lee Liquid Frog Snot? If they'll chamber it's worth a try.

That boolit at around 1850 fps should go from the south end of anything short of an elephant to the north end with no problemo, ( a little Deputy Al lingo there!).

[jhalcott]

Thank you all. I THINK my biggest problem is allowing the slug to JUMP about .020 to .030 before contacting the rifling. I'm goingto adjust OAL to touch or jam a few thou into the rifling,(.005)? Tommorrow I gotta go kill some ground hogs,so Thursday or friday I will try again. Tpr Bret the 358315(200) works great in this gun .Under an inch at 50 yards. The 250 unsized does not shoot as well but does chamber. I had damaged the noses on some sizing with aN RCBS sizer.Now use a LEE.