Ranch Dog Boolits+445sm Contender

[jeff223]

did some more shooting with the RANCH DOG boolits out of my 445supermag Contender.this is a 14 inch barrel and is setup with a 2-7 Burris scope.all testing is at 100yds with a number of loads using two powders.i use w296 and aa1680

best groups so far are just alittle over 2.5 inchs and im talking just over.with 30gr of w296 the recoil is high but she shoots these RANCH DOGS to my likings.the recoil from 32gr of aa1680 seems alittle less but the accuracy is the same as 296

this seems to be the sweet spot for this barrel and this boolit load combos.if i load up or down from this point accuracy suffers.with a max load of 296 and a Hornady 240gr XTP she will break the 1.5 inch mark but who cares about that inch smaller group for hunting?the deer will never know the dirrerance

one thing i find interesting about these RANCH DOG boolits ,they like to make a small jump to the lands.i tried seating them into the lands and those loads dont shoot as good.

all these boolits were water dropped and the boolits i recovered from the bank were about 90% from original.

you guys think an air cooled RANCH DOG boolit will shoot with or better than a water dropped???im going to try it.i would like a softer alloy for busting these deer around here

and by the way i used three coats of Lee alox and i have no leadinghttp://castboolits.gunloads.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

[Ranch Dog]

Jeff,

Glad to see you are putting the boolit to work! Interesting comments about the seating depth. In the 444, I have chosen to use an OAL of 2.5" rather than the 2.57" of the SAAMI spec for the cartridge. Having tested this boolit in a number of firearms of this caliber, this was an overall length that assured reliable chambering in all of them. What I'm getting to is that accuracy was great from all the rifles despite the seating depth.

May be some of the other guys would be better versed in this but I feel that the water queching is only "skin deep". In other words, there is a "crust" of tough lead, and then softer lead in the core of the bullet. I've had some pretty nice looking mushrooms with my 1/1 Lino/WW water quenched boolits. My boolits indicate a 31 BHN with the Lee Testor and they smack game pretty good out of the 444 or the 336-44 (44 Mag).

No leading is from the correct boolit fit :drinks:

[Ranch Dog]

BTW... from a long barreled 444 shooter, 2.5" at 100 yards with a hunting load of powder is an impressive group by any standard!!!

[357maximum]

Question


How deep is the HARD skin on a soft core jacketed bullet?

....Yes the water dropped skin issue is there, but depending on how they were treated after you took them out of the water,(I keep em in a gas oven with a pilot light for a week),the skin is deeper than I would have ever imagined,,...I get about two to three jackets worth of depth into them before I get any softer readings....on the 50/50 alloy 1to 2 weeks after they were born...


Jeff
I am getting real good accuracy with that 50/50 ww/pure alloy that is water dropped at21 BHN in my 444S, and it does mushrooms really really well and retains 80 to 90 % of its original weight. Now if I was going to shoot something alot bigger than whitetail, this might not be the ideal alloy but for our 125-150lb bucks I am sure it will do just fine....tough enough and mallable kinda neat in my book...and a hell of alot cheaper than lino...JMO

Michael

[jeff223]

i think i will try some of the 50/50 mix of soft lead and wheel weight lead.i will water quench too.also going to try some air cooled wheel weight lead RANCH DOG boolits too.they may be just what the doctor ordered

sometime soon we should get together again Mike and burn some powder.my new SSK 357max barrel should be here in a couple of weeks.the lady at SSK said it would take about 3 weeks and one week is gone since i ordered it.that hand lapped Shillen stainless steel barrel should shoot them nice cast 35cal boolits real nice that we have.sure hope its better than that one i got from those CLOWNS at MGM.im sure it will be, J.D.Jones is the man from what i hear for making up the good hand cannon barrels

[357maximum]

Jeff, Let me know when...

Michael