Lyman #457132

I have been shooting boolits from a Lyman #457132 535 gr. Postell mold in my
45-70. They are sized to .459 and lubed with 50/50 beeswax and alox. They are dropping from the mold weighing from 534 gr to 538 gr. and I sort them into 1 gr. increments for sizing and shooting. So far 34 gr. H4895 seems to give the best accuracy, 1 3/4" to 2" groups at 100 yds.

Thinking I might be able to improve on the groups I tried using some .060vegetable fiber wads with the same load. I placed the wad in the mouth of the case and seated the boolit so the wad is against the base of the boolit with about 1/4" space between it and the powder. Groups at 100 yds. are now horrible at around 5 to 6 ".

Anyone have any thoughts on this.

John

What alloy are you using? Lube? GC? Why use a wad for that bullet, cartridge combo?

Sorry, already answered on the lube question

The alloy is a mixture of pure lead and cerrotru (tin/bismoth), I add cerrotru until I get a series of boolits out of the mold that weigh 534 gr. Lyman says that no. 2 alloy should cast at 535 gr in that mold so I figure I am as close as I can get with what I am using. A Lee hardness tester is on it's way, untill then I don't know the actual hardness.

This is a plain base boolit. I hear so much about using wads to protect the base of the boolit I thought I would try it. I was easily getting 2" or less groups without the wads and am just wondering why the wad increased the group size so much.

John

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Originally Posted by windrider919

What alloy are you using? Lube? GC? Why use a wad for that bullet, cartridge combo?

Sorry, already answered on the lube question

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That particular boolit shot under 1" out of my Sharps replica, but I don't have the load here with me. The one thing I do know was they were water dropped WW's, very hard. The lube was Lyman Super Moly. It would be a quick test to try a harder boolit. You may try sizing a bit larger too.

I just picked up at a gunshow and very nice looking 45-70 Gov't Mauser Siamese Magnum all decked out to the 9' It has the most attractive stock and finish I have seen in a very long time4. I have ordered the dies and supplies to load this puppy up. Scoping with a Leupold VX3 1.5-5X with a 20 mm front objective. I am looking to shoot 300 gr Cast boolits, any suggestions would grately be appreciated. Thanks in advance.
Rojovin.


NRA Endowment Member
SCI Life Member.
Double Rifle Shooters' Society

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... seated the boolit so the wad is against the base of the boolit with about 1/4" space between it and the powder.

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Suspect the wad, not being attached to the base of the bullet and your 1/4" space, is allowing the wad to be tilting upon ignition. So, when the bullet is in the bore, the base is sealing to the grooves and the wad is 'wiggling' down the bore, in effect 'another base'. The gas pressure therefore is not constant and uniform - creating the bullet to yaw in flight

When shooting black powder, the powder column is up against the wad which is up against bullet base and stays there when traveling down the bore. Accordingly, the gas pressure is constant

I frown on fillers, so will pass on any suggestion

Sounds like an experiment that will never make it to the MAGIC BULLET Hall of Fame

John, you might want to switch to the Original Gunpowder - Black! Here's what can happen on a lucky day ... 14 Postell bullets went through that ragged hole [smilie=1:
http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/d...c/PDRM2558.jpg