More testing with the Lyman devistator and my ruger 77/44

[Tripplebeards]

Randy, I did use diamond targets this time. I aimed for for middle so the crosshairs would line up with the four points. I liked it! printed some up from uspalma.com. I agree most shooters cant shoot MOA or less. I have nine different rifles I can shoot clover leaves at a 100 yards. I even have a savage 220 20 guage slugger and Thompson center omega 50 cal muzzel loader that will both make one large hole with 3 shots at a 100 yards. My avatar is a 100 yard group from my 14.5" barrel P415 POF. I can shoot dime size groups at 200 yards with it. I realize every dog has his day but I'm capable of if my rifle is on most days. This rifle has just got me stumped. Its the second rifle/firearm I have tried with cast. The first being my Ruger american 450 Bushmaster. It was a brand new rifle shooting 1.25" groups with a lee 300fn pc and gc the first time out to the range. The second time out I lengthened the overall cartridge length and shot a 1.1" at a 100 yards with the same load and I ac the boolit instead of wq. I had a couple posts on it. I had seven other powder charges I tried that shot 1.5 to 1.8" groups. BTW that gun will shoot 100 yard cloverleaves with factory hornady Jwords by yours truly.lol

Anyways, I changed over the scope to one of nikon 3.5x14's pro staff 5's. Its the same optic I have on my P415. I also lightened the trigger a little more today I would have to say its at a crisp 2lbs...might be a little under. I dont plan on leaving the optic on it, but if it closes the gap I will get a Nikon 3x9 to replace it. That vx11 3x9 is foggy and blurry compaired to the pro staff 5. Just figured it was worth a try to rule out the optic idea. I dont think it will make much difference as I have the same leupold on my 7600 06' that I can shoot .4" at 100yds. I cleaned my barrel with shooters choice and scrubbed it with a brass brush pretty good. I have only shot cast through this rifle. I wonder if the bore is still a little rough and not broke in yet? Im going to brake down and try some J words I loaded up last fall for my ruger carbine and see if they group better. I have some leverrutions, 265gr hornaday soft points, speer 's, and 240gr and 300gr xtps loaded up. I've been reading that some shooters have gotten some tight groups after lapping the barrel on the 77/44 using j words. I wouldnt expect the gun to go from 2" groups to less than MOA with cast boolits by doing so with this type of rifle. Oh, and I did try the bolt schim thing when I bought it last year. My bolt was tight enough that it didnt need shims. With the thinnest schim installed it took alot of pressure to close the bolt without a round in it. Randy, were the boys shooting J words or cast? Do we have any members here that shoot moa at a 100 yards with a ruger 77/44 with cast boolits? Ive heard a few internet claims with j words. Just courious. well, I loaded up a few more devastators and will be off to the range in the morning to try the same load with a little better optic and a little lighter trigger. Fingers crossed, this the least accurate rifle ive ever owned...but i love it!...its been a fun project.

[Tripplebeards]

Randy! thanks for pushing me. lol

I went back to the range this morning. I had to have a good 15 plus mile per hour cross wind. I didnt figure it would bother my 270gr boolits flight of path too much.

I loaded up some davastators with 23.8 gr of H110 to try since I ran out of W296 the other day. I also tried a group of the W296 23.8gr load. Lastly, I tried 21gr of H110 with a BH of 7.5 with a mv of 1675fps. This was the load/alloy combo that Larry gave me some good advise on last fall to use for black bear when I borrowed my rifle to a friends son. Well, the 7.5 bh load shot a .8". I could tell right away the optic I switched to was as clear as could be and believed along with the trigger being lightend helped alot. I would like the trigger a little lighter but realize this is not a varmint/target rifle. I did try the 22.5gr w296 load again that showed promise. First two shots touched dead center in the bullseye and then the third shot to the left about 1.5" away. A couple things I have to say is it was pretty hot today and after shooting a good fifty rounds and the barrel heating up I had three stuck casings using 23.8gr of w296. I had one last week do the same after about 40 rounds were through it and figured it was a fluke beng I shot another 10 through it afterwards and no sticking. I had to give the bolt a good hit with my hand to eject the casings. I shot out the last 7 today with no sticking after the last one stuck. I also can say that this little gun in not forgiving even when shooting off a rest. I also found my best groups came from putting a firm grip the the rifle and give a quick snap on the trigger. If I would just it lay there in the rest like my varmint rifles and giving a slow steady squeeze on the trigger it will make this little light rifle will buck and throw fliers. Oh, my eyes must like squares being the .8' group was group shot at a square target.



H110 21gr 100 yards...



W296 23.8gr 100 yards...



H110 22.5gr 100 yards....



H110 23.8gr 100 yards...

[Tripplebeards]

I just found this target in my back seat. It must have fell on the floor.

Another 100 yd group with either 23.8gr of w296 or 21gr of h110. Sorry i don't remember.

[OS OK]

It's more exacting and easier to measure from the edge of the hole to the other hole, just measure the same sides and that's the same as trying to estimate center to center.
Example...measure from the right side of the first hole to the right side of the next hole.

[Tripplebeards]

It's more exacting and easier to measure from the edge of the hole to the other hole, just measure the same sides and that's the same as trying to estimate center to center.
Example...measure from the right side of the first hole to the right side of the next hole.

Thanks for the tip.

[W.R.Buchanan]

So I guess it will shoot sub MOA. I'd be jumping up and down shooting a sub 1" group from a .44 Magnum anything. I shot a 1 3/8" group once from my S&W M29 back in the day but that was at 25 yards.

Brian's boys were shooting everything. It was all about load development for an article in Handloader or Rifle mags the guns were both 77/44 and 77/357.

The scope was good for seeing just how good the gun will shoot. I recently mounted a 3-9X scope on one of my pellet guns just to see how well it would shoot. I got one 5 shot group at .125" , with irons the best I could do with the same gun was about 1/2" at 10 yards. I shoot it mostly with the irons, but I now know for sure it is basically a laser. If I miss,,, it was me!

I know you understand that the 77/44 was not designed to be a Varmint Rifle. It is a fast handling carbine with sufficient punch to serve as a backup gun or woods gun. I want one badly and it will get a Bushnell TRS-25 Red Dot Sight mounted atop the supplied rail as soon as I verify the zero of the iron sights. I can also see using it for short range silhouette. I would be very happy with a 2" group at 100 yards with the Red Dot. I just shot a 1" 5 shot group with my Mini 14 with a red dot sight last week, and no one, including myself, would have seen that coming.

I know you are trying to see what the gun will do, but at some point you will have to get rid of the scope and put a smaller optic or receiver sight on it so you can benefit from the handling of the gun. If you look at the gun in the context of how you will use it in the field instead of off the bench you will see what I'm talking about. Fast handling and target acquisition is where it is at for a close range hunting rifle.

Here's a pic of my Ruger GSR with the Red Dot mounted and one with the Scope. I can hit a man sized target out to 300 yards with every single shot with the Red Dot, and the gun handles so well it is pathetic. It is easy to carry and fast on target. Lots of joy in shooting that one! It is a good 3 gun rifle for me, and the guys who only have one rifle take notice when I show up with a different gun every month. The same gun with the scope will get me to 600+ yards easily. But of the two configurations which one do you think is more useful and more fun to shoot? Deer hunting with a Red Dot,,,, piece o cake.

The whole reason I got the Devastator Mould from Miha was for that gun. I don't have that gun yet but I am working on it. I'd bring the 77/44 to a 3 gun shoot in a heartbeat!

Randy

[Tripplebeards]

That 3x9 leupold was nice, compact, and light. I liked the weight and look of it. I didn't care for the bigger optic as soon as I installed it but the leupold was just too blurry. I have a Nikon rimfire 3x9 on my Walter talon 22 cal nitro piston pellet rifle. It might come off and go on the 77/44 after more testing. I'd really like to pop a few coyotes with it.

That is impressive shooting Randy since your trs-25 dot is 3" in diameter at a 100 yards.

[Tripplebeards]

Try the AT3 red dots if you like your trs-25. It's better quality with a 2 mm dot and lifetime warranty for about $15 more. Had one, it was nice. The only thing is inside the dot looked like a little starburst. Outside, a nice clear crisp round dot. My 5 MOA dot tascos and ultra dots are crisp inside and out. I've been running red dots since around 89-90'. Started with tasco pdp3's on my colt andaconda and browning buck mark 5.5 target. They are wearing match dots now. I still have the tascos along with a few camo pdp2's on my shotguns for turkey hunting. Forgot, I have a leupold delta point side saddled on my POF. Not a big fan of that one either.

I will end up putting a lighter, smaller optic back on when done with some more testing. I'd like to try a little harder alloy with the sub MOA load and 23.6gr of h110 with the 80/20 boolit. I didn't like the bugger optic as soon as I installed it but new it was temporary for testing. Now at least if I miss or flinch I know it was on me and not the rifle.

[Tripplebeards]

I think I have run my course with 100 yard testing H110 powder. I tried my 80/20 boolit along with 23.7gr of H110 this morning and shot a 1.7" group. Then I tried 23.6 grains of H110. Shot two, three shot groups measuring 2.2" and 2.3". Lastly I tried my 21gr sub moa H110 load with harder alloys. My gun likes the softer boolit at this load being I shot 3" plus groups with both 50/50 and 80/20.

I have some lil gun laying around. I'll have to find some load data for it.

[W.R.Buchanan]

3beards: Yeah that group from my Mini 14 was a gift, and the point of aim was the left point of the diamond. That group was essentially 1" high and 1"right in windage.

Right edge of dot on left point of black diamond.

Just realized I didn't post that pic here.

Randy

[Beau Cassidy]

Now you are getting there!

[Tripplebeards]

3beards: Yeah that group from my Mini 14 was a gift, and the point of aim was the left point of the diamond. That group was essentially 1" high and 1"right in windage.

Right edge of dot on left point of black diamond.

Just realized I didn't post that pic here.

Randy

That's awesome!

I just smelted my original 13 pound pewter batch of 3 oz blocks all together and poured back into 1/2 pound blocks. Im going to burn it all up on my 7.5 BH 16:1 boolits and 80/20 with 12% percent added. I smelted the pewter when I first started collecting SN and melted it at a couple pounds at a time. I wanted pewter blocks to all to be the same BH. Im sure there is BP in the pewter since I only ended up with 7.5 BH and didn't want to contaminate this batch with future pewter melts. In the future I will only use "pewter" stamped" items and not picture frames and leave the rest of pewter hallmarked items un melted till needed.

I don't have a mini 14 but now Im going to have to get one to throw in the mix. I have a first gen ruger carbine 44 mag and want the newer mini 14 version of it as well. They are just hard to come by.

[Tripplebeards]

Turns out I have 8lbs of the mystery pewter I used at a 16:1 ratio to get my 7.5 BH boolit. I used 2 lbs of it today. After I test the BH I'll burn up the rest to make another 96 lbs of hp's. I have a feeling this soft alloy is going to be explosive on deer. Guess I'm going to find out.

[Tripplebeards]

I went to mix up more 80/20 today and found my notes that I wrote down when mixing it. I added 3 bars of pewter to 4lbs of coww and 1 pound of pure lead. The average weight of My pewter bars I used were a tittle over 3 oz. Each closer to 3.2-3.3. Which means I added approx 12% plus pewter to the 80/20 mix(wholly ****!). I boo boo'd and didn't do my math that day. Well, no going back now. I mixed up 30 lbs of it today for future use so it's all the same BH and all I have to do is cast boolits. If anyone was trying to make this alloy I just wanted to give everyone a heads up so you have the proper mix ratio if trying to duplicate my alloy. I just made 40lbs of it this morning and another 16lbs of 16:1. That will deplete the original mixed up batch of pewter I used for these two alloys so I now can start dipping into my hallmark only pewter items to keep a higher tin content.

[cwlongshot]

question Tripplebeards,

Are those corn bread tray wedges?

I was given a bunch of "lead" last week and some labeled pewter is wedges like that. While other is muffin tin "coins" Then I have some other engraved TIN 1# in 2x4x1/4 "bars"... Its all is about 1/4" thick. The last & largest portion is in is labeled "WWT's" and is in "corn" trays about 1/2" thick.

I like the idea of the wedges and wondered what was used for that shape.

CW

[Tripplebeards]

Yes, I picked up the cast iron pan for around $6-10 if i remember at a antique store. They were sticking a little today so I sprayed some rock island arsenal mold spray in them. Ill post a pic of it in a little bit. I uses my number tap kit from harbor freight to label them along with a marker. Fyi, it takes a lot longer for the alloy to cool down and harden when using a cast pan and lead likes to stick in it so you'll need to either tap or drop the pan a few times to release them. Mold spray helped a lot yesterday.

[Tripplebeards]

[Tripplebeards]

The ones on the left are my 80/20 mix. I made 3, 11 lb, 3.2 oz. batches which made 28 pie slices. I made three 16:1... 16lbs of lead flooring and a pound of pewter. I had some left over I threw in for the photo from my original mix. I can definitely tell the color variations between the two alloys. The 80/20 is a light foggy grey and my 16:1 shiny chrome colored. The 16:1 makes pretty boolits.

[Tripplebeards]

I Recovered another devastator in a fourth alloy mix for show and tell. I found another cast boolit...or what was left of it in the dirt pile behind my 200 yard target at the range when I was shooting the other day. This time the alloy was ACCOWW and 2% pewter. It was some of my left over test ammo. I think it was loaded with 22 gr of h110? The devastator sheered off its pedals like some of the ones I've seen recovered from our down under hog slayer. I realize dirt Is going to be harsh on boolits but my Pure and pewter mixes seems to expand a lot better than plain coww with a little pewter added.