Some .35 Rem cast boolit fun

[randy_68]

Blowing up water jugs!!
And learning something while I was at it.
I had some time today to do a little shooting with my .35 Marlin, so I decided to fill some jugs with water and shoot some cast boolits into them. My loads consisted of the Lee 358-200 and the RCBS 35-200. First up was the RCBS over 35.0 gr of IMR3031 and a CCI 200 primer. This is my everyday load and clocks in around 1950 fps. It is the load I used to get my first cast boolit kill this year, a nice 8 pt buck. Since my boolit went through him I wasn’t able to see exactly what kind of expansion I got. I mentioned in that thread that my alloy had 20% pure in it but I was wrong, that is my Lee boolit alloy. I’ve had the RCBS boolits for a couple years now but the Lee’s are only a couple months old.
I filled 15 milk jugs up with water and placed them at 25 yards, 6 deep. My first shot with the RCBS destroyed the first two, split three and four with the boolit stopping in jug five. I feel like the boolit expanded perfectly at .70 and still retained 207.5 gr. This load is 35.0 of IMR3031 and chronied at 1946. The alloy is acww plus with a touch of tin.

Next up was a Lee 358-200 with acww plus 20% pure and a touch of tin so a little softer than the RCBS. It weighs 204 grs and the load was 35.0 gr of 3031 which clocks in about 2030 fps. It destroyed the first three jugs and went through five at the top so I didn’t get to recover it. However it fragmented badly with a few small pieces in a couple of the jugs. Not too good.


My next load was the same Lee boolit over 20.0 gr 2400 going 1650 fps. It ended up in jug five with a dia of .650 and a retained weight of 162.7 gr. What amazed me was the destruction of the first two jugs which were blew apart and landed almost 15 feet away. The pressure also blew down the top of my metal table. This load was slower but seemed much more violent.
Blowing these water jugs up sure put a big smile on my face.
RCBS on left , Lee's center and right.




After that was done I chronied several loads and shot for accuracy at 50 yards.
Here are the results which have me a little confused as some of the higher loads chronied slower but more consistent which is really what I was looking for.
This was with the Lee 358-200 acww, plus 20% pure, plus tin. Sized at .360 and lubed with homemade Ben’s red. I use CCI 200 primers and do a separate crimp with a Lee die.
Imr 3031
35.0 grs 2030, 1957
35.5 grs 2020, 1904, 1912
36.0 grs 1949, 1919, 1956

2400 powder
19.5 grs 1634, 1620, 1646
20.0 grs 1718, 1650, 1709
20.5 grs 1659, 1672, 1638
Imr 4227 powder
23.5 grs 1719, 1686, 1702
24.0 grs 1730, 1746, 1737




Over all the RCBS shoots better in my gun but I no longer have the mold so I’m trying to make the Lee work. The load of 20.5 gr 2400 was the best of the bunch by a long shot. It looks like I still have some work to do. Maybe use straight acww or try another powder.

Thanks for reading and any criticism or help is much appreciated.

[Yodogsandman]

That does look like a lot of fun!

I like to use 10 shot groups at 100 yards to better show a loads potential. The more boolits that are shot, the better you'll know how that load will hold up.

[William Yanda]

Surprising that the coww/pb alloy shattered. Perhaps adding tin to the ww balanced the Sn/Sb and made them tougher.
Thanks for the report.

[randy_68]

Moving out to 100 yards is next. I just wanted to try some different loadings and see how they shot at 50 first.