This was the first opportunity to try out PC with the any firearm. This happens to be with the 35 Whelen using 358318 GC boolits cast from range scrap. That is a fairly soft alloy, which I want for hunting purposes. The issue with this new to me mold and range scrap is loading for at least 2,100 fps with traditional lube was giving terrible accuracy and some leading. Not horrible leading but some shards. Still, the hope of better groups propelled me to give PC a shot, literally. On the way I've loaded a number of boolits as paper patched. This thread deals with the PC, as I only had so much time for testing yesterday and the PP shot over the paper target.
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The shooting bench was not available to use with sandbags and a rock solid rest, so I sat in a lawn chair with cross sticks. Not the best method to obtain world class shot strings on paper, but enough to let me know this is exceeding the traditional lube in the grooves with 41 grains of H4895 in the case. I did see this effect at the case mouth, though.
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Didn't seem to affect the boolit flight, nor do I see anything amiss in the barrel in the way of leading. A Lyman M die was employed to open the mouth enough to ensure the boolit entered without shaving lead. Also, no crimp on the case mouth was used when seating the boolit. Found it odd that this ring would appear as it did. Is this normal?
As a comparison, the grease lubed rounds were clocking at a 2,151 fps average with 40 grains of powder, so I suspect these were in the 2,175fps ballpark. Not enough time to pull out the chrony. My goal was to shoot some first to see how they would do.
When I fired 5 with the 43 grain powder load there were no traces or signs of PC ringing around the case mouth. Faster appears to remove that from the equation. Again I ask, is this normal?
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Ahh, the range scrap is exactly what I am looking for when hitting milk jugs at 100 yards. The initial jugs shredded better than the large flat nose 405's do out of the 45/70. It does a heart good to witness that water spray happen. Wasn't certain what this round nose would do. Was concerned it would just pencil through with no real damage. Thankfully, this wasn't the case.
Now, how will the PC hold up at normal hunting ranges at 2,175 fps?
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Quite well! Found in the fifth jug at 100 yards.
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This is classic copper jacketed expansion without the jacket. (the 43 grain powder load showed shearing on opposing sides of the mushroom. Same 100 yards and still found in the 5th jug)
I need to bench rest these loads to know better how they will group. My heart beat in the crosshairs was a factor when shooting off the sticks and it wasn't nearly stable enough to gain exemplary groups. But hope has been served that better days are coming with these boolits in the 35 Whelen. It was a fun evening.