Daryl
02-13-2011, 11:26 PM
Hi,
I'm casting the Lee 401-175-TC for the 40 S&W. It drops about .403 and I size it to .402 with LBT Blue lube. I'm using S&W 4006 that slugs at about .4015.
I had another post going on this because my Lee FCD crimped the cartridge so much to fit the chamber that the bullet was swaged down to under .401. Based on feedback, I finally got a Redding Taper Die. With that die, I can crimp the round to just chamber in the 4006 and the bullet still pulls out at just about .402. So, the bullet is just over bore size, but not nearly the usual .001 plus.
And, the bullet has to be seated so the base of the TC is at the case mouth. If not, the .402 bullet will not chamber fully because it hits the front of the chamber. Sammi specs are .401 there so that would make sense.
In fact, all the Sammi specs seem to be geared toward J bullets. It shows the bullet size at .4005 with a tolerance of -.003. So, our cast bullets are just too big for these specs.
The 4006 chamber is much more generous than the Storm Lake barrel I have for the G22. This round will only go into the Storm Lake chamber about 1/2 way.
So, I got out to the range today and went through 55 rounds. The barrel still leads at the breech end which tells me that the bullet is still too small? Well, that's one issue still to work on. I'm looking into a reamer to ream out the chamber and allow a larger cast bullet to be loaded into the case and still chamber correctly.
Second issue is that I loaded this with 5.0 Win 231. At 50' I seem to be grouping at about 4" to 5" below point of aim. These are fixed sights. So, I'm looking for ideas as to adjust the load that may make a difference here. Would a lighter load, say 4.5 Win 231 make a difference? Would a slower powder be better? I think the 175 grain bullet is about as large as I want to go on this cartridge.
Would a different powder/charge combo help both issues? This was at 35 degree weather so I imagine the leading could be worse with warmer summer weather?
I'm casting the Lee 401-175-TC for the 40 S&W. It drops about .403 and I size it to .402 with LBT Blue lube. I'm using S&W 4006 that slugs at about .4015.
I had another post going on this because my Lee FCD crimped the cartridge so much to fit the chamber that the bullet was swaged down to under .401. Based on feedback, I finally got a Redding Taper Die. With that die, I can crimp the round to just chamber in the 4006 and the bullet still pulls out at just about .402. So, the bullet is just over bore size, but not nearly the usual .001 plus.
And, the bullet has to be seated so the base of the TC is at the case mouth. If not, the .402 bullet will not chamber fully because it hits the front of the chamber. Sammi specs are .401 there so that would make sense.
In fact, all the Sammi specs seem to be geared toward J bullets. It shows the bullet size at .4005 with a tolerance of -.003. So, our cast bullets are just too big for these specs.
The 4006 chamber is much more generous than the Storm Lake barrel I have for the G22. This round will only go into the Storm Lake chamber about 1/2 way.
So, I got out to the range today and went through 55 rounds. The barrel still leads at the breech end which tells me that the bullet is still too small? Well, that's one issue still to work on. I'm looking into a reamer to ream out the chamber and allow a larger cast bullet to be loaded into the case and still chamber correctly.
Second issue is that I loaded this with 5.0 Win 231. At 50' I seem to be grouping at about 4" to 5" below point of aim. These are fixed sights. So, I'm looking for ideas as to adjust the load that may make a difference here. Would a lighter load, say 4.5 Win 231 make a difference? Would a slower powder be better? I think the 175 grain bullet is about as large as I want to go on this cartridge.
Would a different powder/charge combo help both issues? This was at 35 degree weather so I imagine the leading could be worse with warmer summer weather?