how do you like your throat?

[craveman85]

i was wondering if any of you guys had casted and/or modified your throats on your rifles. i would also like to know how it affected your accuracy. i have a h&r buffalo classic i shoot bp out of and i have to seat the bullets almost all the way into the case. id like to make it longer so i can try some longer bullets. my 535 gr bullets i have to push into the rifling upon loading. i found a easy and cheap way of slugging my throat too. you take an empty case preferably with a spent primer still in it. pour melted lead up to about 3/8 inch from the mouth. then you put a soft lead bullet in the mouth and chamber it. you put a rod down the barrel and pound it with a mallet till the lead has formed to the shape of the throat. i was surprised to see that my throat was very consistent and well aligned though. please post pics if you have them.

[Southern Son]

I didn't change the throat, I got a mould that was cut so that only the last 2 driving bands are in the case, the rest of them are .449 and will fit up into the barrel. If you cut rifling out of your barrel, you will have a hell of a time getting it back in if you ain't happy with the results, but if the new boolit mould doesn't work the way you want, your only out the cost of the mould, and even then, you could sell it.

[NickSS]

I have known several people who throated their rifle barrels so that they could seat the bullets further out and in all cases they got poorer results with them. In fact one of the guys in my club that did this to a Shiloh sharps rifle just had a new barrel put on his gun by Shiloh so that a useless gun could be used. I have shot several different bullets in close throated guns that worked but had to be seated with all driving bands in the case. This usually means that only 60 to 63 gr of FFG can be put in the case. I also have a special Brooks mold that has tapered bands. The result is that I seat only about 1/4 inch ogf the bullet in the case and the rest sticks out. I get 75 gr of FFG powder in the case with this bullet and it shoots very well. I use it for long range matches as the extra powder gives me a bit of extra velocity.

[largom]

I used a throating reamer from PTG to lengthen the throat in one of my 45-70's with excellent results. Other rifles accepted cast boolits without deep seating.

Larry

[craveman85]

well ive tried 6 different bullets with bp and substitutes changing 1 variable at a time and the best group ive gotten so far was around 4 inches. one guy i talked to told me the lead angle was to steep for cast bullets and most older bpcr rifles have anywhere from a 1 to 7 degree angle in the throat. mine when measured and calculated by 3 people including myself came out to be around 24 degrees.

[mroliver77]

I would not call that a throat. A funnel maybe.A ramp, possibly, but a throat, never! Without a custom throating reamer though it might leave you with a multi stepped mess.If you sent your case there and one loaded with the boolit you want to use to a reamer guy that understands cast, I bet he could make you a reamer to smooth things out.
Jay

[craveman85]

im going to try paper patching to bore. none of my rifles or my brothers have a throat this steep. i even checked a friends marlin 45-70 and it was nothing like this.

[Gunlaker]

well ive tried 6 different bullets with bp and substitutes changing 1 variable at a time and the best group ive gotten so far was around 4 inches. one guy i talked to told me the lead angle was to steep for cast bullets and most older bpcr rifles have anywhere from a 1 to 7 degree angle in the throat. mine when measured and calculated by 3 people including myself came out to be around 24 degrees.

How "generous" is your throat? I have a CSA highwall in .45-70 and it has a large diameter throat. It shoots about the same groups at 100m as yours with soft grease groove bullets. When I switched to an oversize diameter Postell cast in hard (nearly Linotype) the groups were cut by more than 50%. From what I've read I'm supposed to be getting a lot of leading, but I haven't found any yet.

I've recently had promising results using bore diameter PP bullets seated way out, using Norma brass cut down. If I can solve my occasional flyers I think this will become the most accurate load for my rifle.

chris.

[craveman85]

not sure what you mean by generous. theres a pic posted at the beginning of this thread. on my 500 grain bullets i actually had to seat the bullets really far into the case because at their suggested col in the reloading books they would have to be pushed into the rifling.

[Gunlaker]

not sure what you mean by generous. theres a pic posted at the beginning of this thread. on my 500 grain bullets i actually had to seat the bullets really far into the case because at their suggested col in the reloading books they would have to be pushed into the rifling.

By generous, I mean that the diameter of the freebore is far larger than what would be normal. IIRC the diameter of my freebore is about 0.004" greater than groove diameter. From what I understand, and I'm just starting to learn the finer points of this stuff, the freebore ought to be very close to groove diameter to ensure good bullet alignment.

Chris.