Fouling question

[DeanWinchester]

Okay, I'm fairly sure of the answer, but I found this interesting and would like to discuss it a bit. The rifle is my Ishapore 2A and the boolit is a 160g TLGC spitzer Lee sized .311.

Starting at 10g of unique and working up accuracy has been great and NO leading. There is some black soot that comes out easy with a few patches. Well, there was. In 1g increments, 50 rounds at a time, I am up to 14g of Unique now. No change in accuracy, still shoots excellent and no leading. And when I say no leading, there IS one spot in the barrel that has two small pits and they fill in after five rounds but there's no smearing or lead anywhere else. I've made it a point to NOT put a brush down the bore and all is peaches.

Now, at 14g the soot is gone too for the most part. What did take half a dozen patches to wipe clean, now takes two. Why? I'm not trying to look a gift horse in the mouth here but I find it very interesting. Is it the increased charge burns cleaner, hotter, more efficiently or what.

I hope I don't jinx it, but this boolit, sized .311 and a light coat of mule snot; I just can't seem to do any wrong. [smilie=w:

[Larry Gibson]

Now, at 14g the soot is gone too for the most part. What did take half a dozen patches to wipe clean, now takes two. Why?

That load has hit the psi where unique burns efficiently, that's all there is to it. It's why I prefer Bullseye for such loads under 1200 fps with all but heavy for cartridge cast bullets (like 180 - 220 gr in the .308). Unique does not burn efficiently in that range under 1200 fps, especially with lighter weight cast bullets. Bullseye does burn efficiently down from 1200 fps to a very low level of psi especially with lighter weight cast bullets. With 150+ gr cast in .30 cal rifles above 1200 fps Unique works better. There is an overlap of course but you've found where unique burns efficiently with your rifle and cast bullet.

Larry Gibson