My first LBTs

[Angus]

I picked up a 158gr OWC mold here on S&S a couple weeks ago and just got to casting with it today. The seller send a few boolits along with it and those got loaded and shot into about 2" at 20 paces over some power pistol. This load is 12.5gr of AA #9 and a Federal SPMM primer in Starline brass. I can't wait to see what these do with some speed behind them. It's such a nasty looking boolit with that meplat big enough to eat dinner off.

Oh yea, they're lubed with Tac +1. They were my first time using one of theperfessor's top punches. SO much nicer than Lyman's offering.

http://i242.photobucket.com/albums/ff264/DeathPenalty23/158-OWC_zpsdbe14ba1.jpg

[Hyphenated]

Wow....that's a boooooolit.

[fm2]

Thanks for posting pics of the OWC bullets. I just missed getting that mold and am looking forward to hearing how it works for you.

[TheGrimReaper]

That is what I call a meplat!!! Love it!!!

[MT Chambers]

That style would make a nice bullet for my .454 Casull, say around 300 grains?

[RobS]

Should be a pretty good smack down!!!

[Angus]

I'm thinking it'll smash bones like a sledgehammer. I'll drag the chrony down to the range tomorrow and see just what it's doing while I'm testing for accuracy. The few I shot before cut nice round holes in the target, too.

[Angus]

I took the new boolit to the range today, and was pretty disappointed with the accuracy. I think it was more to do with the recoil in my 5" M60 than the load though, since it was almost all lateral dispersion. My load of 12.5gr of AA #9 had the boolit flying at 1130 fps, ES was about 45 fps. The Power Pistol load I tried originally was much better with lateral dispersion, but less precise vertically.

The recoil ended up driving the cylinder release back into my thumb a few times, I need to take a wet q-tip and get the blood out of the checkering. I think I'll hold off on a sledgehammer load in such a small framed revolver and stick with 38 special +P+ loads instead.

The Tac #1 worked well, leaving a shiny, lead free bore. It did however leave some type of oil on the face of the cylinder and down on the crane. I'm assuming it is the ZIP coming out of the mixture under heat and pressure. It was essentially smoke free, too.

Next up is either 6.8 or 7.2 grains of Unique, it depends on which bushing I have for my Hornady pistol powder measure. Hopefully it'll tighten up. The goal is a load that will dispatch a wiley coyote or a rabid coon I might encounter while hiking up in the Adirondacks. Sure-fire black bear protection out of a 357 is a tough sell, and my aiblity to shoot a heavy load out of this j-frame revolver is definitely lacking.

[paul h]

You may find that bullet is difficult to get to shoot well. A friend had Veral make him what he called a 160gr XFN, had a .30" meplat (same as 44 cal LFN) I tried a variety of loads with it from mild to all out and accuracy was not up to my standards. A pity as I figured at 1400-1500 fps it should be an outstanding bullet for deer.