45coltnut
04-19-2014, 08:11 AM
Hello friends of Cast Boolits,
I hope everyone is having a good "long" weekend. The saga is now over with my 38-55, which is also my first ever dedicated cast boolit gun. Well, to catch up those that may not have heard my whining :)
I bought a Winchester 94 Legendary Frontiersman. The gun is like new but no box (only papers and manual). It already has a marbles improved tang site and also came with a nice peep style marbles rear sight. But, I put a blank in the rear sight slot. So, then onto what to load. I decided due the in-expensive costs to buy the Lee 379-250 mold. I'm sizing to the biggest I can at .379 even though they drop at .380 and my bore is .3795-.380. I'm also using Ben's Red Lube.
So, with mold, sizing and lube figured out I cast up some WW boolits. To her to the range to work unload development. I was pleasantly surprised that scope shooter performed as well as I did with the peep sight. My first groups were around 2" with certain loads. Other loads really opened up. But, then it all went ugly fast. During the cycling of the lever I noticed that my forearm had slid forward about 2-3". Whoa! What the $*#$%. So, I quickly discovered the front tenon had split into and had fallen out of the dovetail on the underneath side of the barrel. No big deal, I'll just get another one right? Not so easy after all. Again, remember this is my first bout in the older guns. So, I quickly discovered that the one gun manufacturer (Browning) that I absolutely love for all of my bolt action guns (and will not buy another brand) will not offer any service or suggestions on where to purchase a replacement piece. This could have just been due to the person I was talking with I know. But still!
After about 3-4 days of searching online I finally found a replacement part. When it arrived I quickly discovered that it needed major modifications. I had to cut it down to about 1/2" and then after installing and removing oh about 5 times I also had to ream out the hole and it wasn't centered correctly and would put allot of pressure on the bottom side of the barrel. You could almost see it bow slightly after putting the forearm cap on. But, I got it done finally.
So, yesterday morning I awoke and decided to load up some more as I wanted to try the IMR 3031 powder. I still had others left from my last session when the tenon broke. Well, I must say that I'm completely satisfied with this gun and caliber. The IMR 3031 shoots great. I got a 100 yd (from sand bags) group of 1.5" but I did have one flyer which was me. And, the gun is holding together great after my back yard machine shopping on it :)
Curtesy of a fantastic member here, I also have some 264 gas checked boolits to try out. They actually drop at 275 grains, but I'm hoping the bore fit may be better with the gas check. Although, leading doesn't appear to be an issue right now with the 250 grainers.
Here's a couple pics of the gun and target. Oh, and the fever has now hit full force! I'm now looking for an 1885 hi wall for my next cast only gun ;)
102685102686
I hope everyone is having a good "long" weekend. The saga is now over with my 38-55, which is also my first ever dedicated cast boolit gun. Well, to catch up those that may not have heard my whining :)
I bought a Winchester 94 Legendary Frontiersman. The gun is like new but no box (only papers and manual). It already has a marbles improved tang site and also came with a nice peep style marbles rear sight. But, I put a blank in the rear sight slot. So, then onto what to load. I decided due the in-expensive costs to buy the Lee 379-250 mold. I'm sizing to the biggest I can at .379 even though they drop at .380 and my bore is .3795-.380. I'm also using Ben's Red Lube.
So, with mold, sizing and lube figured out I cast up some WW boolits. To her to the range to work unload development. I was pleasantly surprised that scope shooter performed as well as I did with the peep sight. My first groups were around 2" with certain loads. Other loads really opened up. But, then it all went ugly fast. During the cycling of the lever I noticed that my forearm had slid forward about 2-3". Whoa! What the $*#$%. So, I quickly discovered the front tenon had split into and had fallen out of the dovetail on the underneath side of the barrel. No big deal, I'll just get another one right? Not so easy after all. Again, remember this is my first bout in the older guns. So, I quickly discovered that the one gun manufacturer (Browning) that I absolutely love for all of my bolt action guns (and will not buy another brand) will not offer any service or suggestions on where to purchase a replacement piece. This could have just been due to the person I was talking with I know. But still!
After about 3-4 days of searching online I finally found a replacement part. When it arrived I quickly discovered that it needed major modifications. I had to cut it down to about 1/2" and then after installing and removing oh about 5 times I also had to ream out the hole and it wasn't centered correctly and would put allot of pressure on the bottom side of the barrel. You could almost see it bow slightly after putting the forearm cap on. But, I got it done finally.
So, yesterday morning I awoke and decided to load up some more as I wanted to try the IMR 3031 powder. I still had others left from my last session when the tenon broke. Well, I must say that I'm completely satisfied with this gun and caliber. The IMR 3031 shoots great. I got a 100 yd (from sand bags) group of 1.5" but I did have one flyer which was me. And, the gun is holding together great after my back yard machine shopping on it :)
Curtesy of a fantastic member here, I also have some 264 gas checked boolits to try out. They actually drop at 275 grains, but I'm hoping the bore fit may be better with the gas check. Although, leading doesn't appear to be an issue right now with the 250 grainers.
Here's a couple pics of the gun and target. Oh, and the fever has now hit full force! I'm now looking for an 1885 hi wall for my next cast only gun ;)
102685102686