Bigslug
05-27-2014, 12:36 AM
Swede will be closing out his GB of 453423's tomorrow (PLUG! PLUG! http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?236268-453-238Gr-SWC-(453423) and that will let me get into mass-production mode for the 1911 feeding thread. Today was spent burning up some of the Lyman round lube groove versions I cast up for the initial tests. These were cast out of #2, weighed 243 grains, were lubed with Ben's Red, and seated on top of 5.3 grains of Titegroup.
We had the chronograph out today for rifles, so I popped ten rounds out of the Operator to see what they were zooming out at. Got an average of 842 fps - comfortably in the GI hardball zone. (FYI, I run 18.5# recoil springs in pretty much all my 5" guns).
I next did an impromptu penetration test on five roughly 1-gallon jugs in the hopes of recovering a slug that hit something besides dirt. Unfortunately, it turned out that I needed more jugs. Based on the exit from #5, a sixth gallon of water would have probably stopped it, but won't know until I drink a lot more milk, OJ, and use up more liquid Cascade in the dishwasher. The USEFUL bit of information is that the slug bored through in a nice, straight line and was obviously still going point-first when it cleared jug #5.
Dad and I then spent some time abusing a bowling pin that had been left on the range largely intact. Can't say how many it took, but it was a good number of 452423's from the 1911 and RCBS 270gr. SAA's out of a Peacemaker clone. No hard science here, but the crushing effect of the Keith noses was in evidence - we had a large number of toothpicks falling out of a bowling pin skin when we were done.
All in all, a real confidence booster for this slug's abilities as a short range hunting boolit. For reaching out with a bigger gun, I'd probably want the longer nose of the either the RCBS 270 or the classic 452424 255, but if you intend to hunt with a .45 Auto inside of bow range, I'm liking what I'm seeing.
We had the chronograph out today for rifles, so I popped ten rounds out of the Operator to see what they were zooming out at. Got an average of 842 fps - comfortably in the GI hardball zone. (FYI, I run 18.5# recoil springs in pretty much all my 5" guns).
I next did an impromptu penetration test on five roughly 1-gallon jugs in the hopes of recovering a slug that hit something besides dirt. Unfortunately, it turned out that I needed more jugs. Based on the exit from #5, a sixth gallon of water would have probably stopped it, but won't know until I drink a lot more milk, OJ, and use up more liquid Cascade in the dishwasher. The USEFUL bit of information is that the slug bored through in a nice, straight line and was obviously still going point-first when it cleared jug #5.
Dad and I then spent some time abusing a bowling pin that had been left on the range largely intact. Can't say how many it took, but it was a good number of 452423's from the 1911 and RCBS 270gr. SAA's out of a Peacemaker clone. No hard science here, but the crushing effect of the Keith noses was in evidence - we had a large number of toothpicks falling out of a bowling pin skin when we were done.
All in all, a real confidence booster for this slug's abilities as a short range hunting boolit. For reaching out with a bigger gun, I'd probably want the longer nose of the either the RCBS 270 or the classic 452424 255, but if you intend to hunt with a .45 Auto inside of bow range, I'm liking what I'm seeing.