.358 Winchester, M700

[softpoint]

Yesterday and today saw testing some boolits that I sprayed with powder coat, The mold was the 245 grain Saeco. I gaschecked and sized to .357, and then sprayed with Harbor Freight red powder coat. The rifle, one of my favorite cast boolit guns is a Remington model 700 that has been barreled with a Shilen stainless barrel, 14 inch twist. Has a HS precision stock, old vxII Leupold 2x 7x,in Holland mounts.114673114674 This gun has always shot the Lyman 358009 boolit, the 205 grain RCBS, and this Saeco boolit well. For most of my use, the Saeco is just about right, IMHO.This was the first time out with powder coat, though. The very first shot out of a barrel with Felix lube left from the past range session went about 1" high at 50 yards. the next 9 went into .542 center to center at 50. Moved back to 100 meters and shot again. This time 5 went into 1.422, with 4 going into .783. at about 110 yards. Barrel is clean. Load is 40.2 grains 4320. I didn't set my chronograph up but I might get a chance to do that tomorrow.
I just took one of the boolits and filed the powder coat off the nose and checked the hardness. According to my Cabine Tree tester, it is right at 12 BHN.

[MarkP]

You got my wheels turning; I have similar rifles Rem M SEVENs in 350 Ren Mag.

40.2 gr of 4320 is a respectable load I am loading my father in law's 338 Federal with about the same charge of 4320 with the 339-220 gr LEE and I think those were around 2,250 fps. It would be interesting to see results from impact point study, first shot cold barrel, clean bbl, etc.
Great Work!

[softpoint]

I have a Model700 classic in .350 Rem Mag buried in my safe, I have never fired a cast boolit in it. I will have to remedy that situation soon, but since I have 2 358 Winnies, I always thought they were about right for cast in 35 caliber. The first group flyer I attribute to the first shot from a barrel coated with lube. That was 10 shots, too. The second group was fired from a cold barrel as well, but the flyer was the 4th of the 5 shots. Since I didn't weigh these boolits, they were visually inspected, I may have had a boolit that had an internal void, more shooting will tell. I am going to try this load in my other .358 as well. It is a Remington 600 with the same Shilen barrel, 1x to 4x Leupold and Lone Wolf stock. It is quite a bit lighter than the M700 rig, but shoots just as well.

[softpoint]

Had a chance to shoot the model 600 Remington this evening with the same load. This little rifle weighs less than 7 pounds, has the same brand, type barrel, chambered with the same reamer. 5 shots at 50 yards. first two a bit high then the next 3 in almost the same hole. I believe this has to with lube left in the barrel from greased boolits.

[RugerFan]

Interesting. I'll have to try PC boolits with my M77 .358 Win soon.

[35 shooter]

That's some of the best coated boolit shooting i've seen, especially at 100 yds. I do have a question though. You said you sized to .357" first and then coated. What dia. were they after coating, or did you size them again, or just shoot as coated?
I tried the vht paint thing awhile back and got great accuracy,but lol, they would lead the bbl. inside 6 or 7 shots.
Also if you don't mind, what alloy did you use?

[softpoint]

After the boolits were coated, they measured about .3585 to .359, maybe a tad more. I have one of those digital mikes that goes to 1/10000, sometimes they are almost too much of a good thing..lol. Based on that I just shot them without sizing again. I had estimated from my .44 mag coated boolits that I would pick up about .002 by coating. The alloy is clip on wheelweights, and range scrap with about three pounds linotype added per pot, or 17 +3. The stuff is a little soft, so I think I am annealing it when I bake on the coating. Nevertheless, I have been impressed with the way it shot. Both of these rifles shoot really well with grease lubed boolits, too though.

[35 shooter]

Ok thanks softpoint. I was thinking of doing the same thing with the shake and bake method. It just might work by under sizing the boolit that way. I've read where a lot of folks talked about under sizing and then coating, but had seen no posted results on it it untill now.

Congrats! Sounds like you made it work. Since you didn't resize after coating, the bbl. and boolit fit must be doing a good job of evening any variance in coating thickness out upon
firing.
If that's so it should work the same with the tumble coating method?

[softpoint]

I see no reason that tumbling wouldn't work as well. The only reason I sized these boolits before I coated was to install gaschecks. I have sized .459 boolits down to .452 to shoot in a revolver that were already coated and they did just fine. I was planning on sizing again after I coated, but after seeing they were about the right size after coating, I decided to shoot some "as is".

[softpoint]

Chronographed the load this morning, looks like the average for 10 rounds is 1951 fps. And these boolits weigh an average of 242 grains, out of my alloy, checked and coated.

[dilly]

You should post this over in the accuracy thread.

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?220557-Real-Accuracy-(2-moa-or-less)-with-Coated-Rifle-Bullets-at-1800-fps-or-greater

[35 shooter]

Impressive results for sure as that is a serious hunting load. Makes me want to try it with a plain base boolit i've had a bit of trouble trying to get a bit of speed with. Only thing is it's full nose bearing which might give some trouble with the coating build up in that area.
Won't hurt to try though.
Have you shot any more groups with it?

[softpoint]

Shot one more group through the chronograph, at 50 yards, this one larger, at just under an inch. Still, I am happy with the performance so far.
I shot one deer this past year with the .358, with this same boolit, but it was harder, and lubed. Satisfactory kill, but not much/any expansion. I am hoping these softer boolits at the same speed will give better expansion in game. I have been experimenting with the .45/70 and the plain base "gould" 330 grain hollowpoint powder coated to 1800 fps. I've found I can use this softer alloy successfully in that caliber too.