JWFilips
03-11-2015, 09:05 PM
Well Folks,
In my attempt to try to shoot all my old centerfire rifles again , that have been stored away, with cast boolits: I decided to try some light loads with my old 336 Marlin my Dad bought for me in 1964 as my first deer rifle. It was my first centerfire firearm. I believe the last time I shot it was back in 1973 (Got a large Doe with it then) . I have recently been pulling all my old rifles out of mothballs and learning how to load & shoot them with cast boolits. By now I have learned a great lot from the folks here on this Forum. ...so I was well prepared when I bought a set of 35 rem dies and honed them out to shoot cast boolits (exclusively). I have lots of cast for my various .38 S&W, .38 Spec and 357 Mag handguns so I thought I would start there. One load I had read about on this forum was using a 125 gr Truncated cone boolit with 5.0 grain bullseye ( Larry Gibson speaks highly of this load in the .35 Rem ; as a light load)
I had a chance to shoot a variety of somewhat lite loads on my first time out shooting cast boolits with this rifle, which I haven't fired since 1973. I shot 358446 semi wad cutters, 358311 RN, Both with my softer BHN 11 alloy , sized .359". I also shot some commercial ( Matt's bullets) 38 S&W RN Hard alloy (.363") as well as some commercial "CB cast bullets" 125 Gr TC @about 18 BHN as advertised.
My own softer cast didn't do really well ( maybe just a bit small at .359") But The Matt's did well! However that darn 5.0 Gr BE with the commercial cast CB brand 125 Gr TC at .360" really did the trick. I'm very excited at my first time out with my ole 336 & cast!
See photos below:
133623
Both targets were 10 shot groups with the load of 5.0 gr BE and the .360" hard cast commercial 125 Gr TC boolit ( the rh target has 3 shots low which was the ideal 358311 boolit)
Red dot Bullseye is 1" dia. these were shot at 50 yds with 4x scope
In my attempt to try to shoot all my old centerfire rifles again , that have been stored away, with cast boolits: I decided to try some light loads with my old 336 Marlin my Dad bought for me in 1964 as my first deer rifle. It was my first centerfire firearm. I believe the last time I shot it was back in 1973 (Got a large Doe with it then) . I have recently been pulling all my old rifles out of mothballs and learning how to load & shoot them with cast boolits. By now I have learned a great lot from the folks here on this Forum. ...so I was well prepared when I bought a set of 35 rem dies and honed them out to shoot cast boolits (exclusively). I have lots of cast for my various .38 S&W, .38 Spec and 357 Mag handguns so I thought I would start there. One load I had read about on this forum was using a 125 gr Truncated cone boolit with 5.0 grain bullseye ( Larry Gibson speaks highly of this load in the .35 Rem ; as a light load)
I had a chance to shoot a variety of somewhat lite loads on my first time out shooting cast boolits with this rifle, which I haven't fired since 1973. I shot 358446 semi wad cutters, 358311 RN, Both with my softer BHN 11 alloy , sized .359". I also shot some commercial ( Matt's bullets) 38 S&W RN Hard alloy (.363") as well as some commercial "CB cast bullets" 125 Gr TC @about 18 BHN as advertised.
My own softer cast didn't do really well ( maybe just a bit small at .359") But The Matt's did well! However that darn 5.0 Gr BE with the commercial cast CB brand 125 Gr TC at .360" really did the trick. I'm very excited at my first time out with my ole 336 & cast!
See photos below:
133623
Both targets were 10 shot groups with the load of 5.0 gr BE and the .360" hard cast commercial 125 Gr TC boolit ( the rh target has 3 shots low which was the ideal 358311 boolit)
Red dot Bullseye is 1" dia. these were shot at 50 yds with 4x scope