ChristopherO
10-05-2015, 01:52 PM
Yesterday was trial time at the farm for the new Accurate Mold 46-405C boolits out of the Marlin 1895 Cowboy Action. These slugs were freshly cast last week with Hornady gas checks, lubed with X-Lox 2500 and sized to .459. Looking at my inventory I decided to load up some for testing with IMR3031 (45 & 47 grains) and H322 (47 grains). From all the reading and researching I've done on these two powders I guesstimated they should be traveling 1500 to 1600fps, if that high.
Mind you, I've done some fun shooting with 13 grains of Unique and the Lee 405 grain flat base boolit but this was the first time to wring some manly loads out of the rifle. Plus, I just installed a Skinner Alaskan aperture site with the extra tall front post and needed to gain an idea how much the front post needs filed down with boolits that are stepping out there at a decent pace.
I slipped on an ancient rubber recoil pad that fits over the butt stock and that the plastic butt plate, aimed carefully and took my first shot. Wow! Where did the mule go that just kicked me in the shoulder? If recoil is any indication how much fun one can have then I was having the time of my life, LOL. Good thing I brought along a shooting jacket and some closed cell foam to stick in the shoulder area, which I promptly employed.
As expected, the point of impact compared with the point of aim were two different things. Most of the groups were pushing 10" low, centered well on the target, though. Thing is the H322 loading was only 6" or 7" low. It was the tightest of the groups for this 50 yard range test, too. It was, also, the hardest kicking of the bunch. The IMR3031 was not impressive on paper but didn't seem to jar my teeth as much.
After seeing which powder I was most impressed with group wise (H322) I pulled out my old shooting chrony. It is nearly 20 years old, has the obligatory 30 cal bullet hole through the top but has still worked well when I used to load develop extensively many moons ago. It hasn't seen any use in over 5 years but with a new battery it lit right up. All is well, so I thought.
The four shots I had left with the H322 were as follows:
1970 fps
1990 fps
2062 fps
2066 fps
What?! This isn't anything that the published data talks about on this powder. How can this be? Would the 4 extra inches the CB's octagonal barrel up the speed 400fps? I didn't think so. Tell you the truth I was wondering if my barrel was going to blow up. I put two of the 47 grain IMR3031 loads through it and they were higher still. This couldn't be right, could it?
I drove up the road to borrow my brother's 22lr rifle to see what it would read. With CCI Mini Mags the chrony was showing over 1625fps. A quick look at CCI's website shows 1260 is what these bullets should be shooting. Whew! Looks the old chrony needs sent back to the shop for repairs. Seems like it wants to say objects flying over the sensors are moving 400+/- fps faster than they really are.
All in all it was a good afternoon to learn more about this new rifle and the cast boolits I've chosen for it. 25 rounds let me know that it has some impressive push back but there is no bruise to show for the abuse. Next thing is to build a good, steady shooting bench to continue this with more precision.
If anyone has some H322 load data, with chronograph-ed figures, they want to share I would welcome your input. I may need to look into Number7, as well, since there is so much fawning over that powder in the 4570, too, but I was using what I have on hand.
Mind you, I've done some fun shooting with 13 grains of Unique and the Lee 405 grain flat base boolit but this was the first time to wring some manly loads out of the rifle. Plus, I just installed a Skinner Alaskan aperture site with the extra tall front post and needed to gain an idea how much the front post needs filed down with boolits that are stepping out there at a decent pace.
I slipped on an ancient rubber recoil pad that fits over the butt stock and that the plastic butt plate, aimed carefully and took my first shot. Wow! Where did the mule go that just kicked me in the shoulder? If recoil is any indication how much fun one can have then I was having the time of my life, LOL. Good thing I brought along a shooting jacket and some closed cell foam to stick in the shoulder area, which I promptly employed.
As expected, the point of impact compared with the point of aim were two different things. Most of the groups were pushing 10" low, centered well on the target, though. Thing is the H322 loading was only 6" or 7" low. It was the tightest of the groups for this 50 yard range test, too. It was, also, the hardest kicking of the bunch. The IMR3031 was not impressive on paper but didn't seem to jar my teeth as much.
After seeing which powder I was most impressed with group wise (H322) I pulled out my old shooting chrony. It is nearly 20 years old, has the obligatory 30 cal bullet hole through the top but has still worked well when I used to load develop extensively many moons ago. It hasn't seen any use in over 5 years but with a new battery it lit right up. All is well, so I thought.
The four shots I had left with the H322 were as follows:
1970 fps
1990 fps
2062 fps
2066 fps
What?! This isn't anything that the published data talks about on this powder. How can this be? Would the 4 extra inches the CB's octagonal barrel up the speed 400fps? I didn't think so. Tell you the truth I was wondering if my barrel was going to blow up. I put two of the 47 grain IMR3031 loads through it and they were higher still. This couldn't be right, could it?
I drove up the road to borrow my brother's 22lr rifle to see what it would read. With CCI Mini Mags the chrony was showing over 1625fps. A quick look at CCI's website shows 1260 is what these bullets should be shooting. Whew! Looks the old chrony needs sent back to the shop for repairs. Seems like it wants to say objects flying over the sensors are moving 400+/- fps faster than they really are.
All in all it was a good afternoon to learn more about this new rifle and the cast boolits I've chosen for it. 25 rounds let me know that it has some impressive push back but there is no bruise to show for the abuse. Next thing is to build a good, steady shooting bench to continue this with more precision.
If anyone has some H322 load data, with chronograph-ed figures, they want to share I would welcome your input. I may need to look into Number7, as well, since there is so much fawning over that powder in the 4570, too, but I was using what I have on hand.