Sheesh! That sure didn't work!

[Trailblazer]

At the last minute I decided to go shoot our club pistol silhouette/cast bullet rifle match yesterday. Only thing I had ready to go were a bunch of the Lyman 287346's from a new to me mold. So I dug out my TC in 7-30 Waters and loaded 60 rounds with 22 gr. IMR4198. At the match I took a few sighters and got sorta dialed in. I managed to clean the chickens and pigs but the bullets were kinda spread around on the targets. I haven't shot this gun since 1998 so my technique is a little rusty and the wind was brisk, but even so the shot dispersion seemed a little excessive. The turkeys and rams ate my lunch as I only got 4 of each. I didn't have a spotter and didn't know where the bullets were going. Turned out they were going everywhere!

I had 6 rounds left after the match so I scrounged up a paper target and shot the 6 rounds off the bench. The six just about fit into 8-1/4" at 100 yds. The wind had died by then so it wasn't a factor. I was shooting a scoped hand gun off the bags with a fine trigger so I can't blame myself. I have shot 40's with this gun with the Saeco 071 and 22 gr. 4198 so the gun isn't the problem. I just lucked into a really lousy combination! But, I got out of the house and spent a beautiful day at the range so it was indeed a good day.

[shooter2]

I've not shot a lot of cast with a 7-30, but here's what I have with the same bullet. Generally, it liked 20.0 grains of RL-7. Once in a while I could get by with as much as 24.0 grains of RL-7 and have good accuracy, but generally not. With 24.0 grains of RL-12 my TC puts five into about 1.75" at 100 yards. This powder is no longer available and, if there is a good substitute, I am not aware of it. I was fire forming some 30-30 brass with 7.5 grains of Unique and put five into less than an inch at fifty yards. It did not like IMR 3031 or 4895 and cast. Not much, but hope it helps give you a starting point. Let us know what you find.

[BCB]

I am glad to see that someone else is shooting the 287346's from the Waters and from a Contender to boot. I have never shot silhouette, but I have found exceptional accuracy with this bullet and H-335 and WC-844. Thirty-one to 32.5 grains of WC-844 produces 1961 to 2044 fps. But 31 grains of H-335 produces 2141 fps. (This lot of WC-844 has proven slower in application than H-335 in 7-30, 30-30, and the .223 all in the Contender) Regardless, I can hit 24 ounce soft drink plastic bottles at 150 yards with amazing success from my shooting bench. I have a 4x-12x ‘scope on it so that helps at the longer distances. I think the H-335 has a bit of advantage in the accuracy department also, but it is very difficult to tell. Incidentally, the 287346 when squeezed down to .278” shoots great from a Model 700 in 270 Winchester cartridge. Twenty grains of XMP-5744 produces 1810 fps. I like this little bullet…BCB

[Iron River Red]

1 chicken beats 8 hours at work!

This clearly means you must go more often... :Fire:

[Trailblazer]

After pondering this a bit I came up with 4 easy possibilities. One is the cases I used were already sized and primed and would have been stored in a file cabinet that had the bottom drawer flooded in our flood last year. The cases wouldn't have gone under water as my dies were in the bottom drawer and got drowned. The stuff in the upper drawers was very wet though, probably from condensation. I did get vertical stringing so the primers are suspect.

The powder is also suspect as it is one of two old cans I bought cheap. It smells OK and the first can was fine but this is a different lot so it is suspect. I have fresh H322 and WC846 so I will try those next. Maybe WC846 is close enough to WC844 to work too. The 846 really generates the muzzle blast in my 7mm-08 so it has to be loud in a 14" barrel!

I only filled the first grease groove with lube. There is very little lube on the muzzle and there is a heavy grey wash at the muzzle. No leading-just the wash. Might just need more lube.

The other thing is the diameter and there may be no help there. The throat is off center and I sized these to fit the throat thus guaranteeing they entered the rifling a little off center. I don't think that is enogh to account for that large a group though. But, the Saeco 071 has a long bore riding nose that probably aligns the bullet with the bore better. Anyway I will try sizing some at .285" next time.