Paul B
04-18-2019, 04:00 PM
I did finally get to the range today. Fifty rounds of 220 gr. cast bullets over 25.0 gr. 5744. Winchester brass and primer. Results were interesting as hell. Recoil was a lot stouter than I
expected from a roughly 1600 FPS load. Another thing, the barrel heated up quite rapidly even when shots were spaced one and two minutes apart. I've seen comments about 5744 that say it does that. The longer time when the barrel reached lukewarm. Five sighters where shot, first three to see where they hit and then scope adjusted to put it closer to point of aim. I shot five of the loads with the bullets sized .310", then five with the .311" bullets, this of course on separate targets. The I did five more of each on the same target again five of one and five of the other. Checking the targets it looked like the bullets sized .311 might be the best way to go.
Next, I stapled a fresh target over each of the original targets being careful to keep them as closely aligned as possible. I then shot ten of the .310" on one target and ten of the .311" on the other as before. This time two minutes between each shot held as close as possible and care with trigger squeeze and follow though. This time most of the shots from the .310" bullet fell inside a 2.5" square (the target bull) and the .311" bullet showed fair grouping ( 3.0") but with three widely scattered flyers , 4 to 6" off point of aim. [smilie=b:
All shots were fired at 50 yards. Bullets seated to the crimp groove. Normally I load long nosed bore riders to slightly engage the rifling but as this was an unknown load that I was just starting with I kept it simple. Brass is now fireformed to the Browning B78 so I'll neck size the cases for the next go round. Most likely will also seat the bullets to slightly engage the rifling as that has worked well for me in other cartridges.
Paul B.
expected from a roughly 1600 FPS load. Another thing, the barrel heated up quite rapidly even when shots were spaced one and two minutes apart. I've seen comments about 5744 that say it does that. The longer time when the barrel reached lukewarm. Five sighters where shot, first three to see where they hit and then scope adjusted to put it closer to point of aim. I shot five of the loads with the bullets sized .310", then five with the .311" bullets, this of course on separate targets. The I did five more of each on the same target again five of one and five of the other. Checking the targets it looked like the bullets sized .311 might be the best way to go.
Next, I stapled a fresh target over each of the original targets being careful to keep them as closely aligned as possible. I then shot ten of the .310" on one target and ten of the .311" on the other as before. This time two minutes between each shot held as close as possible and care with trigger squeeze and follow though. This time most of the shots from the .310" bullet fell inside a 2.5" square (the target bull) and the .311" bullet showed fair grouping ( 3.0") but with three widely scattered flyers , 4 to 6" off point of aim. [smilie=b:
All shots were fired at 50 yards. Bullets seated to the crimp groove. Normally I load long nosed bore riders to slightly engage the rifling but as this was an unknown load that I was just starting with I kept it simple. Brass is now fireformed to the Browning B78 so I'll neck size the cases for the next go round. Most likely will also seat the bullets to slightly engage the rifling as that has worked well for me in other cartridges.
Paul B.