JohnH
12-31-2005, 01:26 AM
Well, some horse trading, a bit of vacation time in pay and a touch of Santa Clause has made me the proud owner of an Encore with 26" barrel in 375 JDJ. Barrel is nice, .376 groove and .366 bore but man is the chamber tight. Thing is obviously meant to be shooting jacketed, I had to make an improvised .377 sizer (took 7/8x14 bolt, drilled with 23/64" and reamed with 3/8 reamer then sand paper rolled up on on short peice of clothes hanger to hone to size.......I said it was improvised :)) so that I could get the bullets to seat and chamber, .379-380 bullets would expand the neck enough to make the neck drag and or stick in the chamber. The chamber is tight enough that I can simply bell the mouth and seat a new bullet, no sizing required, at least at these pressures.
1st shot went I don't know where, shots 2,3,4 made a group of about 3". Second 3 shot group went into 2" and 3rd 3 shots went inot 3/4" I followed with my usual of 10 rounds, 1 1/2" (50 yards). Load is 11.3 grains of Bartletts #107 under the Lee 379-250-RF. I've shot lots of this load through my 38-55, and I figured it was as good a place to start as any.
But the rifle has some interesting hurdles to jump as a cast shooter. The neck is .375" long. The throat is short enough that the bullet must be seated to the crimp groove to chamber. This leaves the first lube groove just covered by the neck, what may be called the botom driving band is exposed in the case below the neck. This will wreack havoc with the Lyman 379449, as it will expose at least one lube groove if not two. I'm somewhat surprised at this as this is a TC barrel which are notorious for having long throats. I wonder if JD in licensing the 375 JDJ to them has held to a higer tolerance standard on these barrels. He still holds the propriety on them, dies must be purchased through SSK. They are 2 die Group "D"RCBS.
Should prove an interesting journey.
1st shot went I don't know where, shots 2,3,4 made a group of about 3". Second 3 shot group went into 2" and 3rd 3 shots went inot 3/4" I followed with my usual of 10 rounds, 1 1/2" (50 yards). Load is 11.3 grains of Bartletts #107 under the Lee 379-250-RF. I've shot lots of this load through my 38-55, and I figured it was as good a place to start as any.
But the rifle has some interesting hurdles to jump as a cast shooter. The neck is .375" long. The throat is short enough that the bullet must be seated to the crimp groove to chamber. This leaves the first lube groove just covered by the neck, what may be called the botom driving band is exposed in the case below the neck. This will wreack havoc with the Lyman 379449, as it will expose at least one lube groove if not two. I'm somewhat surprised at this as this is a TC barrel which are notorious for having long throats. I wonder if JD in licensing the 375 JDJ to them has held to a higer tolerance standard on these barrels. He still holds the propriety on them, dies must be purchased through SSK. They are 2 die Group "D"RCBS.
Should prove an interesting journey.