Cast in Spanish Destroyer?

[deltaenterprizes]

Anybody shooting cast boolits out of a Destroyer?
What is the twist rate of the barrel?

[390ish]

I used to shoot cast 115 grainers out of it and used data from the old Lyman cast manual for 38 acp. Have not shot mine in 10 years through.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Larry Gibson]

My Spanish Destroyer was just a shooter having a rather plain slab sided stock, not the better military looking stocks I've seen on many. I set the barrel 1/2 turn back so the chamber would headspace on 38 Super cases [Starline was not yet making the 9mm Largo case]. I removed the poorly made rear sight and put an aperture rear sight on the receiver, The front sight band was rotated 180 degrees and modified to mount a M14 front sight on it. The barrel was D&Td to mount a Contender Weaver base for mounting a red dot sight forward of the receiver.

The twist on my barrel is 1 - 18-9". While I have shot TL358-158-SWCs, 358477s and 358156 in it with a modicum of success at 50 yards it really favors the Lee 356-120-TC loaded over 3 gr of Bullseye or WST for 975 fps. For jacked bullets I tested 88 up through 125 gr .356 and .357 diameter pushing some incredible velocities pushing 1800 fps.

286311

286312

286313

286314

[Battis]

122-125 gr coated bullet (.356").
4.6 grs Unique worked well
or
3.2 grs BullsEye
Just be careful with that extractor.

[Larry Gibson]

Ah yes, forgot to mention the mod to keep the extractor in place.

A small piece of drill rod was cut to length to fit in the slot in the extractor. That keeps the extractor from sliding forward when extracting a case. The diameter of the drill rod was small enough to allow a shim to go over/around it in the slot. The shim has legs bent out on each side under the extractor to hold it in place. Have not had any extraction/extractor problems since this mod.

286323

286324

[deltaenterprizes]

Thanks for the tip Larry!
I am glad to hear that the twist rate is suitable for cast boolits!
It will be cheaper to shoot than a 22RF!

[Larry Gibson]

The only problem i have with my Destroyer now is my wife thinks its hers and my part is to keep it clean and load the ammo........