Maven
06-01-2010, 03:49 PM
Twenty years ago I bought a press-mounted die from Ed Wosika (the Hanned Line) to bump up the nose & taper the body of too small bore riding CB's, e.g., my ca. 1985 Lee C309-180-R and Ly. #311291. The die also seats and flattens the gas check perfectly. It will make a perfectly flat base too if you opt not to use a GC. The die turned so-so 3 m.o.a. CB's into 1 m.o.a. or less shooters.
Lately I've been experimenting with the Lee 30-150-TL group buy CB, both as cast and bumped & tapered via the Hanned die. Although it defeats the purpose of the TL concept, the bumped & tapered group buy CB's are markedly more accurate (repeatable) than the cast, liq. alox'ed, and loaded ones. Btw, I am using 7grs. Hodgdon Clays and occasionally 9.5 grs. - 10.0 grs. B Dot over CCI #34 primers.
Encouraged by those results, I decided to bump & taper both the Lee & Lyman CB's mentioned above, but omit the GC's and retain the 7 gr. Clays load and CCI #34's. The results were interesting to say the least. WITH GC's, the 2 CB's perform identically and can be driven rather fast. WITHOUT them, and using 7 grs. Clays, the Lee CB handily outperformed the Lyman. Whereas the Lyman CB would put 2 or 3 shots touching, the others would be as much as 2.5" apart (at 50 yds., using a 16x scope); the Lee C309-180-R would pretty much group into 1". Btw, the "as cast" group buy TL CB will sometimes do as well, but only after segregating by cavity and weighing them. The Lee & Lyman CB's were neither segregated by cavity nor weighed.
Etcetera: A few weeks ago, the club Vly & I belong to sponsored its first Garand Match, though other "as issued" milsurp rifles were also permitted. (Everything was fired @ 100 yds.) After placing rather poorly with my K-31 (using Saeco #315 @ .309" and 21 grs. AA 5744), I decided to use return to the range the next day to see if I could at least figure out what was wrong @ 50 yds., bench rest. Part of the problem was the front sight, which I corrected. The remainder was me, namely the too slim front sight blade of the K-31 and my 65 yr. old eyes*. It was very difficult to get a consistent sight picture at both 100 yds. and even 50 yds. even using a high contrast black target with an 8" dia. bull. + 1" white X-ring.
Last weekend, when shooting in our club's .22cal. (rimfire) bench rest shoot (Marlin heavy bbl.'ed clip-fed repeater + 7x scope), I discovered that I shot much better with both eyes open and my baseball cap pulled over to shade my left/weak eye. Btw, I repeated this yesterday when shooting the PB loads, and it DOES reduce eye strain and improve accuracy. Many of you already knew this, but to me it was, well, quite literally, an eye opener!
*I don't have many problems with the wider sight blades on my other rifles. And yes, I will be getting an eye exam in a few weeks.
Lately I've been experimenting with the Lee 30-150-TL group buy CB, both as cast and bumped & tapered via the Hanned die. Although it defeats the purpose of the TL concept, the bumped & tapered group buy CB's are markedly more accurate (repeatable) than the cast, liq. alox'ed, and loaded ones. Btw, I am using 7grs. Hodgdon Clays and occasionally 9.5 grs. - 10.0 grs. B Dot over CCI #34 primers.
Encouraged by those results, I decided to bump & taper both the Lee & Lyman CB's mentioned above, but omit the GC's and retain the 7 gr. Clays load and CCI #34's. The results were interesting to say the least. WITH GC's, the 2 CB's perform identically and can be driven rather fast. WITHOUT them, and using 7 grs. Clays, the Lee CB handily outperformed the Lyman. Whereas the Lyman CB would put 2 or 3 shots touching, the others would be as much as 2.5" apart (at 50 yds., using a 16x scope); the Lee C309-180-R would pretty much group into 1". Btw, the "as cast" group buy TL CB will sometimes do as well, but only after segregating by cavity and weighing them. The Lee & Lyman CB's were neither segregated by cavity nor weighed.
Etcetera: A few weeks ago, the club Vly & I belong to sponsored its first Garand Match, though other "as issued" milsurp rifles were also permitted. (Everything was fired @ 100 yds.) After placing rather poorly with my K-31 (using Saeco #315 @ .309" and 21 grs. AA 5744), I decided to use return to the range the next day to see if I could at least figure out what was wrong @ 50 yds., bench rest. Part of the problem was the front sight, which I corrected. The remainder was me, namely the too slim front sight blade of the K-31 and my 65 yr. old eyes*. It was very difficult to get a consistent sight picture at both 100 yds. and even 50 yds. even using a high contrast black target with an 8" dia. bull. + 1" white X-ring.
Last weekend, when shooting in our club's .22cal. (rimfire) bench rest shoot (Marlin heavy bbl.'ed clip-fed repeater + 7x scope), I discovered that I shot much better with both eyes open and my baseball cap pulled over to shade my left/weak eye. Btw, I repeated this yesterday when shooting the PB loads, and it DOES reduce eye strain and improve accuracy. Many of you already knew this, but to me it was, well, quite literally, an eye opener!
*I don't have many problems with the wider sight blades on my other rifles. And yes, I will be getting an eye exam in a few weeks.