In preparation of Hunting Season I keep working with this old 35 Whelen and cast boolits, trying to settle on a projectile and load to be confident when pulling the trigger. Figger I would run this range session along to you fine folk to gain your feedback. Today's offering was using the NOE 360-182WFNGC PC's over 26 grains of H2400 and a tuff of Dacron. This isn't the first time for this loading, as it showed promise prior but sized .360". Today they are sized to .359" but actually measure .3595" I estimate these are traveling between 1,900 to 2,000 fps, but that is an educated guess based off what the books say.
Whether sized at .360" or .3595" they are extremely tight to close the bolt on. Barrel slugged out at .3585". Today was no different. I tried taking one out of the chamber and it left the boolit stuck right in there:
Attachment 290090
Though too tight for fast follow up shots this is the first target of the day with those oversized projectiles and a clean barrel at 100 yards:
Attachment 290091
That warmed the inner recesses of my heart.
Because I know how hard it is to chamber and bolt this sized boolit in to the chamber I had the opportunity to take these .3595" boolits and carefully resize the front driving band only with a .358" die by turning the slug upside down in the Lyman 450 and swapping out the nose pin to a flat pin. Either the PC springs back or that die actually is .3585" in diameter, but this is what they came out as. Yet, they chamber beautifully with no resistance. Would they be accurate with the front portion that is exposed to the leade sized 0.001" less? The results:
Attachment 290092
Not terrible. They cycle through the action cleanly and lock into place much like a jacketed bullet does. That is a better outcome, but can I tighten this group up is the question. At 100 yards a deer would be dead, but I rather would have a better group to show for my efforts if at all possible.
I can get better group out of my 1895 CB 45/70 with the boolits I cast and Skinner sights, if I take my time and really focus. What do you fine hunters expect when hunting with cast boolits, far better than the second target shown? In my mind this group rules out 150 to 200 yard shots. OK, I know, if I use these .3585 / .3595 sized boolits they have to cluster closer together. (not willing to enlarge my chamber for a cast only rifle project)
For additional experimenting I loaded up a few of the .3595" boolits over IMR3031 (37 grains). Nothing to get excited about
Attachment 290093
A few water jugs were executed when the paper target shooting was complete. I have no doubt that a Midwest whitetail smacked in the plumbing with one of these boolits will fill the freezer nicely. This has been a thought provoking endeavor that has dragged on for a couple years, testing, trials, testing, with this cast combination giving the most satisfaction to date. It makes a trip to the range a fun experience. Hopefully I'll have the chance to report back with satisfying results.