Good afternoon all,
I have been tinkering with a .358 Win barrel on my T/C Encore and I just can't seem to get any consistency or good reliable accuracy from this cartridge/bullet. This is a 23" MGM stainless barrel 1:14 twt. 3 groove. The first mold I tried out of this barrel was a 36-240K from Accurate Molds. This bullet made buckshot patterns at 100 yards. I talked with Tom and asked about his design .358 mold he uses in his Browning BLR, the 36-235A. He sent me a few already lubed and gas checked, and I loaded them ahead of the most accurate powder charge I had found and they shot pretty damn good!!! About 1 3/8" at 100 yards!!! I ordered the mold, asked Tom his lube and alloy and waited on my mold to arrive. . . 10 days and it was here!!! I had been using Ben's Red for my boolit lube on everything, and I tried that - it was alight, but not what I was looking for in the accuracy department. Carnauba Red 2700fps is what Tom recommends and I ordered that, went to the range this morning with a box of loaded recipe boolits and nothing tickled my fancy. What gives. . .what am I over looking? By the way. . .this is my first high velocity rifle cartridge using cast boolits - I'm a newbie in this rodeo!!!
- I have checked/swapped scopes - good to go on both!
- My most accurate load has been with 42.3 gr. IMR4064, Winchester LRP, CAOL 2.500". I have bounced around in .03 increments from 40.3 gr. to 44.0 gr.
- The current bullet is the 36-235A from Accurate Molds, COWW/Pewter at 30:1 and have used Ben's Red and White Label Carnauba Red. I have also tried other bullets from forum members and had decent accuracy with the RCBS 200 gr. GC bullet.
Let me know what avenues I can travel to make this work. Powder, alloy, primer, lube. . .throw it at me because rifle season is not far away and I want to use this set-up very bad!!! I appreciate any and all advice and constructive criticism, thank you.