need better accuracy

[3sharps]

Well, here is what I have found so far. My rifle likes 15 grains of imr 4227 and 158 grain jacketed. At my back yard range of 25 yards, I can cover 5 shots with a quarter. The same load of cast bullets gives a 3 inch group! This tells me that my gun doesn't like cast bullets or else the cast bullets are no good. As I purchased them I wonder about their alloy. What alloy is everyone using? The way the weather is, I might not be able to get to our club range for a while.

[donhuff]

That sounds like a good load 3sharps.

Not so much that YOUR gun does not like cast bullets, but more that you have not found the RIGHT cast bullet, for your gun. It can be challenging sometimes, especially if you are not doing the casting and SIZING yourself.


As for alloys, I use wheel weights and half of a one pound roll of lead free solder, in an old Lyman 61 mold master casting pot. I use the solder cause it makes the molds fill out so much better, if not for that, I would use straight WWs cause it would be cheaper. I do water drop, but not for the hardening effect, but to keep from putting dents in my hot bullets. I was doing that 30 years ago before I knew that it made the bullets harder. But now that I powder coat my bullets, the baking of the powder coat (450* for 10-20 minutes) takes out the temper that the water dropping puts in! I can't tell one bit of difference! In accuracy that is cause I can tell a difference in the hardness. They size much easier after baking.

I'd send you a few bullets to try but most rossis won't feed the lyman 358429 without filing a little off of the cartridge stop on the carrier (I had to file mine). My COAL usually runs at 1.660".

[3sharps]

Don, Thanks for the offer of bullets but I believe I have found the answer to my problems. I cast up a few bullets this morning out of the alloy that I use in my BPCTG rifles, 30/1. I loaded 5 of each of the two loads that I have been playing with went in my back yard to test them. The 3.5 grains of Bullseye gave a group of 1.125 inches. The load of 15 grains of IMR4227 gave me a group of .750! I can hardly wait until I can get into our local range so I can test them out to 100 yards. Everyone told me that you need hard alloy for pistol bullets, but maybe I should have remembered that I am shooting a rifle. Any way I am happy as can be. Thanks to you and everyone who offered advice.

[donhuff]

Good, I'm glad to hear that you've got it going in the right direction. .750" aint bad at all.

Yeah, it use to be all we heard was the alloy had to be super hard or it would not work. I use to have a good source of babbit and linotype and have made some really hard ones before. They did not shoot so well for me (in pistols) so I went back to wheel weights and cheaper/better accuracy. But that was back when we sized at whatever the bore measured. I'm glad I finally learned to size .001-.002 over bore size.

Isn't that 3.5 BE load sweet? It's like shooting a strong 22LR!

[3sharps]

Don, The 3.5 Bullseye is a very pleasant load. It shoots dead on in my old Blackhawk. The heavier load is a handful in the pistol. I was thinking about driving over to our club range and seeing if I could get into the rifle range but with more snow coming tonight, I guess I will pass on that idea. I will have to content myself with the short range in my back yard for awhile. So far I am impressed with my Rossi. I haven't had any major problems and I am hoping that I can find some kind of competition in the area this coming year. BPCTG is enjoyable but I am getting older and am getting tired of the recoil of the big guns. Cheers.