I shoot pigs, deer, even black bears with .375 Ruger reduced loads. Speer 235 grain Hot Cor bullet at moderate velocity is pleasant to shoot and plenty accurate. Guess, I just like big holes in things.
Custom Wildcat 2 Years in the Making
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.300 Dakota
Well-Known Member
I was testing 300gr GameKings with full loads. I was surprised not to get an exit on a
200lb pig at 85 yards. Looked like a hand grenade went off inside the animal lost about half the meat. Needless to say I did not repeat that experiment.
.300 Dakota
Well-Known Member
Update:
Finally got to the range today. I used some Jagemann 6.5 Creedmoor brass to form cases. It yielded 1 good loadable piece out of every 3 to 4 pieces. I needed a tapered expander or carbide button, but could not find either. So what happens is the force required to expand the brass from 6.5 caliber to 6.8 caliber pushed the necks in on one side or the other so that the neck is no longer perfectly aligned with the center of the case body. If they are any over .003" out on the necks, they can be culled for fouling shots. Under .003" is required for groups to test a gun's true potential. These cases barely made the cut.
It's 93 degrees with 80% humidity down here at sea level today, and the mirages were jumping in the $100 Chinese Weaver 3x9x40 scope borrowed from the take-off box just for today's range session to see if the project is worthy of further fuss. I was on the range at 1pm and had the chronograph fail almost immediately. I got 2 believable readings, though they were way slower than I'd have thought/hoped. 2674 and 2704. I'll have to buy a radar and come back to retest the speeds, but the load has proven exceptional. I can't get too carried away by 1 group, but it does prove the project is exceptionally worthy. I got readings ftom 3299 to 96 fps across that chrono before taking it down. I would have thought the speed near 3000 ft/s if not more. However, this is why we test! I'd had issues with this chrono before, but it would generally work well until it got heated up pretty good. Not so today. This group was fired using 130 grain Nosler Ballistic Tips. I fired 1 shot at a lower charge to get on paper and check pressure in an unknown chamber. Then a second shot was much closer to the charge used for the group and made after scope adjustments from the 1st shot. Finally, with zero pressure signs (and none expected), I fired shots 3, 4, and 5 into this 1/4" cluster (center-to-center) pictured. The POI was off from where intended, but the charge was different. These were seated .032" off the lands and obtained with 45.0 grains of Norma 204 in the formed Jagemann case with Federal Gold Match 210 (LR) primers hand seated. There was virtually zero recoil on the rest with a an unscoped weight of 7 pounds 10 ounces. Add about a pound and a quarter at least for the scope and mounts. Warne bases and rings were used. I found almost no copper fouling after a total of 7 rounds. I fired 2 more with 110 grain Barnes TTSX aftter my group over LeverEvolution, but had taken the chrono down and got a perfect 1" 2-shot group from those 2 rounds with mirages getting worse and sweat running in my eyes causing squinting and less than perfect shots on my part. No conditions to judge a rifle or new load by, so I stopped there. Again, very little copper came out after being soaked and allowed to sit for 20 min. The 1st patch had what appeared to be powder residue only. All that came clean in about 6 patches total. I was going to finish with the rest of a proper break-in, but do not believevit to be necessary. The barrel was obviously lapped extremely well. It does have 5R rifling, also.
So this was my first Preferred Barrel Blanks barrel. Though we had a terrible time getting it produced and shipped to me, it was all worth it in the end. I think I'm on to something with the 130gr BT and Norma powder combination. The MCARBO* spring kit yielding a 1.7-lb trigger pull paid dividends on the bench. I will return in cooler weather with a radar and better handloads!
To be continued...
Finally got to the range today. I used some Jagemann 6.5 Creedmoor brass to form cases. It yielded 1 good loadable piece out of every 3 to 4 pieces. I needed a tapered expander or carbide button, but could not find either. So what happens is the force required to expand the brass from 6.5 caliber to 6.8 caliber pushed the necks in on one side or the other so that the neck is no longer perfectly aligned with the center of the case body. If they are any over .003" out on the necks, they can be culled for fouling shots. Under .003" is required for groups to test a gun's true potential. These cases barely made the cut.
It's 93 degrees with 80% humidity down here at sea level today, and the mirages were jumping in the $100 Chinese Weaver 3x9x40 scope borrowed from the take-off box just for today's range session to see if the project is worthy of further fuss. I was on the range at 1pm and had the chronograph fail almost immediately. I got 2 believable readings, though they were way slower than I'd have thought/hoped. 2674 and 2704. I'll have to buy a radar and come back to retest the speeds, but the load has proven exceptional. I can't get too carried away by 1 group, but it does prove the project is exceptionally worthy. I got readings ftom 3299 to 96 fps across that chrono before taking it down. I would have thought the speed near 3000 ft/s if not more. However, this is why we test! I'd had issues with this chrono before, but it would generally work well until it got heated up pretty good. Not so today. This group was fired using 130 grain Nosler Ballistic Tips. I fired 1 shot at a lower charge to get on paper and check pressure in an unknown chamber. Then a second shot was much closer to the charge used for the group and made after scope adjustments from the 1st shot. Finally, with zero pressure signs (and none expected), I fired shots 3, 4, and 5 into this 1/4" cluster (center-to-center) pictured. The POI was off from where intended, but the charge was different. These were seated .032" off the lands and obtained with 45.0 grains of Norma 204 in the formed Jagemann case with Federal Gold Match 210 (LR) primers hand seated. There was virtually zero recoil on the rest with a an unscoped weight of 7 pounds 10 ounces. Add about a pound and a quarter at least for the scope and mounts. Warne bases and rings were used. I found almost no copper fouling after a total of 7 rounds. I fired 2 more with 110 grain Barnes TTSX aftter my group over LeverEvolution, but had taken the chrono down and got a perfect 1" 2-shot group from those 2 rounds with mirages getting worse and sweat running in my eyes causing squinting and less than perfect shots on my part. No conditions to judge a rifle or new load by, so I stopped there. Again, very little copper came out after being soaked and allowed to sit for 20 min. The 1st patch had what appeared to be powder residue only. All that came clean in about 6 patches total. I was going to finish with the rest of a proper break-in, but do not believevit to be necessary. The barrel was obviously lapped extremely well. It does have 5R rifling, also.
So this was my first Preferred Barrel Blanks barrel. Though we had a terrible time getting it produced and shipped to me, it was all worth it in the end. I think I'm on to something with the 130gr BT and Norma powder combination. The MCARBO* spring kit yielding a 1.7-lb trigger pull paid dividends on the bench. I will return in cooler weather with a radar and better handloads!
To be continued...
.300 Dakota
Well-Known Member
PBBs doesn't have a place for customers to upload photos, but I sent them this story and the photos of the group, fouling (or lack of), and rifle the barrel became part of. I told them they could use it for a testimonial if they liked, and I recommended they pay the machinist whatever he needed to keep him there.
Andrew Massi
Well-Known Member
I've necked up gobs of cases and a redding tapered expander is worth its weight in platinum
.300 Dakota
Well-Known Member
Don't think I can get one for a short action .27 cal .473 bolt face without having it custom made by Redding, though. It MIGHT go in a .270 Win die as long as I'm just expanding. Hornady was the only one I knew of that made a universal expander/neck sizer for almost every caliber. Correct me if I'm wrong; I've just never seen another maker. This is the issue with wildcatting new cartridges. One of the issues, anyway. Better brass typically yields better results.
