Friday, May 09, 2008

Range day, further test on the plastic bullets

I wrote about here. While I was out I took the opportunity to try these at 50 yards. Being as how I had already put the chronograph up and did not want to dig it and the tripod back out I have no velocity numbers, so that'll have to come later.

The first batch had the same 5.0 grains of 2400 I tried before:
The top two are the first sight adjustment(had to raise the rear a fair amount), the others were all fired at the same setting. I don't know if the two off to the right are from me or the load, or possibly from a gust of wind: with a projectile this light and velocity this presumably low, I don't think it wouldn't take much to drift them off.

I had ten of those loads, and I'd loaded five with 6.0 grains:
Those grouped tighter, but this isn't enough testing to decide if this load is better(more testing needed, damn...) With the extra grain there was still zero recoil, as in the rifle didn't shift at all.

For small game or varmints, I think this would do a pretty good job out to maybe 50 yards(need to get some more water jugs to try), and, as mentioned before, if you wanted to introduce the kids to a 'big' gun with low noise and recoil, these would make very nice loads.

Let's see, try them in .30-06, .308... I wonder if they'd work in 7.62x54r or .303?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I like the rimmed military calibers. I took a couple of spent .303 cases and deprimed 'em with a punch turned from a bit of 1/4" brass rod. I reprime the cases with a Lee hand priming tool, add a .25ACP case of bullseye and load a .312(32 cal.) muzzleloader roundball flush into the unsized, expanded neck. A dab of butter flavored Crisco for lube, and you've got a sweet backyard possum and rabbit thumper that doesn't make as much noise as a bb gun. I've taken this rig camping and showed kids and their parents the fun available for cheap. If you buy a Lee .312 roundball mold you can make balls out of any easily melted metal. I prefer wheelweights as they're free if you ask nicely at Les Schwab Tires.

Primers are the expensive part, but I have a good supply of 'em from past purchases.

Kids and #4 rifles do indeed mix.
M 91/30 M-N's are fun too, as are .30-40 Krags.

Gerry N.

Firehand said...

Son's favorite rifle- other than his .22- was my #4Mk1 Enfield. Wish I'd known of this particular load back then.

Although he loved running all my MkVII ball through it.