Thursday, January 09, 2020

About that range day,

Had half a dozen loads in .45-70 I wanted to test, but a phone call cut my time short, so was only able to try four.  All bullets were cast of 20-1.

First was the Lee 405-grain hollowbase over 70.0 grains of 2f black, with a .060 wad between bullet and powder
I have no idea where the first one went.  I suspected high, so I lowered the rear sight, and got this.  Not a bad group, not outstanding.

This was the prize: 500-grain Lyman roundnose bullet over 65.0 2f, .060 wad
That far/right was me, one of those where just as the trigger breaks you know you pulled it a bit.  Those other four were right on aim.

This was a smokeless load I've tried before, 525-grain Lyman Postell, 23.0 Accurate 5744, the usual wad under the bullet
Bad breath control on my part.  Every time I haven't watched it, I've gotten that vertical stringing.  It's shot quite well before, and if not for me would have this time as well.  Which leads us to #4, same everything except 24.0 grains
The first was that very high hole.  Lowered the rear sight, two more, my second 'knew I blew it' of the day, and one more.  Definitely trying this one again(yes, I recorded all the sight settings). 

I did remember to take the tripod and Chrony today but discovered that the tripod isn't high enough for the way the ground drops in front of the firing line.  I'll have to figure a way to extend the vertical pipe so I can check the velocities.  That last one must've made a big jump over the 23.0 load.  Easy ejection, no bad signs on the primers, and this is well below the max load in the Lyman manual.

And thus went most of that trip, all I had time for otherwise was checking zero on another rifle.  So now I need to make up some more of these, and hopefully be able to shoot the others, next time.

4 comments:

Pawpaw said...

I've found that a wax wad works well between the powder and bullet. I'd melt some beeswax and add a little liquid alox at about a 20:1 ratio, then pout it on to a piece of parchment paper and let it make a sheet. After charging the cases with powder, I'd put the wax sheet ove the case mouth, punch it down, then seat the bullet. It tightened my groups considerably, especially with 2F.

Firehand said...

I have heard of using that, with the usual arguments on both sides.

I may have to give it a try, just for the sake of it. It's literally something that can't hurt.

B said...

Fill the case (with room for the bullet) with cornstarch or cream of wheat.

Less open space/tighter powder charge. It's a pain, but it makes for a more consistent load.

Firehand said...

Filler's another thing I haven't messed with.

So, I need to make some grease cookies, and add some CoW to the shopping list.