versifier
08-09-2014, 05:41 PM
I am liking this target bullet. Years back I got a custom 6-cav 311291 mould in a group buy. I have yet to find a rifle that doesn't shoot it well. I loaded up a bunch of them sized at .310 for my .308 Rem788 with all my odd amounts of old partial cans of stick powders to use it up and clean out my powder locker, maybe 500rds all together, incremental loads when there was enough powder to actually test. I have yet to find a combination that won't let me hit a clay bird in a target stand offhand at 100yds. (The rifle is zeroed at 150yds with a 150gr SGK at 2700 and I haven't readjusted the hunting peep sights, not even bothered screwing in a smaller aperture.) I think with some experimenting I will be able to get .5MOA with this 170gr cast bullet and some 3031 at 100yds and beyond, the rifle is proven capable of that level of accuracy with Sierras. I'm thinking best accuracy ought to be with mv around 21-2300, all the groups regardless of powder seem to be tightening up somewhere in that range. This alloy is 1/2 lino 1/2 pure, too hard for a hunting bullet. If I went to 100% lino I bet I could get 2600 out of it without leading, but that doesn't mean that's where the best accuracy will be.
With a softer alloy and a hunting bullet of similar weight like the .311041 or the .30RanchDog I'd be very happy to get 2000-2300 and one could be sure of expansion out to 150yards, beyond which in all honesty I really can't see well enough anymore to be sure of a clean hit with no magnification and old fashioned peep sights. But I can crank out a LOT of any of them with 6cav moulds and mostly I'm shooting at targets so I'll cast target bullets for practice.
It's so much fun shooting my trusty old deer rifle with these cast loads, recoil is substantially reduced, accuracy is all I could ask from the sights and my ageing eyes. I've been shooting 20rds or more offhand every week, letting the barrel cool off after every five rounds. Five rounds with jacketed and the barrel would be too hot to touch, and if you were shooting groups you couldn't take more than two shots at a time and have to stop and let the barrel cool. It's a lightweight hunting rifle and that's to be expected. After five shots of cast it is not too hot to grab and hold, and you can actually shoot a five shot group without taking a break to let the barrel cool, and without out the shots beginning to string as the barrel heats up. Everyone else seems to enjoy shooting the old girl, too. She's not much of a looker with a beat-up birch stock and a big gomming brass post on the front, but she sure is a shooter.
Rumor has it Picklehead is playing with the same .311291 bullets in his -06 with some 4895, out of the same cast run as the ones I'm shooting now too. Perhaps he'll post about it when he starts shooting them for groups at 200+yds. I love hearing how they perform at ranges beyond what is available to me.
I also enjoy hearing how the hunting bullets work on deer, pigs, etc. He has taken deer with two of my favorite cast hunting bullets, the 170gr FNGC .311041 and the 120 gr FNGC Soupcan.
With a softer alloy and a hunting bullet of similar weight like the .311041 or the .30RanchDog I'd be very happy to get 2000-2300 and one could be sure of expansion out to 150yards, beyond which in all honesty I really can't see well enough anymore to be sure of a clean hit with no magnification and old fashioned peep sights. But I can crank out a LOT of any of them with 6cav moulds and mostly I'm shooting at targets so I'll cast target bullets for practice.
It's so much fun shooting my trusty old deer rifle with these cast loads, recoil is substantially reduced, accuracy is all I could ask from the sights and my ageing eyes. I've been shooting 20rds or more offhand every week, letting the barrel cool off after every five rounds. Five rounds with jacketed and the barrel would be too hot to touch, and if you were shooting groups you couldn't take more than two shots at a time and have to stop and let the barrel cool. It's a lightweight hunting rifle and that's to be expected. After five shots of cast it is not too hot to grab and hold, and you can actually shoot a five shot group without taking a break to let the barrel cool, and without out the shots beginning to string as the barrel heats up. Everyone else seems to enjoy shooting the old girl, too. She's not much of a looker with a beat-up birch stock and a big gomming brass post on the front, but she sure is a shooter.
Rumor has it Picklehead is playing with the same .311291 bullets in his -06 with some 4895, out of the same cast run as the ones I'm shooting now too. Perhaps he'll post about it when he starts shooting them for groups at 200+yds. I love hearing how they perform at ranges beyond what is available to me.
I also enjoy hearing how the hunting bullets work on deer, pigs, etc. He has taken deer with two of my favorite cast hunting bullets, the 170gr FNGC .311041 and the 120 gr FNGC Soupcan.