USA vs. Romania

[Wildgoose]

Ok not really a contest. Just a fun day at the range shooting some loads at 100 yards. Went out to try out my first .44 NOE ranch dog cast bullets in the Henry. The results were not too bad. Seems more experimentation is needed but I am looking forward to that. Most of the fliers in the pictures are just me as the iron sights on the Henry are not well suited to fine target work. Same with the AK. I took the AK along just for fun. I built it out of a parts kit a number of years ago and had not shot it in a long time. I have two different hand loads in 7.62x39 made up for deer hunting with an AR set up in that caliber and wanted to see how well they worked in a stock AK with iron sights. I was not surprised to see that hand loading pays off for any gun. The military surplus group was out done by the hand loads by far. As for the Henry it still likes jacketed bullets more than my cast loads but I not going to stop looking for the cast load that will be just as good.

THE CONTENDERS


HENRY TARGETS



AK TARGETS


The winner is the Henry but only because I took along some jacketed silhouette loads for it. Going to work on the cast loads for sure.

[AJMD429]

Interesting.

Keep us posted with the Henry cast bullet project. Hope you find a good recipe.

[GunnyMack]

Wildgoose, last summer I got a Henry 41 mag. I started using plated bullets and that was a BIG MISTAKE! I had fouling like I've never seen before! I spent many hours scrubbing the bore with Sweets 7.62, JB BORE cleaner. But after I finally got back to steel I worked up some loads with XTPs, Nosler and Sierras. All shoot 1" or better at 50 yds from sandbags with a scope.
Now I'm not saying the Henry's have rough bores but you might thing about JB BORE cleaner, little elbow grease might be a big help.

[Wildgoose]

Wildgoose, last summer I got a Henry 41 mag. I started using plated bullets and that was a BIG MISTAKE! I had fouling like I've never seen before! I spent many hours scrubbing the bore with Sweets 7.62, JB BORE cleaner. But after I finally got back to steel I worked up some loads with XTPs, Nosler and Sierras. All shoot 1" or better at 50 yds from sandbags with a scope.
Now I'm not saying the Henry's have rough bores but you might thing about JB BORE cleaner, little elbow grease might be a big help.

Thanks for the tips Gunny. I took a look after reading your note. No leading and the fouling from the last session cleaned up with out a lot of extra work. Mostly powder fouling and some copper from the gas checks and a few jacketed rounds. I did however get my magnifying glasses and bore lights and took good look after cleaning. I would say that there are a goodly number of reaming marks left from cutting the bore and rifling. Not deep enough to hold fouling to the degree it wont come out but if one wanted to take the time it could use some smoothing up. The rifle will shoot 3.5 inch groups with the OEM sights off the bench using jacketed bullets at 100yards. That's the best I can do and I suspect I could cut that down a fair bit by putting a scope on it. I may well do that in the near future. Looks like I will have to get the mount form Henry. At any rate the cast loads I have tried so far have been marginal at best and not up to what I can do with jacketed slugs. I am going to do some more casting and try out a few more combinations. The targets above with the cast were just a first go. I suspect that I was running them a bit to fast especially the plan base slugs. The fun is in casting, loading and experimenting and that's why I bought the rifle in the first place. I am really enjoying it and the more I shoot it the more I like the gun. Well worth the price of admission.

[GunnyMack]

I need to get to shooting my 41 at 100, I may get a mold or I may just buy cast bullets. I might buy some and decide on a mold later...
3 - 3&1/2" groups with irons at 100 is sure fine shootin! I know I can't shoot irons that well!