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Last weekend I also took the opportunity to shoot my 40-82 at 100 yards and was pleasantly surprised at the results with this old gun. The load is 25 grains of 5744 with a coarse grind cornmeal filler, under a 277 gr. FNGC LBT cast bullet. The chrony stats were: Low 1387, Hi 1420, Avg 1407, ES 33, SD 17.6. The first two shots were low, so I raised the sight one notch with the elevator and shot this 3.08" group.
I also tried a different bullet with different loads and found one that is promising, but needs some refining.
I have a question for you guys that are more experienced with these old guns. What is your experience with the difference in velocity as temperature changes? This same load chronied at 1495 on a warmer day last year. That is a difference of 88 fps. is this typical?
That looks promising indeed! I've noticed that higher temps produce higher velocities as well, but have never actually kept records.
Kirk: An old geezer who loves the smell of freshly turned earth, old cedar rail fences, wood smoke, a crackling fireplace on a snowy evening, pristine wilderness lakes, the scent of
cedars and a magnificent Whitetail buck framed in the semi-buckhorn sights of a 120-year old Winchester. Blog: https://www.kirkdurston.com/
A word of caution about the cornmeal filler, that you may or may not know. If you don't know, I would feel bad to learn you ruined a rifle and/or were injured and I didn't mention the issue. Cornmeal and other natural organic materials that are used as fillers can and sometimes do form a very hard and dense plug. With a bottleneck case, this can cause a serious pressure spike. The 40-82 ctg. has enough of a neck to be problematic.
Most truly knowledgeable cast bullet shooters say away from the natural organic fillers like corn meal, cream of wheat, grits, coffee and the like for this reason.
Charles wrote:A word of caution about the cornmeal filler, that you may or may not know. If you don't know, I would feel bad to learn you ruined a rifle and/or were injured and I didn't mention the issue. Cornmeal and other natural organic materials that are used as fillers can and sometimes do form a very hard and dense plug. With a bottleneck case, this can cause a serious pressure spike. The 40-82 ctg. has enough of a neck to be problematic.
Charles,
I am aware of the risks of fillers and have tried different loads with and without fillers with this 40-82. Without filler or with TP as a filler, I would be lucky to keep all of these shots on the paper. There are pics and write ups on this board showing the results of those experiments. I grind my own cornmeal and it is coarse, which is much less prone to forming a hard plug than say a fine powder like cream of wheat. It did raise cane with the front of the chrony though!
I'll post some pics of those results later.
The 40-82 and 45-90 cases are just enough longer that they seem to need help keeping the powder at the base of the cartridge to have any accuracy. The shorter cases like the 45-70 and 40-65 don't seem to have that problem to the extent that these do.
RIHMFIRE wrote:Very nice shoot'n
but you forgot one thing...
pics of you 40-82!
This is a picture of the old girl when I took her out hunting for the first time since 1929 when my dad bought it at an auction for $1.75.
Last edited by geobru on Mon Jan 27, 2014 10:21 pm, edited 1 time in total.
As Charles stated, cream of wheat can form a hard wad, although I prefer that it does. The big proviso is that there is no gap whatsoever. In fact, I only use cream of wheat filler in slightly compressed loads and only if the cream of wheat wad/gas check is 1/4" or less thick. Of course, the load is reduced to keep the pressure constant.
Kirk: An old geezer who loves the smell of freshly turned earth, old cedar rail fences, wood smoke, a crackling fireplace on a snowy evening, pristine wilderness lakes, the scent of
cedars and a magnificent Whitetail buck framed in the semi-buckhorn sights of a 120-year old Winchester. Blog: https://www.kirkdurston.com/
Nice looking rifle. I assume you slugged your bore to determine the diameter of the bullet you are using? With cast bullets in these old guns a difference in bullet diameter of as little as .001" can make the difference between a decent group and an outstanding one. Even still, you've probably shot a group that's better than some brand new rifles would do with iron sights. Not bad for a rifle that your Dad bought for $1.75, and hasn't been used since 1929! You may not have to do anything with your load, except shoot that rifle some more.
jlchucker wrote: I assume you slugged your bore to determine the diameter of the bullet you are using?
Yes. It slugged .409 and I am using .410 bullets.
geobru wrote:Without filler or with TP as a filler, I would be lucky to keep all of these shots on the paper.
I'll post some pics of those results later.
This is a picture of a target I shot using the same load, except it was shot at 35 yards, not 100.
As you can see, this load with no filler isn't very accurate and would do little to instill a feeling of confidence in the heart of a hunter taking this gun and that load into the woods with the idea of shooting a deer or elk. If I can find a load that doesn't use a filler that is close to this in accuracy, I will be all over it. In the mean time, filler up!
