Last I wrote we had tried out Mic’s proposed loads using Blue Dot, and bullets in 485 grain and 540 grain weights. At that time, 5 shot strings with each load through a chronograph looked very promising and velocities were where Mic predicted they would be at 1150 fps for the 485 grain bullet and 1050 fps for the 540 grain bullets.
Thus, I went home and loaded up more of them myself (the initial loads were made by the Professor). I was using Lee dies in 43 Mauser that were on loan to me, but I decided to slightly shorten the COL as the original loads were difficult to chamber and close the bolt on my rifle. I used a CCI BR-2 primer with the 485 grain bullet loads, and a CCI LP primer, as per Mic’s recommendation, with the 540 grain bullet loads.
The set-up was two paper targets, one on top of the other, at 100 yards while running the bullets through my chronograph. I set it up this way as I had really no idea where impact would be for point of aim. The standard load of a 385 grain bullet at 1400 fps tends to hit about 10 inches high using the shortest 200 meter battle sight. I figured it would hit lower than that, but really couldn’t know.
As it turned out, the 485 grain bullets are very well regulated to 100 yards and shot about 3 inches high. Much better for short range work than the 385 grain bullets. At two hundred yards, I could hit the pig from a sitting position at will, but required the 300 meter battle sight. Here is the initial top target as I tried to find a reference point for point of aim.
You can see it took a few shots. After I saw where they were hitting, and found my reference point which turned out to be a perfect 6 o’clock hold on the bottom of the black part of the target, I was able to achieve the following with a front bag rest only. In retrospect, I would have done better if I had decided to use a rear bag as well.
Here’s me at the bench:
The 540 grain bullets also shot well but shot higher than the 485 grain bullets. They also had a similar horizontal stringing but consistent vertical height once I had my reference point. I did not take a picture of that target at the time, but will do so and post it later.
OK, the next part you are not going to believe, and I don’t blame you guys. Heck, I don’t believe it myself. To make a long story short, an 11 shot string with the 485 grain loads as measured by my chronograph had an extreme spread of 17 fps and a SD of 5. That isn’t a misprint. Five! The only caveat is that I was tipping the barrel almost vertical as I loaded each cartridge and would gently settle the barrel into the rest. This makes for more consistent powder positioning in the case. I was also firing it in single-shot mode, and did not use the tubular magazine.
Using the same procedure with an 11 shot string and the 540 grain loads and CCI pistol primer instead of the CCI BR-2 yielded an extreme spread of 12 fps and a SD of 3. That’s THREE! I will come back later with the exact string data if someone wants, but that won’t prove anything. Suffice to say it happened in front of witnesses and the data is still in my chrono.
To say that Mic is a genius is an understatement!
I have to think that a load based on Blue Dot and a CCI pistol primer in a 45-70 might be a very good load. It has a burn rate a little faster than 2400.
On the down-side, some of my loads would not chamber and it seemed to be that the case was too wide just above the head. After we returned to Jim’s home, we measured the case heads of what I had loaded with the Lee dies, and what they are using his RCBS dies. It turned out that the Lee dies were not forming the base of the case at all, and leaving the virgin brass oversized at times. I have some new RCBS dies that were awaiting me here in SoCal, and will be using them next time. I don’t think we will be using the Lee Full Length sizing die again, or recommending them in the future. However, their bullet seating die uses a taper-crimp which is much preferable for accuracy to the standard roll-crimp that other dies use, so I will be using the Lee die for bullet crimping in a separate function.
Mic has asked me to make more cartridges using both bullets so he can shoot them himself at the Billy Dixon range where he will be joining us. We are hoping that one of them will be a very good ultra long range bullet.
Finally, I have to say that Professor Loudenboomer is a crack shot shooting a 38 Special snubby revolver off-hand at an approximately 12” x 8” sized rock at 200 yards. He could pretty much hit that rock 2 out of 5 times (it’s a 5 shot revolver) every time! He was teaching a few of the range employees to do the same as well as some other range customers. It was neat to see him handle the crowd as always. The man’s good will and generosity towards others is always something to see.
So, that’s the latest for right now. The Billy Dixon Shoot is on schedule for July 26-27th in Hotchkiss, CO and I hope to see Griff and maybe El Mac there.
As always, thanks for listening.
-Tutt
