Ian
Notorious member
I think I have a winner, third try.
Working with the Lee 224-55 bullet cast from basically WW alloy, sized .225" with one very light coat of Ben's Liquid Lube before and after. NO gas check. Brass FL sized and expanded to basically .224" or a tenth under. Left a .256" bellmouth which gets knocked back to .250" in the seating die, chamber neck is .252"-ish in the middle. Mixed bag of odd SR primers (tula, win, cci).
1.5 grains Hodgdon Titegroup = 830-ish fps
2.0 " " " = 890-ish fps
2.5 " " " = 960-iiiiiish, only got one to read and the others were compensated so not really valid. Good news is the 2.5 grain load closed 5-shot groups from 1" to 3/8" at 15 yards, so I think I'm done with load development except to buy a two-banger version of this mould, plain-base it, and HP one cavity.
The 2.5 grain load was starting to clink the bolt carrier against the buffer weight which to me as the shooter sounded just a little louder than the hammer strike. I may pull the buffer retaining plunger and spring out of the lower to take up the gap. Both hammer strike and bolt/buffer clink were louder than the report through my 30-caliber suppressor, and bullet impacting very damp dirt at 15 yards noticeably louder than both. My 35 YO Daisy one-pump pellet/bb rifle makes pretty much the same sound, I shot them side-by-side with pellets in the Daisy just to see.
One bonus is I didn't have to resize the brass after the first go. All that was required was change the primer, charge the case, and seat a bullet.
I have yet to take the rifle down and inspect the bore and gas system, but I will. Seems that so far the 1-in-7" twist was a good choice for this build, hopefully it will do well with heavy jacketed bullets too.
Working with the Lee 224-55 bullet cast from basically WW alloy, sized .225" with one very light coat of Ben's Liquid Lube before and after. NO gas check. Brass FL sized and expanded to basically .224" or a tenth under. Left a .256" bellmouth which gets knocked back to .250" in the seating die, chamber neck is .252"-ish in the middle. Mixed bag of odd SR primers (tula, win, cci).
1.5 grains Hodgdon Titegroup = 830-ish fps
2.0 " " " = 890-ish fps
2.5 " " " = 960-iiiiiish, only got one to read and the others were compensated so not really valid. Good news is the 2.5 grain load closed 5-shot groups from 1" to 3/8" at 15 yards, so I think I'm done with load development except to buy a two-banger version of this mould, plain-base it, and HP one cavity.
The 2.5 grain load was starting to clink the bolt carrier against the buffer weight which to me as the shooter sounded just a little louder than the hammer strike. I may pull the buffer retaining plunger and spring out of the lower to take up the gap. Both hammer strike and bolt/buffer clink were louder than the report through my 30-caliber suppressor, and bullet impacting very damp dirt at 15 yards noticeably louder than both. My 35 YO Daisy one-pump pellet/bb rifle makes pretty much the same sound, I shot them side-by-side with pellets in the Daisy just to see.
One bonus is I didn't have to resize the brass after the first go. All that was required was change the primer, charge the case, and seat a bullet.
I have yet to take the rifle down and inspect the bore and gas system, but I will. Seems that so far the 1-in-7" twist was a good choice for this build, hopefully it will do well with heavy jacketed bullets too.