350 Legend

[Ian]

The various .35-caliber rifle and bullet conversations are weaving together, so apologies to Tomme for the side-track.

Here's what Beagle sent me, plain base but with Patmarlin's PB checks installed. Turns out they are RFNs after all, my rememberer ain't what it used to be.

 

[Tomme boy]

@Ian don't care about thread drift. I am able to see a bunch of different molds this way

 

[CWLONGSHOT]

The mold arrived tonight. Hope the file is small enough to post...

 

[fiver]

I wonder how RCBS gets their cavity's blue like that they always seem to come that way.

 

[Rick]

I wonder how RCBS gets their cavity's blue like that they always seem to come that way.

I've got 20-25 RCBS molds, none of them "came" that way. They did/do get that blue from the heat of use casting in a clean mold.

 

[fiver]

my 44-240 come with that blue phosphorous look to it.
I don't remember my 38 cal. mold having it, or not but it was like 1996 when I got it.

 

[Tomme boy]

heat from cherry getting too hot?

 

[fiver]

i don't think so.
the blueing from heat looks almost just like a rifle barrel blue.
I use that to gauge how much metal I'm removing when I lap a mold.
when you take the heat blue out that's about .001 worth of lapping.

the RCBS cavity's I have seen like above is more like a flatish blue-black.

 

[Tomme boy]

I know the iron molds I have had do this after a while. I lapped out a H&G 44 mold a few years ago and it was nice and shiny. After about 4 sessions of casting it started to look just like the above mold.

 

[Tomme boy]

Got out today to try a couple things. First was the legend with RL-7. Then my AR9 with bullseye.

I ran the rl7 from 21-28grs in 0.5gr increases to check for function and if there was a node somewhere. All loads fired great and found a node from 26.0-27.5grs. I will be working on more in that area. The only one that did not cycle the action was the 21grs. 21.5grs had black soot where the pin hit but did not punch it out.

200gr Lee 358-200rf PC and Gator checks



The ar9 ran ok. I had a couple that did not cycle the action so the 4.2 grs does not have enough to be reliable. Not sure if I should take it higher or not. The bullet is MP 359-135 smooth side. Coated with Kawasaki green from Smoke. They have to be seated deep because of the PC.

 

[Spindrift]

26-27,5 sure looks interesting! What was the range? 50 yards?

 

[Tomme boy]

100 yds. I am going to load a bunch more to see if there is something better in that range. Today was mainly function. RL-7 has no data at all for this. 28grs the powder has just begun to compress. Really glad it had enough gas to cycle as low as it was.

 

[CWLONGSHOT]

This mirrors me Tom. RL7 was good. But I couldnt get velocity up. I was using it under a 150 CL bullet and I was compressed load but only hit 1900 ish. No pressure and good accuracy. I will use it more with some cast next.

29-29.5 AA1680 and that 150 CL sized .3565 is a one hole shooter @ 50 and about 1.25 @ 100. While hitting 2150 fps. Might settle for this one as time is late.

But that darn modified factory loading is so stupid accurate. I wanna use it but fear for the integrity of the bullet at 2350 fps.

Glad your makin progress!

CW