2023/24 Ice Age Postal

[From Along The Trail]

I was thinking how to solve the stretched cases.

Maybe wax the inside of the case sidewalls? As in car wax? That is a thought. Hopefully it would leave the powder charge slip forwards easily?

Make sure the inside of the case is smooth. Even 3000 grit sand paper for a smooth finish.

Or how about paper patch the powder charge? Just thinking? Or just the front half. Never thought of that until tonight.

My thoughts only

[Woody]

Not part of this postal, butttttt, yesterday, I ran a 10 shot test at 400 yards with my High Wall and breech seating. This load is 81 grains of 2fg Swiss, and a breech seated 540 grain Mike Lewis postell. Vertical ran 3.185 for the ten shots. The wind was a variable cross wind, and opened the horizontal to 10 inches. I'm happy with the vertical.

Breech Seat 400 yards.jpg

Woody

[Kurt]

Woody that is a good vertical. If you would have twisted that top knob 1 point that would have been a good midrange score
Raining here and to dark to see. I shot the .44-90bn Thursday and the target looked like yours but I only shot at 200 yards.

[semtav]

When I first got my Bull Barrel Shiloh, I had no Mould I could use since the barrel and chamber are a tighter fit.
So I ordered one of the Dual Diameter Bullets Kenny , Arnie, et al put together to give a try.
For some reason it and I just never gelled. Maybe because of the minimal compression needed to get my favorite 105 of Swiss, but for whatever reason everything got shelved.
In the meantime I ordered a .452 dia mould from KAL.
Between the two of us, a year and a half has gone by and i just got it out and cast some bullets.
Thought I'd try it with some old Shiloh brass I had. 105 grains and a deep seated bullet took way to much compression and it swelled the cases.
So I switched back to the Norma cases and everything fit as should.
In the meantime I got to thinking maybe that Shiloh brass would be perfect for the DD bullet, and sure enough the thicker cases allowed me to add more compression for shallow seated bullet.

Today I took samples of both to the range to see if both were match worthy.

Shot the DD bullets first and they were all I hoped for.
1.5" vertical at 200 yds with a good breeze at 8:00
The 4 5/8" stringing out horizontally wasn't good enough to make it high in the postal but I'll still take that vertical.

my second group was the .452 bullet and it was horrible. 7.5 " . Not quite good enough to knock Mike out of last place.


I may just tweak on the DD load a bit and leave the other one alone til I have more time to shoot.

Dec 23 Target.jpg

Dec 23 setup.jpg

[semtav]

Front row the .452 KAL bullet w Norma brass
Back row the KW DD PP bullet w Shiloh brass

Dec 23 loads.jpg

Dec 23 brass.jpg

[bpcrshooter62]

Hey Semtav what you have no snow down there yet lol

[mike herth]

Brian, I am also getting sub 2" vertical with the DD bullet. 70 grains of Swiss 1.5, am still unable to post photos here, thankfully, because 1 shot out of every 5 goes exploring elsewhere. That's so frustrating because I make the call of a good break. Hope to shoot tomorrow. A couple groups were over 7" but with 4 shots in a nice cluster. Are you offering a refrigerator door for the last place finisher?

[desert deuce]

Exactly what I ran in to with paper patch, 8 or 9 in a cluster and 1 or 2 elsewhere.
Could predict that it would happen but not when in the string.
Tip of my hat to those that can consistently get 15 PP in a row in a nice round sub moa group at 600 yards.

[semtav]

Brian, I am also getting sub 2" vertical with the DD bullet. 70 grains of Swiss 1.5, am still unable to post photos here, thankfully, because 1 shot out of every 5 goes exploring elsewhere. That's so frustrating because I make the call of a good break. Hope to shoot tomorrow. A couple groups were over 7" but with 4 shots in a nice cluster. Are you offering a refrigerator door for the last place finisher?

Mike, go ahead and blame it on the shooter. Those GG shooters always do.

DD.jpg

I was saving this for DD but he wont enter, so you might be the lucky recipient

door.jpg

[semtav]

Hey Semtav what you have no snow down there yet lol

We had a foot in October. for a week. that was long enough for one year !!

[mike herth]

Hah, I was thinking of a larger door. I keep wondering about the patch itself and what would cause a flyer. I'm going to load some postels next and see what happens. If that resolves the issue, oh my. I keep thinking it could be inconsistent positioning of the rifle with each shot, and I'm focusing on that.

[semtav]

I know lower shots have a lot to do with wiping and bullet hardness. I cured a lot of mine by switching wiping techniques and shooting harder bullets.

but with high flyers, I'm scratching my head on that.

maybe pay more attention to the feel when chambering the round.
Every once in a while I get one that is just a little harder to chamber.
It seldom goes where it should.

There has to be an answer, it can't just be coincidence.

[Kurt]

I don't think most can keep 15 rounds in a 15 shot sub MOA round cluster at 600 yards consistently or even at 200 for that matter.
I find I tend to throw shots out after a few rounds fired especially with the larger caliber like the .50-2.5 with a 700 gr bullet over a full load. I have seen what I do during a long string when I did not cock the rifle and just heard a loud CLICK the muzzle usually rose from the push of the shoulder
I have shot some very tight groups and go back the next time with the same conditions, rifle and load I used the last time out and cant cover up the group with my hand.

[mike herth]

Brian, in my experience whenever I had to use a camming tool to chamber a round it affected accuracy negatively. Caused by inconsistent patch tension? I suppose wet patching would resolve that concern.A damp bore would also cause it I think. With dry patching I run the patched bullet through a .450 sizer die and seldom have an issue but it is an extra step. My flyers are high in many cases.

[mike herth]

Kurt, that's comforting to hear. I try to shoot 8 5-shot groups when I go to the range and the target usually tells me when fatigue starts to set in. Moving from the 45-110 to 45-70 reduced my flinching.