Finally!
Posted: Sat Feb 04, 2023 8:24 pm
After doing some reading from KW's tome, I cast some good bullets (modified the ladle), cut my powder charge, increased my wad thickness, annealed my cases, and had a great day of shooting. I changed my wiping today to two moist patches for wiping from one and kept the chamber dry. I was shooting out in the desert, and kept my yardage to 210. My sight setting wasn't much different from the 70gr charge (shot 67gr today), and the only "miss" I had was 100% me and a complete loss of focus. I am hoping to engage the White Buffalo at Raton again sometime this year, with a goal of more than 3 hits. Wind was not a factor today, which is flat amazing for Southern New Mexico, temperature was a pleasant 63*. The bullets I cast this time were harder than the ones I have been shooting, they weighed 517.5gr dropped from the mold versus the 523 the last 3 batches weighed. I am looking forward to casting up another batch this week, won't get to shoot again for a few weeks, as next weekend is the last for our quail season and I alway hunt the last weekend. Kenny Wasserburger, thank you for so many insights, I still have a long way to go, but if it is as fun as today was, it will be well worth the time and effort. I would be remiss if I failed to mention Bill Bagwell (RIP my friend), as it was his early and frequent long distance mentoring sessions that truly stoked this fire, it smolders from time to time, but it doesn't take much to get it burning brightly again.
Dave
Dave