Ammo and sighting-in a .357 rifle.

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Jack D
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Post by Jack D » Wed Aug 17, 2011 7:29 pm

Well.....I slugged the barrel.....or rather the 5.5" of it that I cut off. I pushed a 125 gr. cast bullet through the barrel cut-off and mic'd it. Measures .3575 OA. Not sure what that means, if anything, but maybe someone can tell me. I would guess that is OK.

My local discount store does carry empty brass, but happen to be out of stock. In the meantime, I found a 50 box of empty magnums to play with. The wife came down with a 103 deg temp. and the doc says pneumonia. Guess the testing will have to wait until she gets better. Her pounding headache won't like my shooting.
Jack
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blue68f100
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Post by blue68f100 » Thu Aug 18, 2011 9:08 am

Sorry to hear about your wife illness. My dad come down with that nasty stuff 10+ years ago and he had a rough time with getting rid of the cough.

Mic your cast bullet and see what size it is? If the cast is not larger than your bore it will not give you an accurate reading.

Let's say that your bore is 0.358". You will need a lead bullet that is 0.359" and maybe a tad more like 0.3584". This is just a starting point. Now if your lead is hard you will need to push the bullet faster/harder to make the lead seal off or you will get leading. For mouse loads you want to use a soft bullet. For heavier loads harder and maybe the use of gas checks. Gas checks will allow yo to load to std loads like a jacked bullet.

Have you had any leading in your barrel? If so where at, start, middle, end? This all tells you if your sealing off, melting the lead as the bullet goes down the barrel.

I will see if I can find the link that explains what to look for and how to correct.
David

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Jack D
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Post by Jack D » Thu Aug 18, 2011 11:12 am

The bullets are .358 and barrel .3575. The fourth digit is a guess since the mic is a 3 digit and it stops between the 7&8. I've fired about 700 rounds of lead bullets and never had any signs of leading.....all light loads. The bullets are commercially made.
Jack
Ruger SP101, 3", .357, CT laser
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blue68f100
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Post by blue68f100 » Thu Aug 18, 2011 2:41 pm

You may be a little under size for lead in that gun. Normally you want at least 0.001" over the bore size. If you can find some that are sized 0.3585"-0.359" I would give them a try. If your shooting soft loads I prefer the softer bullets, you seal off better at the lower pressures. You may be getting some leakage the reason for the scatter.
David

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Jack D
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Post by Jack D » Tue Aug 23, 2011 4:06 pm

I ordered some gas check 158 gr. SWC to try out. Should be here any time.
Jack
Ruger SP101, 3", .357, CT laser
Ruger SR22P, CT laser
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Ruger 10/22 Deluxe, scoped
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Jack D
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Post by Jack D » Thu Sep 01, 2011 4:49 pm

I believe I'm getting somewhere. Gas check bullets came in and gave them a trial this morning. Loads were Mag. cases, CCI primers, 3.2 gr. Tralboss and gas check 158 gr, SWC. Although the range is short, I felt good about where they were going. I could almost call the shots. There were no fliers and it punched a hole right where the sights were at the time it discharged. If I did my job, the gun did it's job.

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Jack
Ruger SP101, 3", .357, CT laser
Ruger SR22P, CT laser
Ruger LCR22, CT laser
Ruger 10/22 Deluxe, scoped
H&R Handi, .357 customized, laser, red dot, scope, weapon light, bipod
Benjamin-Sheridan, 5mm (.20), scoped.

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blue68f100
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Post by blue68f100 » Fri Sep 02, 2011 9:14 am

Looking good.

If the gas checks worked like it looks, this means you were probably getting some leakage around the bullet some where toward the end of the barrel. This normally results in leading of the barrel. That one bullet you found that was deformed may be the clue. You very every find them to know if this is happening. Most do not think much of it since the loads work in the pistols they believe it should work in a rifle too with 4-5x the barrel length. Not always the case. The extra length requires the lube to last and work longer. And some powders do not work well with lead because of the hotter temps they produce. Just like some 22's bullets are far better than others. With the gas checks you can push the bullet to jacketed data.

Nice shooting, btw.
David

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Post by bearandoldman » Fri Sep 02, 2011 9:26 am

J still have a lot of 158 grain LSWC;s that I have not been able to shoot as I think they should, no matter what powder or amount of it that is used.
Really looking for a short range plinking road. Te 1894 shoots 158 RNFP's well with 4.5 grains of Green Dot, also shoots S&B factory 158 loads well. Shoots the 148 LHBWC's great with 2.3 of Trail Boss. Seems the only way the 158 LSWC's will shoot is if you get them up to magnum velocities.
Last edited by bearandoldman on Fri Sep 02, 2011 3:55 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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blue68f100
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Post by blue68f100 » Fri Sep 02, 2011 9:41 am

If you had to push them that hard it tells me that you have a hard cast bullet.
David

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Post by bearandoldman » Fri Sep 02, 2011 9:55 am

blue68f100 wrote:If you had to push them that hard it tells me that you have a hard cast bullet.
Could be, they are just commercially available bullets, who knows how hard they are cast?
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Jack D
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Post by Jack D » Fri Sep 02, 2011 2:04 pm

blue68f100 wrote:Looking good.

If the gas checks worked like it looks, this means you were probably getting some leakage around the bullet some where toward the end of the barrel. This normally results in leading of the barrel. That one bullet you found that was deformed may be the clue. You very every find them to know if this is happening. Most do not think much of it since the loads work in the pistols they believe it should work in a rifle too with 4-5x the barrel length. Not always the case. The extra length requires the lube to last and work longer. And some powders do not work well with lead because of the hotter temps they produce. Just like some 22's bullets are far better than others. With the gas checks you can push the bullet to jacketed data.

Nice shooting, btw.
Makes sense. Whatever the reason, the gas check bullets are a big improvement over the commercial non-GC I was using. Those will be pistol fodder until they're gone.
Te 1894 shoots 158 RNFP's well with 405 grains of Green Dot,
Since Bullseye is a fast burning powder, I wondered how it would perform in a rifle and 16" barrel. I just loaded a box of 50 125 gr. HP with 8 gr. of Bullseye to find out.
Jack
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Ruger SR22P, CT laser
Ruger LCR22, CT laser
Ruger 10/22 Deluxe, scoped
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Benjamin-Sheridan, 5mm (.20), scoped.

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bearandoldman
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Post by bearandoldman » Fri Sep 02, 2011 3:56 pm

The only problem is getting all that powder in the case and the bullet too, eh?
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Post by Jack D » Fri Sep 02, 2011 9:27 pm

bearandoldman wrote:The only problem is getting all that powder in the case and the bullet too, eh?
Worked OK with 125 gr. but my 158 gr. might be tight.
Jack
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Benjamin-Sheridan, 5mm (.20), scoped.

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Post by bearandoldman » Sat Sep 03, 2011 9:25 am

Tried some more of the 158LSWC"s yesterday with 2.7 of Trail Boss and still van not get them to shoot as UI think they should. Not really ad but not really good either. My bud and I have tried all kinds of powders and loads and frankly we have just about given up. Shot 12 of them yesterday and then switched to 2.3 of TrailBoss with the 148LHBWC's, without any barrel cleaning so leading is not the problem. Shot 2 groups of 5 with Marlin 1894C, bags front and rear and a Bushnell 4X scope' First shot out of the barrel was right in the bull and the next 2 very close, then we had an ooops. Pulled the trigger before I really meant to and the bullet went left just as expected. The next one was right back in the bull. Shot another group but could not match it as the day was actually too hot and humid to keep the concentration up.Image
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Post by blue68f100 » Sat Sep 03, 2011 9:43 am

Just remember when your shooting lead it takes about 1 round/inch of barrel length to evenly distribute the bullet lube. Now if all of these have the same lube not an issue. But when you start shooting jacketed or lead w/gc you will remove the lube.

Nice shooting, the opening up of the group may be the lube difference. But if your any where as hot as it's been here in TX I feel for you. Where I'm out they have a avg of 7 days over 100∘/yr. This year so far we have had 70 days with almost 30 days >105∘. And our drought continues. 251 counties out of 254 are in a burn ban. And the bad news is fires are in the news nightly.
David

SS MKIII 6 7/8" Fluted Hunter. Mueller Quick Shot, Bushnell 2x Scope, Hogue Rubber Grips
Custom Built 1911

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