Range Rep. - PN 45 sabotless with Full Form Dye

Reader PLEASE NOTE that this load and bullet combo creates slightly over 40 Kpsi (thanks to traces by TGinPA) and is deemed safe in my barrel but may not be in yours. I have accepted the fact that shooting the heavier bullets out of a .45 caliber barrel have pushed me over the 40,000 Kpsi lighter bullet max created by RBinAR. In doing so I have accepted the fact that I have removed a certain margin of safety in case I screw up and double load or shoot my ramrod down range.

This was my first outing with the Pacnor since I finished putting it together.

Setup:
- Pacnor #7 contour 25 inch long barrel.
- Stock with aluminum bedding block, skim bedded using pillar shims from ernie the gunsmith.
- Rem 700 ML action and trigger with 2 lb spring.
- Calahan recoil lug.
- leupold QRW rings and bases sporting a nikon 4.5 x 14 buckmaster.
- Savage hex head breech plug reamed out with C size drill bit. ( Some blowback but not a lot especially one things got carboned up.)
- New lehigh ventliner.
- Fed 209A primer.

Lessons learned:
- Wasted over a dozen bullets getting the fit right to my barrel. As with any sabotless shooting barrel fit is key for optimal results.
- Takes some getting used to and playing around with the dye and then after you resize the bullets they are more or less keyed for the barrel and you have to rotate the bullets in the crown until you get the same fit from load to load.
- No knurling possible once the bullet is run through the dye so you have to get it right at the press. If you knurl after you will not find the right keyed fit to get the bullet in the bore.
- No wad needed when using this dye and bullets shot better without a wad which I was very surprised by even when the wad brought the ES down to less than 20.

Things to note:
- All bullets loaded with one arm and about 20 to 30 pounds of pressure once barrel was fouled. Shot about 5 foulers before shot for groups.
- Same load through out range session 10 grains over 60 grains - N110/ H322 and this load has some kick but not terrible to shoulder.
- I did not have enough bullets to shoot 200 with the FTX as my buddy and me had some mental lapses when trying to get on paper with out bore sighting. Opps.
- The Barnes Socom bullet is very long and shoots good at 100 but is not very stable out to 200 at least with the load I choose, but I will play more with this next year as I work up loads.
- POA for all targets was the red circle with crosshairs in it.
- It was a great day and had a lot of fun.



Bullets used were hornady 325 FTX and Barnes .458 Socom 300 grain pictured below, the Socom has a boat tail:


I am not the best target shooter, but I do okay so be warned:






All Comments welcome.