The Shilen is starting to come around.....
Mar 24, 2015 21:29:49 GMT -5
Post by Richard on Mar 24, 2015 21:29:49 GMT -5
Finally beginning to see some promising results with the new Shilen 28” .45 barrel.
OK, so here goes:
J-B cleaned barrel to start with. Weather 45* and overcast going up to 70* and sunny with no wind.
The first group was shot as a fouling group. (200 gr. XTP with .060 veggie wad with a 13/60 Clays/H-4198 duplex) This might explain why shot #1 did not group with 2 & 3? Also a big velocity decline from #1 to #2? The first shot went down the bore perfectly on the clean barrel. #2 very tight getting down near the powder. I then dry patched for shot #3 and it improved…..slightly.
Group #2 was shot with a 200 gr. FTX and some old lubed (but quite dry) wool wads I grubbed from Herman. Same duplex as above. For the first shot I had dry patched and used the wad…….So/So? #2 was the same but tight all the way down to the powder. For shot #3 I resized in the Swinglock at Mark #19 for a nice fit. Vel. At 3008 with a 39 fps ES but still not a good group.
For group #3 I went with a load similar to what Hank is shooting but stayed a little lower on the powder charge. I used 75 gr. of H-4198 with the 275 Parker BE. This time I used Herman’s wool wad and bummed some Bore Butter off him to put a little more “slick” into the formula. Now here is where it gets interesting: Shot #1 is out of the “soon to be” group. Was it the change over from the Hornady bullets? The lubed wad or just a bad shot? It felt good?................So now we got to shots 2, 3 & 4 and get a .372” bug-hole. We also get four shots with a velocity of 2834 fps with an 11 fps ES!
Moving on to the 290 Barnes TEZ with the lubed wad and 75 gr. of H-4198 (no dry patching) Shots one and two go off without a hitch. When loading shot #3, I found the wad practically fell down the bore like it was too small? And to boot, the Barnes bullet was way too loose (still trying to figure out the proper sizing for these and may have over sized this one?). Pulled the trigger……….heard the primer go off but no bang? Happen to look at the chronograph and it read 148 fps! Turned the gun upside down and tapped the muzzle on piece of rug and found powder coming out. The bullet left the barrel and did not hit the chronograph……..whewwwwwwwwwwwww!
With group #5 (still the 290 TEZ) I switched to 10/60 Clays/H-4198 and used the .060” veggie wad. Note shots 1, 2 & 3 seemed to string horizontally……..then Shot #4 moved up so I continued to fire an additional 4 more shots giving me a five shot group at 1.0” and the 3 shot horizontal group at 1.4”. The barrel never got hot but just warm. I even used the cooling rod (no ice). By removing shot #1 from the eight shots, I got an average velocity of 2689 with a 19 fps ES With #1 the ES was 46.
For the last group, I still had three vials of 75 Gr. H-4198 and used them with three 250 gr. Parker BE’s at 300 yards. I was not expecting them to shoot as high as they did and almost lost them off the target board. Shot #3 just grazed the very top. I used veggie wads for this group and loading was very even. The three shots averaged 2960 fps with a 3 fps ES. The group was four inches……..Nothing to write home about but maybe it also likes the duplex or more 4198?
No doubt this barrel can shoot and maybe Hanks load is the magic one for the 275 Parker?
It will definitely make someone a good hunter.
Richard
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And with the FF die it should give me more "stuff" to play with. The Shilen will be going on the for sale board as soon as I can get around to posting it.