First shots sabotless
May 15, 2011 8:14:47 GMT -5
Post by jray57 on May 15, 2011 8:14:47 GMT -5
After talking with some of the sabotless gurus here I decided to get the Swinglock .45 smooth adjustable die and give sabotless a try. I received the die a week or so ago and was amazed how easy it was to get a 250 XTP sized to fit my bore. I started by resizing a bullet until it was a very light friction fit in my fouled barrel. I then adjusted the die upwards in graduations marked on the die until I got what I "thought" might be a good fit-tight but smooth all the way down. No knurling to the bullet. Now that I had come to what I thought might be a good starting point I had to wait for some .06 veggie wads to be shipped before I could start shooting. After listening to some of you guys horror stories about "stuck" bullets I also got a Lee hand press so I could adjust bullet fit at the range. Incidentially the bullet resized very easily in this press-effortless in my bench press. I weighed up a some single charge loads (56 gr) of H4198, cleaned up the barrel on my rifle really well, installed a new non-recessed breech plug and waited.
Well Saturday finally came and much to my chagrin the range was scheduled to host a Hi-Power match. I was drizzling along with intermittent light rain and I thought maybe these guys would cancel so I decided to head on to the range about 30 minutes away. I should have known the Hi-Power guys would nort only be there but they had do do each position twice there were so many participants! By the time they finally finished the rain was a little less intermittent but I was going to shoot anyway!
I loaded up the first round with one of my already resized to fit a fouled bore XTP's. Suprisingly it loaded with about the same pressure as they had when testing on a fouled bore. Not knowing whether it would fire or not I lined up on the 100 yd target and squeezed-it actually went off! The shot landed about 5 inches low and a little left but still on the target( I had the whole backer covered with paper not knowing what might happen). Well at least this was a step in the right direction. So I loaded up another round-still about the same resistance loading as the first shot. This shot went off too and much to my surprise and delight cut the first hole for about a 1/3" group! Shot the third one into a group of right at 1/2" and had to stop-sorry Richard I just couldn't mess this up! Proceeded to shoot another 3 shot group that measured at just over 1/2 inch. Loading resistance had begun to get a little harder- as had the rain. I adjusted the Swinglock die down 1 graduation and resized 3 more XTP's. The change in the bullet's diameter was not discernable on my Starrett which only reads to .000, the difference was noticable on the ramrod though-lightening up just a little. I decided to set up the Chrono and keep it covered with my jacket between shots. The first 2 shots of this group landed a little over a 1/2" apart with the third going a little under an inch. Not sure if it was me hurrying so as to get the chrony covered and uncovered or what I decided to resize and shoot 2 more and concentrate a little more. These next two went into a group with the third shot of about 2/3". The ES was 18 with average velocity of 2395. (The .6 and .8 on the targets is the Swinglock die setting.)
Sorry about the long story but I must say how impressed I am with this Swinglock die. It allowed a rank amateur like myself to arbitrarly decide what a good loading pressure might be, use a powder and charge weight from what I imagine might be light/moderate from a pressure stand point and shoot my first six shots into two 3 shot groups that both measured right at 1/2". Now I can start experimenting with clean/dirty bore, bullet type, powder type, charge weight and loading resistance. In summary I think I might like this sabotless thing!
Well Saturday finally came and much to my chagrin the range was scheduled to host a Hi-Power match. I was drizzling along with intermittent light rain and I thought maybe these guys would cancel so I decided to head on to the range about 30 minutes away. I should have known the Hi-Power guys would nort only be there but they had do do each position twice there were so many participants! By the time they finally finished the rain was a little less intermittent but I was going to shoot anyway!
I loaded up the first round with one of my already resized to fit a fouled bore XTP's. Suprisingly it loaded with about the same pressure as they had when testing on a fouled bore. Not knowing whether it would fire or not I lined up on the 100 yd target and squeezed-it actually went off! The shot landed about 5 inches low and a little left but still on the target( I had the whole backer covered with paper not knowing what might happen). Well at least this was a step in the right direction. So I loaded up another round-still about the same resistance loading as the first shot. This shot went off too and much to my surprise and delight cut the first hole for about a 1/3" group! Shot the third one into a group of right at 1/2" and had to stop-sorry Richard I just couldn't mess this up! Proceeded to shoot another 3 shot group that measured at just over 1/2 inch. Loading resistance had begun to get a little harder- as had the rain. I adjusted the Swinglock die down 1 graduation and resized 3 more XTP's. The change in the bullet's diameter was not discernable on my Starrett which only reads to .000, the difference was noticable on the ramrod though-lightening up just a little. I decided to set up the Chrono and keep it covered with my jacket between shots. The first 2 shots of this group landed a little over a 1/2" apart with the third going a little under an inch. Not sure if it was me hurrying so as to get the chrony covered and uncovered or what I decided to resize and shoot 2 more and concentrate a little more. These next two went into a group with the third shot of about 2/3". The ES was 18 with average velocity of 2395. (The .6 and .8 on the targets is the Swinglock die setting.)
Sorry about the long story but I must say how impressed I am with this Swinglock die. It allowed a rank amateur like myself to arbitrarly decide what a good loading pressure might be, use a powder and charge weight from what I imagine might be light/moderate from a pressure stand point and shoot my first six shots into two 3 shot groups that both measured right at 1/2". Now I can start experimenting with clean/dirty bore, bullet type, powder type, charge weight and loading resistance. In summary I think I might like this sabotless thing!
You will have plenty of time and more load to play the "five shot" group game ;D So, this is just a smooth die vs. the one made with the barrel drop? right?