westerner wrote on Oct 14^th, 2018 at 11:02pm:

westerner wrote on Oct 15^th, 2018 at 2:20pm:

I got my doubts that a head-shot squirrel worries much about velocity and deviation numbers either.   

calledflyer wrote on Oct 15^th, 2018 at 4:03pm:

Sorta like a paper target?   

I don't bother with the chronograph for very close shooting ( 200 yards ), but I wouldn't dream of bringing ammunition to a long range match ( or even only 600 yards ) without doing some chronograph testing.   A load can look excellent at 200-300 and have enough velocity variation that a poor finish is guaranteed at long range.

Chris.

Dominik,
It looks like your making some progress.

I agree that the bullet doesn't fit well. If ACCURATE made the mold and it doesn't cast to what you ordered, I would call them and see what they have to say. I would want the bore riding section to be at least .354, cast with nothing harder than 20/1 (approx 10 BHN). I would also want the driving bands to be .001 over groove diameter.

If you requested a .353 bore ride and got .351, I would hope that they would make it good.

If you ever have another mold made, I would use a tapered bore ride, starting at .353 and ending at .355. That will help center the cartridge in the chamber. If the lands are wide, I'd suggest .353 - .354.

The other thing about your situation, is that we can't say what your accuracy potential is. I would think that 2", five shot groups@ 100 yds, would be good. DeadEyeBly, might be better able to address that.

Frank

When I was ordering, I specified 1:30 alloy. 0+/-

@frnkeore - I'll e-mail them for sure, see where it gets me. It's my 4th mould from accurate and not the last for sure. 

tapered bore ride sounds like something I haven't tried so far, and is definitely interesting direction. I wanted actually to submit a new design based on the one i found on page, but Tom suggested that I just put notes in the order and he will reflect that in design.. Do I need special software to design bullet?

It's my first breechloader and it feels like discovering completely new land  

When it comes to accuracy, these were supposed to be very accurate percussion .35 Sporting Rifles. 2 inches at 100 yards and 4 inches at 200 should be achievable, even though the barrel has only 1 in 28 inch twist that limits the weight of the bullet to c.a. 200 grains and a length of .75'. I have another mould that is throwing 156 grains one grease groove bullets, however got initial results that were more promising gron the heavier ones. My gunsmith have tested the barrel and receiver in a bench rest installation and confirmed that he was able to achieve 1 1/2 inch 5-shot group at 100 yards, however these were breech seated, powder poured into the chamber and than the and of chamber plugged with a shortened case. The problem with the smaller bullets is that because of their shape, they stop when bands reach the rifling. When I put the case full of powder inside, the bullet stops 1/5 inch ahead of the case, that I presume is a bit too far for breech seating in a 150 years old barrel. The longer ones stop 1/8 inch ahead of case that seems to be safer. 

When it comes to cases I find another problem - Starline brass that I used and adopted for 35-30 are having too thin necks comparing to original cases. The original bullet mentioned in Maynard's catalogue was .370. When I fire-formed the brass, outer diameter of neck fits the one from the catalogue, but i get 7-8 thousands of an inch space in the case using bullets that are .369 . I format the necks, so that they hold the bullet in centered on bands, but I know that will not secure accuracy to my expectations. 

Primer pockets are filed in with beryllium ball bearing, so that when the ignition hits from the channel it should hit and ommit the ball to initiate ignition. When the pressure rises it is supposed to seal the gas inside the case. It is working very well in 45-70 and 45-90 Sharps percussion replicas with reliable and consistent velocities. 

The problem i discovered is the size of ignition channel that needs to be smaller than the flash hole. It is larger unfortunately. If there is any concentric inconsistency in primer pockets, than there will be differences in the quality of ignition. We will work with my gunsmith to make the ignition channel smaller to be less vulnerable for primer pockets concentricity variances and will see what happens. 


We will also try the small caps nipple that would give me more options with overpowder wads. 

Regarding the bullets, I have been casting this weekend. My alloy that was supposed to be 13 BHN (Lead + Tin + Antymony) occured to be 22 BHN which would point to linotype. The noses are now .353 with .371 in bands (that I could size to .370), so technically that should be correspoding to .354 in lands and .368 in grooves. I do not know however If Is hould be shooting these kind of alloys in 150 years old barrel.. 

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comment: SD has statistical validity, extreme spread doesn't. I doubt the rifle or the load cares.

It might be fruitful to wander over to the north-south skirmish assoc site and pick their brains. They are helpful people and experienced in dealing with exactly your problem. 

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