more:
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There were shot to shot changes as much as 200 fps. Moved the chronograph out to 20 feet adn tested again to see if the shock wave of the muzzle blast may have cause the wide spread in the velocities recorded and that prove not to be the problem at all. I'm very inclined to look for another design in a bullet mold that will work in my rifle with it's 1 in13" twist rate.
   Any one else had the same experince with IMR4227 and the wide spread in velocite andnburned powder in the barrel? There is a noteable amount of unburned crumbs in the bore with IMR4227.  Sendaro


I had large velocity speads with H4227 in load range you were using with the 87gr RCBS bullet cast from 20:1 alloy in my 1:13 twist Stevens 44 1/2 25-20SS rifle, changed to 7gr of 2400 and used Win small rifle primers in Jamison brass, velocity about 1500fps, only fired at 50yds as it was a load I worked up for squirrel hunting when I lived in PA. It did shoot cleaner than H4227 and with my scoped rifle it gave 1/2" to 3/4" 5 shot groups at 50yds.
Always tried to find a Lyman/Ideal 257231 mould in 106gr version (no luck), seemed to me it should shoot very well in the 1:13 twist barrel.
Fred Leeth at Pioneer Products (937-839-4362) cuts a 103gr mould #25804103 that I'd like to try, probably order one this winter for next years testing.  Mike


"Any one else had the same experince with IMR4227 and the wide spread in velocite andnburned powder in the barrel? There is a noteable amount of unburned crumbs in the bore with IMR4227."  Sendaro 


I settled on the 7.5 grains of 2400 with the Lyman 257420 GC bullet. (The heavier plain base bullet leaded, this one doesn't.) I took it to the 100 meter silhouette match and after some hurried shooting to try to get beginning sight settings managed to take single shot match winner. Really enjoyed shooting it. 

still more:
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For those of you that may have interest in the 25-20SS loading. I have cast some bullets from an old Ideal bullet mold that is ajustable for bullet length, and test fired them. The first batch was cast to produce a bullet that has three grease grooves, and weighed 66.8 grains when case at 1 to 25 ratio. When testfired with IMR4227 and a Federal 205M primer there was a very wide spread in velocity, and much burned crumbs left in the rifle's bore. Powder charges of 6.8 - 8.0 grains were tested with the Federal Primer, and It was the same with all . Testing with Remington #6 1/2 primers proved even worse and use of Remington sm pistol primers were was abandon after about 15% blew through with the 7.5 grain charge. Accuracy was poor at around 4" at 100 yards, but the holes left in the target were round and showed no signs of a yaw or tipping. Next it was on to testing with AA #9 powder and the Federal 205M primer and the Ideal bullet at 66.8 grains. This powder was buring very clean and accuracy was improving but there would be about 12% of the test rounds that were fliers out of the groups 3" or so at 100 yards,but fewer powder crumbs in the bore. All cast bullets used were inspected by eye and weighed to assure quality. With the hint of the test loads nearing a reasonable amount of accuracy it appeared to me that I was heading in the right direction. Powder charges from 6.5-8.0 grains were tested and at 7.0 to 7.2 grains there seemed to be a sweet spot. However the velocities recorded were again wide spread. This suggested to me that the weight of the bullet being increased may help the powder burn more uniform. So the Ideal bullet mold was adjust to increase the weight of the bullet. As cast now it has 4 grease grooves and weighs 77.5 grains. When test fired it was very apparent that the powder was burning more throughly and accuracy improved. The bullet bullets were hitting the paper without any signs of a yaw. To be continued as the testresults come in. Sendaro

BTW - lesson learned
When I took this idea to John, I asked for a 14 twist like the original. In passing he mentioned that he had a 12 twist on hand, did I want to use it? No, I wanted the original twist, which he ordered and did a beautiful job. But, now I know I should have listened closer or asked why. The 14 twist pretty much limits me to 77 and 86 grain bullets. Will not handle 100 wt very well - If you are into a Maynard project with John Bly, listen very very keenly to everything he says!

Bob

Well, I just received some "goodies" for the Maynard in the mail today.  A Winchester .25-20 SS tong tool, a Winchester .25-20 SS mould, a few old hand reloading tools (a 19 grain brass BP powder measure and a small French made powder funnel), some .25-20 SS brass, and some bullets that were cast from the old Winchester mould.  I'll run the brass through my ss pin tumbler to clean them up first and measure and weigh a few of the sample bullets.  Should finally be able to get the old girl out to the range sometime soon.

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SS wet pin tumbled and dried ... came out looking pretty good!

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Had two people suggest brass sources so far (many thanks!), but of course since I live up in Lesser Kanuckistan rifle brass can't be shipped to me thanks to current ITAR regulations.  It would require an import / export permit that would be far too much trouble and far too costly to pursue for a few rounds of brass.  Still trying to scare up whatever I might find up here "in country".  I did find a fellow back in Ontario who has 105 rounds of mixed original .25-20SS brass that he would sell me for $2.50 each plus shipping, but that seems a bit stiff for 100 year old brass with mixed headstamps especially when I don't know how many times it's been fired or what condition they are in.  The search continues ...
(PS: I now have a 44 Stevens in .25-20SS on the way to me in the mail and it comes c/w a 3 die set of CH dies plus another 30 or so period rounds of brass so now I'll have two rifles in this calibre to feed ... sometimes I just can't help myself and keep digging deeper into the hole ...)

Slowly but surely getting closer to shooting this Maynard and the Stevens 44 that I bought recently.  Just got another 35 rounds of brass in the mail yesterday and picking up another 35 rounds from a gunsmith friend at one of our local gun shows this coming Sunday.  That'll give me about 125 to 130 rounds of brass to spread between the two rifles.  Some of the brass is G&G .22-3000 and will need to be fire-formed into .25-20SS with some blank loads loaded with cornmeal.  I'll need to anneal all of the brass before reloading / fire-forming it as well, but I'm slowly making some progress!