I posted this at shooters, and as I'm too lazy to type it all back in, I just copied and pasted it.

Well, finally got a chance to put a few down range. The gun is a VZ-24 w/ a 24" barrel 1-14, chambered as a 350 Rigby. Most bullets were seated to the front lube groove, so that there wouldn't be much engraving, though this put the rear of the bullet well past the neck into the body of the case. Bullets were cast from ww, air cooled, sized .358", lubed with home brew beeswax moly/lythium greese in all grooves and checked with some old lyman slip on checks.

I loaded a bunch up over ~14 gr unique, and at 50 yds groups were 4-5" for 5 shot groups. I did load 4 of them seated out to the second lube groove, and while the bullets were heavily engraved, from the front lube groove on out, they shot into not much over 1" out of very mixed brass.

I also loaded some up, deep seated, over 40-45 gr RL 15, and shot them at 100 yds. Only one made it on the paper :-( On the up side, I had some jacketed loads, and did manage one 3 shot group under 1", so at least I know I can still hit the paper.

The upside is there was no leading, just a light gray on the barrel. Next step is to repeat testing with the long seated bullets. While the bullets are heavily engraved, the aircooled wheelweights easily engraved, and don't pull out of the cases.

Update:

I put a few more down range today. They definately prefer being seated out with the gas check even with the base of the neck. 14 gr of unique printed 1" 5 shot groups @ 50 yds. I also tried RL 15 @ ~40 grs, puts 3 shots into ~ 1" at 50 yds as well. I'll have to tune the full patch loads, and get the chrono fixed to see how fast they are going.

I'm also thinking I need to make a nose drawing die to make the nose a bore rider dia, as the bullet is engraved all the way to the front lube groove. Not an issue for target loads, but I'm looking for hunting loads, and don't want a load that has to be forcefully seated, and could pull the bullet on extraction.

More lead, more powder, more testing ;-)

Keep those reports coming, Paul!

I'm eagerly awaiting getting my mold...

jpb