Finally got my mould and cast up a batch.

My question is whether I should move my bench back a yard to keep the distance honest?

dj, yea, that's one longass boolit! Cast some last night myself. Typical Lee quality. On a scale of one to ten, it would get a 3 or 4. I have a custom cut mould from David Mos that would get a 9.5 (tang on the sprue plate is too short), so when I compare, the Mos mould is THE standard. All in all, I did get some nice boolits from the Lee. I noticed that the top of the mould block is finished differently than what I've seen before, sort of a round or rotarty type of finish. Something new for Lee? Now, to see how they will shoot in the Swede's very fast twist.... sundog

Oh yes, it is a long big-nosed heavy bullet to perfectly fit that long & wide Carl Gustav throat.

Shoot one with a 5 grain mini-charge of Unique and catch it in a bundle of rags to preserve the rifling engagement marks. Measure the bore rider nose both before and after firing, then calculate the percent of wall engagement for the bullet counting all of the length that meets the full bore wall diameter.

It is NOT any lack of good bullet alignment at firing or any lack of proper bore wall support that is the limiter on that slug, it is simply the 7.5 twist rate induced RPM exceeding a sane 150,000 rpm rate that causes the accuracy to drop off like it does past 1,650 fps.

Somebody with a slower twist rate gun is going to be able to make somewhat faster fps with the slug, but the good news is that IT WILL STILL KILL A DEER very nicely at the slower 1,650 fps accurate speeds that us normal Carl Gustav folks can shoot it at. No kick, no fuss and no big muzzle blast.

And they do make a nice clear "bell ring" sound when cast water-dropped hard and then poured out on the kitchen table just prior to sizing.

Oldfeller

Here is a bounce of the current Shooters bulk purchase deal on lapped-out .266" sizer dies.

********************************

OK, it's about time to order the 6.5 sizing dies. Those interested send me an e-mail to:

Oldfeller123@aol.com

and I will get back to you with my address to send a $19 check.

Please be able to tell me what size (.268" for example) you want your bullet to turn out at, and whether you shoot water dropped hard or air-dropped soft. I can generally get within a half thou of the number you want using the foot long laps I had built a while back.

I put the tightest part at the top of the sizing die like you are supposed to do to minimize the sizing drag, and the dies are tapered less than 5 tenths so everything works pretty good. I do not remake the inside punch as experience has shown that they work fine "as-is" and the leakage past the pin amounts to less than half a teaspoon of curled up lube shavings after sizing 500 bullets.

You can get a better job done by Stillwell on a Sunnen hone, but he charges you more just for the lapping job that this entire new die will cost you, resized and delivered.

Oldfeller

Gimme some powder tips, Oldfeller.

I'm sitting on large quanities of H322, H414 and 3031 and like to work at around 40,000 psi for the velocity I need. Not interested in killing any deer with it or winning any matched. Just want offhand minute of beer can at 100 yards.

I was figgering on using AA3100, but figger anything like a full case of that would drive the bullet way faster than 1650 fps.

I could start way low and work up, but there ain't no sense in me re-inventing the wheel if you already have the answers.

You are trying for full pressure and speed and are dooming yourself to taking the Jumptrap advanced course in 6.5 cast bullet shooting. This is a difficult course, complete with the Waksupi "where the heck did it go?" kind of questions and having to analyse all the odd shaped holes in your targets (generally located off to the right of things).

Or, you might try 11.5 grains of Unique to start out with. Less wear and tear on your nerves starting out.

Key thing here is to keep the speed around the 1,600 - 1,650 speed zone as a maximum speed. Beyond that the bullet rpm churned up by Swede barrels can begin to do bad things to the long skinny 6.5 bullet shape that you like so well.

Remember, the bullet was designed to kill at the 1,650 fps speeds it can be shot accurately at. It can be shot a whole lot faster than that without leading, but at those speeds you can expect only enlarged "minute of deer" accuracy levels at those higher speeds.

The man who figures out how to get a 170 grain 6.5 Swede cast bullet to group well at over 2,200 fps will certainly get my respect.

Oldfeller

I finally got some shooting in. Short on Swede brass so I got out a 6.5 Roberts. With bullets seated so the front band just showing, the rifling engraves but cartridges can be ejected without the bullets getting pulled. I used a nominal 10.8 grains of Unique (Lee AutoDisk measure 1.18 cc).

Bullets were WW+2% tin, water quenched, Hornady GCs, NRA forumla Lube, sized .266.

Thirty five yard groups were basically one ragged hole. Biggest of four five shot groups was about 5/8th inch.

Naturally, I'll play with loads some, but I've already got the cheap, quiet, low recoil, offhand practice load I was look1ng for.

Thanks, Oldfeller.

[ 06-02-2003, 05:43: Message edited by: Leftoverdj ]

Now the neat thing about that very nice quiet accurate load is that it would reliably punch right on through a normal sized eastern deer if you hit him broadside (or at a slight quartering angle). Just think of better than average 30-30 performance and you will be in the right neighborhood for your performance expectations.

The bullet can go a whole whole lot faster with no leading if all the lube bands are filled up. It just begins to exibit all the "over-spin" and "torque reaction" illnesses you have been reading about over the last few months.

If you want the Waksupi advanced 6.5 cast bullet course, just keep speeding the bullet up by slow degrees until they begin to totally drop off the face of the earth.

(they don't really disappear, just look off to the right and you will find occasional signs of them)

Oldfeller

I'll play with it just for fun, but I seldom hunt these days.

Think that rifle has a 1-9 twist which ought to make life easier. I'll measure it before my next report.

I will point out that the bullets I tried to push faster were LOOOOONG experimental models we were testing for upper limits in fast twist rifles. They longer yet than the Oldfellers I believe, and were light for length, being nearly pure tin if I recollect correctly. No lube grooves at all, just a moly coating. These started dissappearing at about 1800 fps, and I found some that were shaped like a well curved banana after the snow melted. As near as I can figure from the damage to the utility pole outside the cabin, and the farthest from the target the other direction, one hundred yard groups were running in the 24 FOOT range.

No Shit.

The 1-9 twist barrel seems to help some, but not much.

I used a Chinese clone of 3031 that was briefly marketed here as Brigardier 3032 in one grain increments from 20 to 24 grains. 20 grains gave just under 1400 fps with good accuracy. Each additional grain added about 75 fps. Accuracy remained good up to just past 1700 fps which put four in one hole and flier a half inch out.

24 grains gave an average velocity of 1803 fps and two of the five shots were tipped enough to cut 5/8 inch slots. Seemed like a good place to stop so I did.

When I get around to it I'll do some more shooting in the 22-23 grain range and try a couple of other powders. This time out I was mostly checking for velocities and gross inaccuracy. Single five shot groups don't really tell me much about accuracy, but now I have a much better grasp on how much of the fast rifle powders to use and velocity range to work in.