I have emailed Veral Smith at LBT to ask if he can make a mould.

Barrel groove and land diameters are .395" and .387".

Velocity for a 400-grainer is to max out at 2150 fps.

Hard cast lead with grease grooves and a flat nose.

A friendly member here has suggested .396" or .397" bullet diameter for this application.

What does the gang say?

I am open to any education in this area, as I have been sadly ignorant of cast bullet technology.

This ought to put the .45-70 to shame for sure.

Can you ask Veral if a gascheck would be possible on this bullet, considering caliber? The gascheck would allow its use at up to 2,000 fps in large cartridges.
I do have some heavy bullets coming that I'll have to resize down from .405 and .408 dia.
Max

Max,
I already have a response from Veral Smith. He did suggest a .416 gas-check that will easily size down to our bullet diameter. He is also asking about the throat and I am asking him what would be best with his bullet, will do.

He says that with LBT lube and gas-check, 2800 fps is no problem.

2150 fps should be no problem at all.

I am asking him about 340-grain and 400-grain (short and long) of the same design, to work in that throat.

Dara with Dave Manson snail-mailed the estimate on the reamer, so I will go over the drawing and get Veral's input on the throat before finalizing the reamer.

Oh, yeah, I ordered two more .395 barrels of the same contour, probably, (No.4) as you just ordered from McGowen Precision Barrels, LLC, 28" finish length, stainless.

Rich is knowledgable about cast bullets and this question put in the bullet making board would be good.

396 or 397 sounds right and with a gc bullet it will not go fast enough in 400 grains to worry about since people sling them faster than that.

a 340 grainer to match the other gerard bullets would be neeto too.

oops we posted the same thoughts

Build your rifle, take a throat impression as per instructions at Verls website send him the throat impression and he will make a mold to fit your rifle....If you read Verls book "Jacketed Performance with Cast Bullets"...learn to cast proper bullets,have the proper twist (1:14 most likely),and fit the bullet to your rifle you won't need Gerards bullets....
Bullshit you say?....
Try it..

quote:

This ought to put the .45-70 to shame for sure.

Quite the angler there rip...

shooting a high sd cast bullet well within functional impact velocities is great.

Rip, also sumthin to tink aboot is hard cast and soft mushrooming cast in the intended velocities. 340's @ 2300 soft and hard cast is interesting depending on intended targets while 400 hard cast flat nose would be the penetrator round.

Boomstick...for most hunting you can get by with air cooled or water droppped wheel weights mixed 50:50 with pure lead...Or you can make a dual alloy bullets with a soft nose and a harder body...They act like a Nosler Partition
(Link does'nt work )
The 9.3X74R case is perfect for cast bullet shooting...All this sounds like to much fun!!!

yes case is great...there is no shoulder to mess with the gas check or throw off accuracy

quote:

dual alloy bullets with a soft nose and a harder body...They act like a Nosler Partition

That is quite interesting... so when you pour the second alloy it welds with the other but not melt it correct? thanks for that info.

Thats right Boomie...The way I do it I have a ladel floating in the melt of WW(wheel wts.)in a 20# Lee bottom pour pot...In the ladel I have a small pre measured bit of soft lead (50:50 WW/Pb or what ever you what to use))that is enough lead for the nose...I cast straight WW bullets until the mold is up to temp. then dump in the soft lead from the ladel into the mold and then dump in the WW bullet base from the bottom pour pot to fill the mold....It takes practice to make it come out with out a seam but can be done...the link that I can't get to work takes it one step beyond by reheating the mold with said softnose bullet in it (level with mold handle taped or held together with a rubber band)until the sprue remelts...what that gives you is a seamless bullet...
If you would like PM me your e-mail address and I'll forward the page I was trying to give a link for above....

RIP,
Just finished talking to Jon at McGowen's. My #1 barrel will be shipped tomorrow.
Good info on the cast bullets. If he's casting them sufficiently hard to shove at those velocities, we'll be sitting pretty. Won't need anything else but Gerald's GSC bullets.

What's this? Boomie saying people sling 400grainers faster than we fire them? Sounds more like what someone would say about his .45-70.

Seems things are going well for the res erection of the 400 Nitro

Congrats all.

So does this mean the other derivitives are actualy "Rimless 400 Nitro's"

The Rigby version being the 416/400 Rimless Nitro ect.

http://www.castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=11749

some soft nose cast boolits



This is the final distillation of how to use my results to cast your own SOFTPOINT boolits from any conventional (i.e.: base-pour) Lyman, RCBS, Lee etc mould.

1. Decide how much of your boolit will be pure lead, and conjure a way of measuring that amount of pure lead. This can be via ladling liquid lead with a fabricated tiny dipper, perhaps a pistol cartridge case of the proper volume with a wire handle added. It can be via a "donor" pure-lead bullet of the correct weight, cast for this purpose, which will fit in the cavity of the mould to be used for making the softpoints. It can be a measured length of lead wire. It can be....?


2. Get the full melting pot as HOT AS IT WILL GO, assuming an electrically-heated pot. Place the mould IN THE POT, in contact with the melt, and wait for it to get as hot as possible....several minutes at least. Then place the pure-lead component in the mould. We want it to melt and take on the form of the bullet nose.


3. REMOVE the mould from the heat source, and ALLOW THE NOSE TO SOLIDIFY. THIS IS IMPORTANT, because it prevents the alloys from mixing, as they might do if the base is poured while the nose is still liquid.


4. Once the nose is solidified, ADD THE HARDER SHANK METAL, leaving a generous sprue puddle on the plate, and again allow the alloy to solidify.


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

-----We now have two completely-separate hardnesses of alloy in the cavity, with a probably-weak attachment to each other and a visible joint or crease where the metals meet. This is where most earlier types of softpoint cast bullets run into possible trouble. To fix the potential weak point, we will......MAKE IT INTO A ONE-PART BOOLIT!!!!!

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


5. Place the filled mould, with its pure-lead and harder-alloy contents, IN CONTACT WITH THE TOP OF THE MELT IN THE FURNACE AGAIN. Watch until the entire sprue has remelted, maybe a couple of minutes or more, and then wait a minute or two after that sprue-melting occurs, before removing the mould from the heat. Waiting a bit longer ensures that everything in the cavity is DEFINITELY melted, and that's what we need.


6. With a minimum of disturbance, agitation, vibration etc., place the bottom of the mould on a wet cloth pad and watch closely until the sprue solidifies again. Then, WAIT A MINUTE OR TWO LONGER before opening the mould, to absolutely ensure that the boolit has solidified in the cavity.


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


We now have a harder-based, soft-nose cast boolit. It does NOT have a weak point at the juncture of the alloys, because we melted them together WITHOUT disturbing their orientation in the cavity. That is, the pure lead is still up-front, and the harder alloy is still in the shank.

Production is obviously fairly slow, but we only need a handful of the softpoints for actual shots at animals. This is because our practice and zeroing can be done with NON-softnoses cast from exactly the same cavity. The minor weight difference due to the pure-lead component has no effect on zeroing or anything else.

My current thinking is that about 1/2 of the length of the nose (of a bore-riding design) should be pure lead, on normal-weight for-caliber boolits (180-220/.30, 150/.270, 250-300/.338 etc.) With modern cartridges, where cast boolits normally aren't used (or useable) at the max speeds attainable in the cartridge, I suggest leaning to the heaviest possible cast bullet for best effect on game. Ergo, I'd use 220 grains in '06 or .300 Mags, 300 grains in .338, 300+ in a .375 H&H, etc. As we get up to .40-plus caliber, "normal" speeds for jacketed bullets can often be reached with cast loads as well. The .45-70 is the classic example, but the .404, .416, .458 and many others are equally adaptable to the cast softpoint for hunting purposes.

The distribution of proportions of pure-lead to hard alloy is entirely under the control of the maker, of course. Some testing of personally-cast boolits on wetpack or water jugs will prove very interesting. My preference is to have a LOT of shank metal left if the softpoint should destroy itself on bone or whatever. This way the shank will keep penetrating due to decent remaining sectional density. Hence, my belief that having about half of the nose length in pure lead will be in the right area.

Once decent accuracy is achieved in the 1800-2000+ fps speed range, the rifle will have enough reach (flatness of trajectory) to make 200 yard shots quite practical. My .416 with 365 at 2100 fps drops three inches at 200 yards from a 160-yard zero, and lands three inches high at 100 with the same sight setting. That is a highly-useable 200-yard load for elk, moose, deer, or whatever.

I'm quite excited about the success of this development work. Cast softpoints have suffered an 'iffy' reputation for years, because most of them were in fact TWO-part bullets, and although some decent successes were reported with such bullets, there were also reports of the bullets coming apart on impact, meaning that the two "parts" would separate. I believe the tribulations of the earlier versions were avoidable by the simple procedure described above....get the two different alloys into proximity and in their correct locations, and re-melt them together. THEN, by George, we have a ONE-PIECE boolit, and no mistake.

Look at the wide variety of nose shapes used in jacketed bullets, and realize that whatever the shape, almost all except the monometals such as Barnes use PURE LEAD (or nearly-so) to initiate their controlled expansion. To me, this also indicates that a pure-lead nose on a cast boolit of almost ANY shape will also expand easily on impact. I don't believe that "slumping" of the softnose under acceleration forces will be much of a factor at speeds up to 2000 fps. I believe that with boolits made as described here, my cast projectiles have arrived at a point where they don't give up much at all to the "more-modern" jacketed bullet in the hunting fields. I do however think that BIGGER cast bullets are better than smaller ones for hunting, and prefer to start my candidate rifles for CB hunting with the .338 and go up from there.

I'm posting this so that newcomers to our Board don't have to trudge through the entire story of how I arrived at where I ended up on this search. Dare I say, it might warrant a sticky or "article" status, due to the fact that the topic comes up so frequently?

quote:

Originally posted by prof242:
RIP,
Just finished talking to Jon at McGowen's. My #1 barrel will be shipped tomorrow.

Holy Cow! They had a barrel in stock? The .395 is alive!


Good info on the cast bullets. If he's casting them sufficiently hard to shove at those velocities, we'll be sitting pretty.

We are talking about moulds and us casting our own.

Won't need anything else but Gerald's GSC bullets.

We give Gerard more time. I only hope he is just tied up with another big order from "A Big Green" company whom I referred to him through the R&D engineer/gunsmith/buddy.

What's this? Boomie saying people sling 400grainers faster than we fire them? Sounds more like what someone would say about his .45-70.

Red off:
If we can get a bullet mould for a 340-grainer to fit the .395 Ruger Max throat, it will work in my .398 Lapua Mag. and .40-07.

2500 to 2800 fps, at least we can work up some loads for when the GSC bullets arrive in bulk.

However, a properly designed hard-cast, gas-checked 400-grainer for the 400 NE and a 340-grainer for the .395 Ruger Max would be an excellent start for any shooting of NA game inside of 200 yards. We'll get fancier as we go.

Cup and core Corbin bullets: Mega-mite press for $800, assorted bullet forming dies for another $700. Roll your own VLD target bullets or bonded core hunting bullets ... the possibilities are immense ... waiting for Gerard.

BTW, I have a chomoly .395 barrel for the Ruger No.1, so the twin stainless slim tubes might be for a STAINLESS SYNTHETIC DOUBLE RIFLE. I don't quite have that one figured out yet.

seems a gas check hard cast soft nose is the ultimate in softs...

Sling them faster with no leading and lots of damage on the other end.

Low Wall and boom stick,
Thanks for that.
I will get Veral Smith's book and some of his throat slugging kits.

I can now spell "mould" and it ain't like the fungus.

Until I can cast my own, a question about resizing hard cast lead:

If I had some hard cast lead bullets that looked just like the far right bullet pictured below (mine are .410" band and .366" grease-groove diameters), could I resize the .410-caliber/400-grain bullet down to .396" for use in a .395 with 12" twist at 2150 fps?

lots of sizer at work there...probably distort the .410" badly enough to shoot 5-shot 6+" groups at 50yds.

Quality way to do it: pay the $150 and have Steve Brooks in Montana make you a gas check (using .416 Rigby checks, I have some you can have) mould to exactly your specs, and make sure the nose section is at least .377" ID. You can then go buy Hornady swaged .375" round balls (Navy Colt and other .36 cap'n'ball revolvers) and just place one in one side of the opened mould cavity, close it, and pour a WW +1% tin alloy and go happy to over 2200fps anticipating 2moa groups. As Veral Smith said, make sure the ogive matches the throat as close as you can get it.
I suggest getting the mould first, an RFN; and having your reamer cut with that throat +.001" or so. Seat the bullet into a dummy round and send it to Dave... Where good (cast) bullets go astray, is when they are more than .002" undersized in the throat, and "slug up" to fit the throat. At about 30+K Psi they go up, then have to swage back down to groove diameter. They usually do this off center, due to production tolerances in case neck thickness; and hit the leade about half sideways.

Go to the cast bullet section, and check my "2 hours" thread. It shows some very pretty gas checked 358gr RFNs for my 416 Rigby. They come out of the mould at .4175" and I size them at .417". At 2250fps they group under 3" at 100 yards for five. At that point, I stopped load work and went to shooting them...practice at 50yds is sub 3" offhand after about 250 rounds of practice...what the doctor ordered.

The key to cast bullet accuracy is near-instant bullet obduration, to seal the bore against accuracy destroying gas-cutting of the bullet. The number that seems to work, according to Ed Harris of the NRA and Cast Bullet Assn fame, is 1442. Multiply your bullet Brinnel Hardness (Bhn) times that and it will equal your alloy yield strength in terms of how much pressure it will withstand. Bhn of 24 (Laser-Cast alloy) will take 34,600Psi before accuracy goes away, and you get leading. Match your alloy Bhn to what Quickload says for pressure...and you are in like flint.

Probably more data than you needed, but I really want to see you guys get it right, and be able to shoot a good alloy gas checked bullet at hunting velocities/accuracy for about 15-20 cents per bullet cost.

Rich
DRSS
Knowledge not shared is knowledge lost...

Thanks Rich.
So, in my wildest dreams, I need a BHN of 28 for the 400-grainers at 40Kpsi, and a BHN of 35 for the 340-grainers at 50Kpsi.

With a sub caliber nose portion and driving bands of caliber plus .001": Just a leade for the throat, as long as the leade starts wide enough and tapers quickly enough.

Is there a commonly preferred leade angle for most cast bullets?

How about cast bullets with full "caliber plus .001" (.396") nose portion? Same diameter nose as the bands. Those would work in a .397" freebore diameter for a short throat with 1.5 degree leade.

Is anybody using cast bullets that are full diameter ogive at the nose/shank juncture ahead of where it meets the first grease groove? That would look like a Barnes "Banded" FN brass solid only shorter and made of lead, i.e., a longer than usual pistol/revolver bullet.

Hybridize it with the truncated cone nose FN like a GSC and we get: A short conical FN nose that joins the .396" shank with grease grooves. Hard cast lead.

Sound O.K.?

I like the idea of the soft lead stopping before the first driving band on a bore rider nose so no soft lead touches the barrel to smear off.

Hmmmmmmm,

Yes on the pressure numbers. The 35Bhn is complicated; you are probably talking antimony in the alloy, and heat treating the bullets. You have to cast them, heat treat, then get a sizer die that is about .0005" over bullet diameter, so you only lube them. That needs a mould that is cut with some knowledge of the alloy. A suggestion there would be to look at alloying up 500 pounds of wheel weights, checking the Bhn with one of Veral Smith's testers, then blending the antimony and a little tin to get around 25-28Bhn. Then, they go into the oven at a couple hundred degrees to get them up to 35-36 hardness. The only issue there is the fact that they take a week or so to reach max hardness, and about 30 days later start to soften up, going back to the original number. You would have to cast them in small batches, like 150-200, heat treat and shoot them. With a good mould, that is two hours out of your day total, plus the oven and sizing, add another hour. If you take the plunge and get two moulds, it is a great temperature regulator. Casting out of two one-cavity moulds has been my recipe for accuracy for many years...

Cast one enough to get it dropping good bullets, then ditto the other one. Every fourth cast, do the first one again, until both are making nice shiny bullets. Then pour one and set it down. Pour the other one and set it down. Then open the second one over an old towel, drop the bullet, and pour the mould full again. Then pick the bullet up with tweezers and inspect it. If good, set in into a bullet block, and go to the other one. Just keep repeating until both bullet boards are full. I made two out of 1x4"x16"L. Rows of four. By time you have ten rows of each, it is time to refill the pot and flux it. You can occupy yourself for the ten minutes it takes to get the pot back to casting temp by double-checking the bullets, by then they are cool to the touch. I bulk buy the 50 or 100rd pistol ammo plastic boxes. Then I weigh them and separate them by 1-2gr weight. After I size, lube, and fit a gas check, I stick them back in the boxes and store them in a cool dry spot in the shop.

The issue with a truncated cone nose will likely be getting it to feed. You will need a good smooth feed ramp, the lead does not "glide" like a jacketed bullet does.

A 1.5-degree (total) included leade is very popular, and very accurate.

Two basic lead alloy bullet styles are the two-diameter, with a bore-riding nose about .001" over bore diameter that "rides" on top of the lands, and a body with several grease grooves .001" over groove diameter; and the round-flatnose design, often with just one good sized grease groove, also .001" over groove diameter. Either way, the goal is getting a bullet that is within .001 of the throat, and .001" over groove diameter.

This is turning into the sermon on the mount.

Bedtime for IS.

Rich
DRSS
Knowledge not shared is knowledge lost...

one option, is a Loverin-style bullet that has a flat round nose. They have the entire body as grease grooves, much like the jacketed driving band bullets.

Rich,
I guess I will have to schedule a vacation to sit out in the backyard in a lawnchair and do some relaxation time by the fireside.

I do want to see how badly I can distort those .410's by sizing them down in steps: .410 >>>>>.405 >>>>> .400 >>> .397 > .396 (and get a .395 and .394 sizer for jacketed pistol bullets like Max is doing).

I have yet to finalize the throat on the 400NE reamer. This has been helpful, thanks.

I did talk to Gerard again today.
He is still waiting on the paperwork on his barrels and we have hopes that prof242 and I will be testing 340-grain HV's in water to see that they open up at 1500 to 1600 fps and still retain their petals at 2500 to 2600 fps. The SP and FN are finalized.

Ron,
Considering the velocities we will be getting with the 400 grainers, I would think that 28 BH would be sufficient. As was said in a previous post, tempered bullets do lose that tempering and go back to the original hardness. Also, a problem is fracturing of bullets beyond a certain BH factor.
LBT-shaped bullets have the flat nose and taper that may be good for us to use in our .400NE's. Feeding will not be a problem in a single shot or double rifle. A good "feed" smith can polish up the ramps on the bolt guns, which will probably be needed for Gerard's FN's anyway.
I'm in the process (upon arrival of the bullets I ordered) of sizing different cast bullet diameters down, including .411's. When you are ready to load and fire them, let me know.
As far as McGowen having the barrel on hand, they didn't. Just ran it off after I ordered it! Fantastic service.
My bad...Gerard came out Gerald when I typed it in a previous message. Thanks for overlooking my faux pas. When his bullets arrive, the testing will begin.
I have been know to fly. May have to go to Kentucky to shoot a "Water Buffalo".

Max,
We'll get together sometime.
I think I will just slug the throat of the 400NE and have Veral Smith make the mould to fit it.

Meantime I will be using bullets resized by you or me. I just ordered the Lee Size&Lube dies in custom diameters as follows:
.405
.400
.397
.396
.395
.394
Do you think I will be able to do something with those? I am following your lead on this.

400NE throat: Make it the same as the .395 Ruger Max and then the same cast bullets custom fitted should work in both, as well as the .398LM and .40-07.

I'll go look for those throat specs again to confirm:

.3966" freebore diameter, .200" freebore length, and 1.5-degree leade, IIRC, so a custom cast bullet could be made to fit that surely, in 340-grain and 400-grain weights.

Sorry the .395 Ruger Max reamer won't go out to you until Monday Morning.

Hopefully the snail-mail on the 400NE reamer specs will get to me this weekend, and we shall see what Dave suggested for the throat.

It appears that all the .395 Family Cartridges so far have the same throat, as listed above, and pictured below.

Gerard the bullet maker came up with it first on the .395GSC. I copied it in deference to the bullet maker.
Might as well do the same on the 400NE?





I can start by slugging the throat of the finished .395 Tatanka on hand and sending that to Veral Smith of LBT. A cast bullet made that way should work in all. So simple and correct. Excuse me for confusing the issue.

You mean the 416/400 Rimless Nitro Express aka tatanka.

having the throats all the same does follow the kiss principal.

quote:

Originally posted by boom stick:
You mean the 416/400 Rimless Nitro Express aka tatanka.

having the throats all the same does follow the kiss principal.

Yes, the .40-07 does have many aliases, just like the 400NE.

Cast bullets are classy but Gerards masterpieces realy give the 400 Nitro some teeth.

I forsee more than a few Ruger #1's getting their tubes tossed to make room for this uber classy classic.

Rip...Next time you talk to Gerard see what he thinks about loading his 395 GSC down to 400 Nitro velocities for field testing with his bullets and the future cast boolits.

Here is a .395 observation.

400 grains has been a standard for D.G. hunting and the 395 can throw 400 grainers at the best S.D.

375's can't or should not sling 400 grainers and 400 is great in S.D. up to .432 (425 W.R.)

so even though the 400 Nitro should sling them @ 2150 the verrry high S.D. makes up for the lower velocity and that should make it a good killer.

Even with the .311 S.D. 340's @ 2300 that is pretty good velocity for D.G.

I would be curious to see some 300 grain bullets with the S.D. of .275 and how fast they will fly in the 400 Nitro for a true "express" load. From what i know the "Express" loads were lighter bullets with the same powder charges as the heavier ones.

To see if the 300 grain bullets in a ruger #1 could do 300 at close to 2,500 fps would be a worthwhile endeavour imho. for plainsgame, pig dispensing and plinking.
300@ 2,500 and 400@ 2150 have equal energy so this seems doable but yet to be seen.
The 300 grain loads would make the 400 Nitro a 300 yard large thin skinned game cart and a good all around big bore cart.

Ron,
No problem on the reamer, my gunsmith doesn't get back in town from Alaska until after Oct 1.
Your idea of using the std throating is perfect. One of those, slap me in the head and say why didn't I think of that, ideas.
Yep, I've got the same sizer dies from Lee as you have. Their included lube is ok with cast bullets, but STP works much better sizing jacketed bullets.
On Boomie's idea for an "express" load, I think the jacketed bullets I'm now sizing (200gr and 300gr flat nose) should take care of that problem nicely. Better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick.

ROOWWLGRRR Just was notified by phone that two of the jacketed bullets I was going to size down to .395 have been discontinued. Rats. Still, I have three other bullets coming. One of those is a 300gr spitzer which would make an excellent express load. Though... I did want the 250 and 265grainers to try.

300 grains .275 S.D. "express"
340 grains .311 S.D. "standard"
400 grains .366 S.D. "penetrator"

Just to expand on boom stick's expounding:
.395 caliber
weight(grs): SD
200: .183
230: .211
250: .229
265: .243
270: .247
300: .275
328: .300
330: .302
340: .311
400: .366

230-grainer @ 2050 fps: Classic 400 (.395) Nitro For Blackpowder 3"/Proprietary 400 (.405)Purdey 3" Light Express (both used 47-grains cordite and mouse fart pressures)

400-grainer @ 2155 fps: Classic 400 (.395) Nitro Express that never was but IS now (44,500 psi)... Nitro Express for Old-style Bullets

340-grainer @ 2385 fps: Nitro Express Updated, for modern bullets and modern rifles (47,525 psi) ... Nitro for New Bullets

These loads assume 26.5" barrel for the velocity for pressure shown.

I see it as just 2 classes of loads:

Light Express:
200-to-300-grain bullets at pressures no greater than 40,000 psi and velocity no greater than 2050 fps.

Nitro Express Updated:
300-to-400-grain bullets at velocities of 2150 to 2400 fps and pressures less than 50,000 psi.

Standard barrel is 1:12" twist, 27" long.

Modern doubles can handle pressures to 50Kpsi and so can the brass if comparable to the 9.3x74R.

Single-shot Rugers can easily handle 60Kpsi, and surely the right brass could too. A possible third class (experimental): Ultra Nitro Express

RIP & Prof242,

let me know if you need some 416 gas checks or .408" spitzer or tapered roundnose cast from my 40-65 Sharps.

Rich
facilitator
DRSS
Knowledge not shared is knowledge lost...

quote:

Originally posted by Idaho Sharpshooter:
RIP & Prof242,
let me know if you need some 416 gas checks or .408" spitzer or tapered roundnose cast from my 40-65 Sharps.

Rich,
I ain't too proud to beg, I just have stuff piled up here already that I need to work on, and custom moulds and bullets on the way. And prof242 is always sending stuff ...

Big Five 395's: one rimmed, one belted, and 3 rimless. They will all have the same throat and shoot the same bullets. Whatever they can get!

And one day when we find the elusive old Martini chambered for a rimmed .395-caliber BP cartridge (whether 2-3/8" or 3-1/4"), or an old DR chambered for 400 Nitro For Black Powder (3") with .395-caliber barrels:

We shall have a headstart on loading for any of these if we get a 230-grain lead bullet made up to duplicate the obsolete ballistics: 2050 fps.

It will be easy to improve on these .405-caliber/230-grain lead bullets for the 400 Purdey 3":
(47 grains cordite, 2050 fps)




395 R&D: Large scale model of .395-caliber cast bullet is shaping up.

Per Rich...

___________________________________________________________________________________________

these bullets mike 1.35" and 1.38" by .409"
and weigh 400gr. I measured a Hornday 416 gas check, and they mike
.017" thick and OD is .425". Soooo, ID is .391". They can have LBT or
whoever cut just a teensy shank on the base and swage it on when they
size and lubricate.