quote:

Originally posted by Paul H:
Northern Exposure was a great show, Janine Turner was a hottie. I liked the eccentricities of the characters. They are pretty to life of alot of Alaskans, even if they took the artistic license of filming outside and making the characters too clean

And too sober.

Seems we have a few mountain towns that could easily substitute for Northern Exposure. Sure bothers some of the tourists...which I don't mind at all. "How cum, if its tourist seeson, we cain't shute 'em?"

Max,
What's next?
Gas-checked, hard-cast, grease-grooved, flat-nosed-big-meplat .395-cal/400-grain bullets?

Could something like that handle 2150 fps from the .395 Ruger Max?

Another worthy endeavor for The .395 Family?

Not that I have anything to add, but my wife and I both enjoyed Northern Exposure.

I quite enjoyed Northern Exposure too. Unfortunately I never saw too many of the episodes....am looking forward to it getting re-run on one of the TVLAND or DEJA VU type channels eventually.

RIPPER,
The mention of Red Green got me reminiscing a little, and I thought of this picture....its from a few (like 11 or so) years ago....



Good Canuck hunting attire, eh? Now where did I put down that Molson....

Cheers,
Canuck

Canuck,
Great suspenders!
Great elk!
A&E reran the series years ago, over and over, and sold VHS sets of some of the episodes.

I have seen it rerunning on one of the HD channels on cable recently.

The episode with "Chris in the Morning" flinging a cow/piano with a trebuchet/catapult was the episode I caught on cable a few weeks ago.

RIP,
Hard-cast, gaschecked, wide meplat bullets would be great, however (love that word) I don't do lead casting and don't have any friends that do either. There was one gentleman, but he had to quit under Dr's orders (durn doctors ). I'd be willing to buy a mold, though. We'd have to use .40 or .41 gaschecks.
Anyone know if these larger gaschecks would work?
I'm waiting for that additional sizer from Lee (should be another two weeks) to try and size down those .411 bullets I bought.
Ahh, the fun of a new caliber along with new cartridges.

Max,
The "gift horse" bullets you sent to me have been "looked in the mouth."

My caliper says they are .397 diameter, .3975" reading between the lines.

I am sure they will swage down to .395 in firing. But we need to consider a smaller sizer to see if the spring back can be set to come out more closely to .395".

I believe you said you were using a .396" sizer from Lee.

could a .394" sizer be had so the 10mm/.400", 200-grain XTP's might spring back to .395" or .3955"?

Does this make sense?

Thanks again for the gift. They will be good for fire forming .395 Tatanka and developing a squirrel load.

Yup. Feel kinda stupid now because I knew some springback was probable. Had cast bullets on my mind and usually sizing .001 over the bore diameter to fit. Monday will contact Lee about getting me a .394 sizer for use with jacketed bullets. Am about to place an order for some other, heavier, jacketed bullets. Want to try the .405 bullets I bought first before buying all these others.

Hey man! I don't know the first thing about bullet casting or sizing lead or jacketed. You are teaching me, dragging me helplessly kicking and screaming into this. I'll send the reamer soon as I get it, then you send it back so I can do my .395 Ruger max. I'll share the bullets soon as I get some more. Then we can start placing orders at Neal Shirley's place to keep them in stock.

And finally a scan of the complete .395 Ruger Max reamer drawing, the headspace guages are the same as for the .375 Ruger:

Thanks for everything you're doing RIP.
I'm going to order from Neal some Hawk .403 dia bullets in 300 and 350 grain (.025 jackets) to swage down to .395. Will also order .406 dia bullets w/.035 jackets in 350 grain. If they will swage down, we'll have both GSC bullets for large game and other jacketed bullets for USA game.
Neal also has a source for some very hard cast maximum flat nose, gaschecked bullets that may work, also. Will order those too.

Too cool!

And on the Hawk bullet site, there is a 400grain .408 bullet with a .050 jacket!

quote:

Originally posted by prof242:
And on the Hawk bullet site, there is a 400grain .408 bullet with a .050 jacket!

Max,
A .395cal/400-grain Hawk at 2300 fps could be a very gentlemanly way to go with a .395 Ruger Max. It might need to be gentled a little more to 2150 fps if the Hawks can't take the speed.

That sounds super. When you get the technical aspects of it figured out, share the recipe please.

Max,
How about .395 caliber lead round ball from Hornady? I found a couple of boxes on the shelf last night at a Dunn's store in Paducah, Kentucky.

That is a hot item for muzzle loading Kentucky squirrel rifles.

Could make a nice squib load for tree rats.
Direct head shots instead of "barking" shots.
I have no use for squirrel brains.

American Idol is having try-outs at the mall in Paducah Saturday night. Does your daughter sing, or just nag you about your new toys?

You want to spank that girl, eh?
Psychoanalyze that!

Now Ron, play nice; she's still my baby. She took me out with her family for pizza tonight.

The round ball sounds good just for fun. You could use about any lube that would dry on them such as the Lee stuff I got with the sizing dies. And as an aside, I didn't think squirrels had brains?

Bought a length of 3/4" pipe tonight to use as a cheater bar on my Rockchucker press, lubed the heck out of the .411 Hornady 300gr bullets, and tried sizing them to .396 (Lee hasn't got the .394 sizer to me yet). It worked! I do need to get a better lube than the Imperial Sizing Wax that I'm using now (am thinking pure lanolin), but it did 'em! Also have to reinforce the area the press is mounted ( ) We now have a source of cheap jacketed bullets.

Can I have a beer now?

quote:

Originally posted by prof242:

Bought a length of 3/4" pipe tonight to use as a cheater bar on my Rockchucker press, lubed the heck out of the .411 Hornady 300gr bullets, and tried sizing them to .396 (Lee hasn't got the .394 sizer to me yet). It worked! I do need to get a better lube than the Imperial Sizing Wax that I'm using now (am thinking pure lanolin), but it did 'em! Also have to reinforce the area the press is mounted ( ) We now have a source of cheap jacketed bullets.

Can I have a beer now?

Spanking good job!

I'll buy the beer.

So, .411"-300-grainer down to .396", let it sit for 2 weeks then .3975" by spring back?

Then .3975" is sized down to .394" and final spring back is minimal, probably right at .395"???



Sounds like I am going to need some new equipment too.

Yep!
Bought some steel angle material to reinforce the bench. Will be doing that this week. You've got it on the wait period. I size first to .406, then .401, and then .396. When the .394 sizer gets here, I'll size to final and send you bullets to fire. (Oh, when are you gonna fire the 200gr bullets?)
I don't mind forming bullets for awhile. Just order what you need and have them sent to me.
[Bullets, Officer? I don't know anything about receiving any bullets from a RIP.]

quote:

Originally posted by prof242:
Yep!
Bought some steel angle material to reinforce the bench. Will be doing that this week. You've got it on the wait period. I size first to .406, then .401, and then .396. When the .394 sizer gets here, I'll size to final and send you bullets to fire. (Oh, when are you gonna fire the 200gr bullets?)
I don't mind forming bullets for awhile. Just order what you need and have them sent to me.
[Bullets, Officer? I don't know anything about receiving any bullets from a RIP.]

Max,
You are the official Bullets Officer (BO) of The .395 Family Organization.

I will fireform some .395 Tatanka cases with your bullets this weekend, as long as they don't make the neck too big to chamber. If they do, they will have to be sized again, by me.

Still awaiting the Manson .395 Ruger Max finish reamer with removable pilot and with oil pumping grooves, and headspace "gages." I will call him and get an estimate on when it will be finished. This second attempt at your reamer is not half-assed. No separate chamber reamer and separate neck and throat reamer this time.

OK, I'll be bullet officer. But then, who can we assign as Bullet Sergeant, or BS'er?
As soon as that .394 sizer gets here, I'll start sizing the bullets down that I have on hand.
I hope the bullets don't give you a problem. If they do, I'll send you the .394 sizer to get those bullets to work.
Max

quote:

Originally posted by prof242:
I do need to get a better lube than the Imperial Sizing Wax that I'm using now (am thinking pure lanolin)

I haven't tried to do what you are doing, so I don't know by my own experience if this will work.

But why not lube with Molydenum Disulfide? As far as I know that's pretty much tops for lubing high pressure. It sounds like you need a very high pressure lubricant. Acetone should clean up any unwanted residue.

Also I would guess heating the bullets prior to forming could substantially reduce spring back. And perhaps eliminate a sizing step and the interim waiting period. I honestly don't know how hot you'd need to get them. That will undoubtedly take some experimentation. I'd still do the finish sizing cold to take advantage of a little work hardening.

This project intrigues me. Thanks for sharing. Hope some of my questions are helpful.

RIP,

I see an RCBS A4 in your future...

I have an RCBS 350gr bullet mould for the 416 Rigby, that casts the bullets out of WW+1% tin at 360gr or so, and they fall out of the mould at .417". I just size them at that and seat the gas checks. They will not lead the barrel at 2250fps and stick 5-shots in a 1.25-1.50" group at 100yds. Just a basic RFN. Look at having NEI cut you a two cavity, one about 350 grains, the other about 400 and you are set.

JMHO...

Rich
DRSS