quote:

Originally posted by Macifej:
Well it's certainly different than most Ken-Tuck types. Beautiful aroma of vanilla - tawny color - medium to heavy bodied - nice up front but VERY distinct wood rosin finish. Definitely drinkable but not for light weights. A keeper

That is not vanilla. It is bison cow in estrus urine, also known as "pte' pee" by our Lakota brethren. We are all related.

I have been thinking for a few years that I'd like to have a 2-Bore cap lock blunderbuss. Starting load of half pound #9 shot over 250 grains 3F.

Surely a Samuel Baker "Baby" is in the works, but it should be a true 2-bore this time, eh?

Pte' Pee

RIP,
That flintlock is absolutely stunning! Although not a blackpowder shooter myself, this I would like to have anyway.
The Dixie Gun Works idea is a definite idea. He likes to build some of his own blackpowder guns. Bought him two pistol kits many years ago and he now has an exquisite set of dueling pistols. I didn't think he had the patience in him back then. Will forward your pic to him just to show him McGee's work. Heck, he probably already knows about him.

Yep, wussy taste buds. My shame will live forever...but, then again, the .395 family has to have something with a kick.

Max,
That is a picture of the Pedersoli flintlock at Dixie Gun Works, the one that shoots .395 round balls. The percussion kit is the same.

You guys are REALLY killing time with all this BP Scratch-Lock chatter! Why aren't you guys out shootin' something ad showing us the pretty pictures.

Mac,
The .395-caliber projectile, in the form of the lowly round ball of lead, dates to the 1700's.
We'll soon get to killing things with .395's, from squirrels to elephant. The rebirth of the .395 is important stuff, over two centuries in the making, and you have had an important part in it.

When you consider over two centuries history, if it takes Gerard less than two years to make a first production run of his bullets, I would be elated.

Do you have a drawing of a .395/330-grain Copper SHark?
Do you want me to tell you some hollowpoint cavity dimensions?

How about aiming for 333-grains, as an "Ein Halb Teufel" nicety?

RIP
My error and sorry on the pic of the flintlock. Might just have to try one of those, though, to keep things in line. A .40 BP rifle, Ruger #1 in 400/.395NE, and a .395 Max bolt rifle. That should cover it all...until you or Macifej come up with something else.

Max,
Oh yeah! That will cover squirrels to elephant with good "balls."

Could a pointy aluminum hollowpoint bullet be made to get the .395 Ruger Max up to 3500 to 4000 fps for long range varmints such as p-dogs?

Could a high BC and low weight bullet of .395 caliber at plus Mach 3 deliver good trajectory for p-dogs?

Material costs for such a run of bullets by S&H might keep the price down.

Would aluminum be hard on barrels?

Just trying to add to the versatility of the .395 Ruger Max.

Mach 3 for the 400/.395 NE
Mach 4 for the .395 Ruger Max
Mach 5 for the .395 Tatanka ...

P-dog heaven!

IIRC, once upon a time a rifle loonie was shooting zinc bullets from a .458WinMag, the bullets weighed about 200 grains and he was getting plus Mach 3.
I will have to check old pulp nonfiction to verify this.

Zinc or aluminum, which is best?

OK, Macifej, what's your thoughts on this. I'm not sure.

Aluminum is a definite no-go for a half dozen reasons least of which is barrel wear. Easier to make a lightweaight bronze bullet with a really deep HP. long BT, & small minor diameter. A 200 grain .395 should be doable and pretty acccurate at closer ranges. I'll see what I can come up with. A 200 Grain Bronze grenade at 4000 FPS would be plenty for Elk or Deer or whatever.

You guys should be doing some elective $$$$ surguries (labotomies) on the side to fund your .666's and 2-Bore Danderbusses.

Very interesting!
.395/200-grain brass spitzer boat tail hollow point, with hollow point going to near the end of the rebated boat tail that starts where the last SHark gill ends, and deep gills?

Should explode into smithereens on p-dogs.

I take it that aluminum machines poorly and is maybe too soft or weak to tolerate acceleration to 4000 fps with the slender hollow point expanding in mid flight. Would it foul badly?

Density waaay too low (unstable)

Very abrasive

Non ductile

High fouling

Machines OK

Very cheap material

How light do you want your brass grenade?

150 Grains?

100 Grains?

The purpose is to have some semblance of BC and high velocity. I don't know how light that would be.
The lower SD will make for lower BC, whatever the form factor, eh?

True that!!

Just ran and a half dozen forms & I think I got it eh?!?!

200 grains solid spitzer w/ BC of .322 @ 4000 FPS.

PM to you......Dr. Rip-N-Stein!!!

Think I'll have some chilled Lillepitsch after all that work!!

A brass rain drop shape weighing 175 grains that flies in the opposite direction from how the rain falls, and no hollow point?

Better pour a double jigger of Ratzeputz and chase it with a mug of Buffalo Trace before the next brainstorm.

Lehigh has been making some .458 bullets on the lighter side.

I've got two boxes of them, but haven't had the time to load any yet.

225g spitzers, 220-250g hollowpoints and 86g aluminum hollowpoints.

http://lehighbullets.com/products.asp?cat=17

http://lehighbullets.com/products.asp?cat=19

http://lehighbullets.com/products.asp?cat=18

quote:

Originally posted by fireball168:
Lehigh has been making some .458 bullets on the lighter side.

I've got two boxes of them, but haven't had the time to load any yet.

225g spitzers, 220-250g hollowpoints and 86g aluminum hollowpoints.

http://lehighbullets.com/products.asp?cat=17

http://lehighbullets.com/products.asp?cat=19

http://lehighbullets.com/products.asp?cat=18

Thank you fireball168!
How long have these been around?
It says the aluminum ones are coming soon?

Did you say 68-grain aluminum .458? 3000fps in the 458SOCOM?



Match target 225-grainer, the perfect coyote bullet for the .458 Lott?:



And 45-70 shades of the .395/310-grain Brass SHark! 220-grainers and 250-grainers in .458 Caliber???:





Those brass hollow points will blow the nose off and leave a jagged front end and cause the bullet to tumble very soon after impact, and proceed base-first as brass penetrator cylinder. However they will not penetrate as well as the S&H .395/310-grain Brass SHark, I am sure. SD of the remnant cylinder counts, as does velocity. Also the SHark boat tail becomes a TC FN "superpenetrator" after it flips. Maybe we should call it the S&H Dolphin bullet since it is a "Flipper," and has gills and a bottle-nose.

Are those weights right for the pictures above?
They seem awfully light for the size of them, but they are fairly short I guess.

Dave sent me some "advance copies" of the aluminum pills, with my spitzer order, they are pretty interesting.

I'm going to try on an older A&B barrel I've got here first, recover the bullets and let my sister do her chemistry thing on one before and after firing to see what changes.

I wasn't really planning them for use in the SOCOM - thought they'd be a bit more dramatic in something with a bit more capacity.

The groundhogs were (at least before this mornings earthquake) starting to peek their heads out the past few days, these look like good medicine for them.

Been using his .510 bullets for quite awhile now, helluva nice guy with a great product.

O.K. 86-grain aluminum hollowpoints, and 255-grain brass spitzer's in .458 caliber.
Excuse my dyslexia, please. Wow!

OH YEAH!! My B.C. is lower than that!!

Macifej,
That is funny.

Max,
I will be mailing you a set of 400/.395NE dies from CH4D on Monday. I'll send it priority mail and insured. Please PM me with a confirmation of where you want to receive it, or whether you prefer some other shipping ... Same address as before?

Other .395 & 500 business:

NEI delivered moulds for:
1) .396/240-grain-gas-checked
2) .511/680-grain-gas-checked
bullets
Delivered moulds within one month.
They are off-the-shelf items.
Joel is the guy that answered the phone when I ordered. He is Vice president of everything, apparently, and doing a good job to supply me so quickly.

This adds credence to the existence of 400 Nitro For Black Powder 3" rifles shooting .395/230-grain RN lead factory loads back in the 1800's. Somebody has been shooting .396 cast lead before I knew about it.

The NEI bullet is a slight improvement over the old stuff, no doubt: 10-grains extra weight, gas-checked, and Flat-Nosed, and hard-cast.

Worlds leader in B.C. (Blunt Coefficient)

RIP,
My son hasn't called me back yet on casting the bullets for me, so will have to harass him a little. Thanks for the info.

Macifej,
Now as far as the 200gr (or lighter) HP bullet is concerned. I'd have to be very careful in my primary prairie dog areas with that bullet. Some buildup of "ranchettes" has occurred. Did have a thought though...Antelope? (My .25-06 just screamed.)

Max,
Got your PM.
Will send.
Just keep on truckin'.
BTW, the Hornady .395 round balls are swaged, not cast. They are very uniform and are 93.5 grains weight on average. 2000 fps would be the ultimate squirrel load with those. Lee Liquid Alox should do, eh? Look out squirrels!

The CH4D dies work fine so far. They are a bargain. Any burrs on the threads that I have found do not interfere with function. So far, so good.

The bullets seat and create a slightly hour-glass-shaped case which will iron out on fire-forming:

410-grain LBT LFN GC
310-grain S&H Brass SHark Velopex
300-grain B-Max Bullet sized by Max to .395 and still that caliber after all these months.
93.5-grain Hornady "40-cal" lead ball

Is that a round ball seated in that case Dr. RIP?!?!?

Yep,
Stick with one ball for fireforming while squirrel hunting.

Secondary projectile theorizing got me to thinking what would happen with tertiary and quaternary projectiles in my 4-ball load, so I decided to stick with one ball.

You can fill the 400/395NE with a case full of Varget, RL-15 or H4895 and NO FILLER NEEDED!!!

Max and Rip will soon be able to recreate original 400 Nitro For Black Powder 3-Inch loads very closely.

Ross Seyfried's formula is to substitute with RL-15 at 119% of the weight of Cordite charge, and fill the case with polyester fiber filler. I estimate somewhere around 4 grains of fluff ball will need to be crammed into the case with a No.2 pencil eraser.

Original ballistics were said to be, for 400NFBP3":
230-grain lead round nose .395-caliber bullet "with nickel base"
2050 fps
2150 ft-lbs KE
using 47 grains of Cordite
Used for Tiger shooting in India.

RL-15 Charge = 55.9 grains or about 56 grains
Varget charge will be 56 to 57 grains.

That is where I will start with the 200-grain to 300-grain B-Max bullets, and 240-grain NEI hard-cast-gas-checked FN's.

I'll bet Max will soon be sizing down some 400-grain Hornady .410 bullets to .395 and getting excellent results.

We will be able to get 2150 fps with full case loads (no filler) using 400-grain B-Max bullets and 410-grain LBT LFN GC bullets at pressures around 50,000 psi.

A Ruger No.1 or a Searcy double will be fine with those pressures.

These will be the first ever "400 Nitro Express Aboriginals" that never were but should have been: 400/.395 Nitro Express

We will soon have Hornady as well as Norma brass in 9.3x74R to turn into 10.03x75R brass.
After that, custom brass, with proper headstamp.