Some time ago there was a gentleman using the handle 'Kev' posting here. He had obtained a custom 50-110 lever gun that he planned to shoot lead 535 grain bullets through at 2150 fps. Last I heard, he received the rifle but had not shot it yet. He promised us reports on muzzle velocities, pressure and feeding (i.e., would the bullets dent in the magazine and not feed). However, I do not recall seeing any of his posts after that. Does anyone know him and know how things turned out with that rifle?

I sincerely hope he did not blow himself up trying to get 2150 fps out of that 50-110 with a 535 gr bullet.

Scott

HI,

Thanks for asking about me. I have been very busy lately. I just move to a new place,to bad still in ct, but not for long.My 50-110 works great, I have the 525 grains going over 2200 fps without a problem. I have some cast 570 grainWFN bullets that I think I will get to go between 2050-2100 fps.I may also buy some 550 WFN from csat perforance and try them to. I did not blow myself up yet, and a 525 grain over 2200 fps from a lever is not bad. Also it is very accurate. Kev

Glad to hear you did not blow yourself up! I am not overly surprised by your results. I am currently working with a M1895 Winchester in 405 Win. My goal is to get 2200 fps with the 400gr Woodleigh. I really do not believe it will be a difficult objective to achieve.

Scott

You got any preliminary results to share with us Scott ?

I had the same thought on the .405 in the M95........thought maybe around 2100 with 400 gr slugs should be doable................

Kev, How were your velocity strings? Were they consistant?
How was the accuracy? Were you shooting 50 or 100 yards?
Remind me, how long was that barrel, 18"?

sdgunslinger,



So are you thinking 450/400 3" on a lever action? That is my thinking anyway. To answer your question, though.

I hope to get out to the range this week sometime with the chrony. If all goes according to plan will also do some wood penetration testing between several different rifles. I am curious to see how much better the penetration of the 400 gr pill is compared to the 300 gr. I will post my findings. After my work ups with the 300 grain pills I am fairly confident in hitting the 2150 fps mark with the 400 gr Woodleigh. Powder of choice right now is Reloder 7.



Worst case, I will need to pull the barrel and add an additional 0.2" of cylinderical free bore to the chamber. This little modification will allow me to seat bullets out to 3.34" COL. What this COL change means is that I can fit an additional 2 - 2.5 gr of powder into the case. The 3.34 COL will feed flawlessly, by the way (with the current chamber, it will pull the bullets well upon extraction too ) Not sure however, if I am really that motivated, though.



One lesson learned so far, based upon experience with the 300 gr pills, recoil will cause you to put the rifle on safe with practically every shot. I have learned to hate that tang safety! I think I re-cocked and fired that rifle 4 or 5 times after the first incident, until it dawned on me that my hand had slid forward during recoil and engaged the safety (good thing they put those little red dots on there to let you know it isn't on safe or I would probably still be trying to fire off that dud ) So if used for DG the safety may need modified for use with these heavy loads.







Scott

Kev,

What powder are you using?

Thanks,
Scott