I finally got to put lead down range out of my 357 max 10" ss VV shorty special. I started with some 357 mag loads @ 25 yds to get on paper, then put the target out to 50, and lined up the chrony.

It was gusty, starting the rain, and fall is in the air as I hadn't brought gloves, and my hands were slightly numb, not to mention I really haven't done any serious pistol practice in months.

Despite all that, I found that ~20 gr H110, CCI 400 and a 200 gr WFN gc seated to the front canalure would put 5 into 3/4" at 50 yds and leaving the muzzle @ 1730 fps. I wouldn't be the least bit suprised with a target at 100 yds, and me holding steady, for that load to group an honest inch.

So next thing to try will be seating to the rear canalure, and perhaps out to touching the lands, and seeing how fast I can drive those cast slugs. I'm also looking at trying some W 680 to see if it offers any advantage.

The only problem I seem to have is my lee 357 seater has too short of a body to work effectively in the co-ax press. If anyone else using a co-ax has a preferred seater, let me know.

Paul,

I believe that Lee has lengthened their pistol dies recently.

Maybe you can e-mail them and they will swing a new seater for you.

Myself, I use the Hornady seater die for everything in a specific caliber. Great die.

As for seating depth, I'm thinking my next experiments will be seating to the rifling. I've also used a taper crimp die to crimp cast bullets where I want to. Works very well. Mine's an older CH taper crimp die.

Regards

[ 09-12-2002, 01:34: Message edited by: Headstamp ]

I played around with the seater this morning, and found that if it engages about 1 thread in the nut, then I can run the ram full stroke, and seat and crimp all in one.

I loaded up increasing charges of H110 w/ the 200 gr seated to the rear canalure, and hopefully will get to the range again today.

I also plan to see how it performs with the bullets seated to the lands. I don't know that there will be much gain in accuracy, especially as the ball powders seem to require a good crimp to burn effectively.

Hey Paul, sounds like a keeper. I made it to the range on Sunday for the first time in months - shot one group with the 6.5X50R - slightly less than 1.2" for 10 shots with 6 of those in a ragged hole. Still have something going on that I can't quite get a handle on in loading, but can't complain about the results.
Might tyr to make the range Friday if you plan on being there, otherwise drop me a note about when we can get together (lost your work number).

Rob,

I made it out again today, man was it howling! I'm used to the target stands blowing over on occasion, but not having everything get blown off the shooting bench.

Results today were disapointing, I think it's related to the last batch of bullets I cast, I think they just came out a bit under bore dia, and perhaps the gas checks were falling off in flight, as groups were horrid, especially at 100 yds.

Fortunately I have some left from my last casting session, so I'll see if that helps. I also managed to work up to 1850 fps, now if I can just get them to group! I think I'm pretty well peaked on velocity, I might see if I can hit 1900, but the primers are starting to look flat.