quote:

Originally posted by Bwana-be:
What on earth are you doing with 180gr bullets!? Maybe I should say "washers."
At least it's half the caliber. ;-)??? Imagine one of those washers leaving the barrel at over 3500 feet / sec.and reaching out and hitting a far distant antelope.
I've been busy tuning my swage setup. Looking for a nice group with 300g. Can't tell what's what with powder, charge, COL, and now homemade bullets in the equation. Send me a hand full of those home made bullets and I'll be glad to establish some loads. Oh! did you order your accurate Data 86 powder yet? Just what you want for that 300 grain bullet.But good, good fun. Also still playing with the 290g Lee RN cast. Nothing good to tell yet, but that you need the slowest powder you can find and a wipe's worth of TP.
Truth told,IMHO based on experimenting this cartridge has to much capacity for lead bullets. A .35 Rem. will send the 297gr cast bullet out at terminal velocity or put another way at 30-06 energy levels beyon whih you tend to have bullet degeneration. I think this case was made for the .358" and for the 270-280g bullet weight. With your single-shot you could get away with a long ogive seated out to maybe 3.7" or so. I'm thinking in hindsight that with a 3.6" COL like mine I could've left a little more neck (like yours) and lost nothing, maybe made it a little easier on the heavy cast loads.