but, when I do it is really expensive - BH that is...
I could help myself, I returned to the Farm yesterday evening to do some more shooting. I have had a case + of BH-209 for two years now and other than a bunch of shooting with it when I first bought it - it remains mostly untouched tuck away in a dark storage place. But for some I thought it might be beneficial to try some from my 1/24 with the new Lehigh 40x215 CF which in my world has become to be know as the "Super 40" bullet. It appears that it will do a lot of same things that a lot of the other bullets I have been using will do and seems like, on paper at least it will do it better.
EXCEPT meet the rules and regulations established in my state for hunting Elk during ML season - the bullet is to small in diameter and it is not lead. -
DANG!So anyway got to the farm about 7:00 and got set up for a 'fun' shoot. I was suppose to be there just to punch holes in the paper to check for 'yaw' with various amounts of BH. I was not going to worry about group size or any of that. Did not even care that I planned on shooting even the first shot from a CCB (cold clean barrel) into the target.
The plan was to shoot 110 - 90 - 80 grain loads with the 1/24 shooting the long Lehigh 40. I decided somewhat to use BH because at 80 grains it would produce less velocity than 80 grains of T7. At 110 grains the velocity between the 2 powders with a this light bullet are near equal. I was confident that from my 1-24 twist 50 cal rifle that 80 gr. of BH would stabilize the bullet.
All loads ere by
VOLUMNE. I started with the 110 grain loads - just to get the barrel heating thing out of the way. BH creates so much more physical heat than does T7 - I figured I would shoot them first verify that no yawing was occurring - then walk out to the target and mark the holes. By the time that was done the barrel should be cooled for the next shots. I did these each time between groups, although at 90 and 80 grains barrel heat did not seem to be an issue at all.
As planned the first shot from the CCB went into the target. No patching - turned to the truck and reloaded the second shot and took the second shot It was up about an 1" plus. I was a little disappointed but the hole looked good from the scope. Load number #2 and took the shot. I knew I hit the target because I heard the 'click' of the bullet going through the target but I could not find it on the target. I was a bit upset but loaded #3 and took the shot. Shot #3 was all my fault when the rifle went off I knew I had drifted left + there was the concern about totally missing the target. When I walked out to mark the target - I got a great surprise - made me pretty dang happy - except there was # 3 out there alone all by itself! DAmn. The good thing the holes looked very good actually the hole in the target board look better than the hole is in the paper.
Went back and started the next shoot @ 90 grains and then on to 80 grains. in the end all the holes appeared to have been clean and the bullet was stabilizing
Now the, if I had know or read Lee's information before I set out on this shoot I would have dropped to 70 grains and tried that also - other than the fact that I was/are running out of bullets. I would suggest that this shows that Lee's number were in the picture. From past powder testing episodes I estimate the 80 gr. loads were driving the bullet at about 1825-1840 fps.
