303 lead boolitz and BP.

[waterford103]

Well I bin an gone an dunnit ! I loaded some of Dodgy Rog's 215gr spire point with gas check over 43grs of 777fffg .
Until my chrono packed up ( coated with black crunge ) I recorded 1600 -1650 fps ! When I found the target it shot into about 5" at 100yds with much less than ideal conditions.Target disintegrated they were so soggy . It felt very soft in recoil , nice to shoot.

Boiling water down the spout ( boil out yer hypes boys ) followed by a thorough clean and Youngs 303.

I WILL be doing this again ! clapclap clapclap clapclap clapclap :goodjob:

[dodgyrog]

Only 1 problem is that the lube is not ideal for blackpowder and may cause hard fouling in the barrel!

[waterford103]

I thought that and dobbed a blob of Lidl's best aqueous hand cream on the boolit before shooting --- messy but effective.

[dromia]

I'm not a fan of 777 at all.

When it first made its appearance I thought it might be a good way of getting a BP version of a MKVI 303 round so I got a couple of tubs straight away and started some load development with a 220 gn round nose boolit. Things seemed to be progressing with 4" 100 yrd groups out of my long Lee Metford however I was getting high pressure rounds, as demonstrated by increased velocity on the chronograph, every 20 rounds or so. After much faffing about to eliminate all variables loader error and such like I gave up on the stuff as a bad job as the pressure rises seemed far to frequent for comfort. It seems prone to pressure spiking for no real reason and I don't like working with something I don't have confidence in.

[shotgun sam]

I have some cast bullets can you use normal powder rather than black powder substitute? If so how many grains of T140 would you recomend for 220 cast bullets>

[dromia]

Yes you can use smokeless for cast boolits.

What velocities are you after?

[shotgun sam]

Dromia,

Anything that is safe to use with t140 powder I was give 20 cast bullets when I was at a game fair last year.

[dromia]

Are the boolits gas checked?

I don't have any T140 data, but some say it is similar to N140. If you are confident in this then I would suggest 30-32 gns could be suitable.

Make sure that the case fill is at least 60% with your minimum load. You should get something in the region of 1600-1800 fps depending on load and seating depth. Velocities over 1800 fps will really start testing your alloy. This should be good out to 600yrds. Ultimately your accuracy will depend on the boolit fit to the rifle, lube, alloy and velocity.

[shotgun sam]

Dromia,
The bullets are gas checked thanks for the information I will get round to testing them at some point.

Sam