358 Norma mag

[JTknives]

I have built my self a 358 Norma mag with a nice Krieger barrel. I have had good luck paper patching my 50 Razor Back so I thought I would try it on the 358. I made a 310gr boolit mould that is 1.375" long with I nice nose ogive. I made the mould so it drops right at .350 which is that my barrel pins at. I wrapped with 2 layers of my standard vellum 100% rag and let dry. I measured the boolits and thy mesure now at .361-3625 and the paper mesures at .002. So my question is this can I shoot these in my .358 bore? My 50 RB has .01 of rifling so the boolit was not this much larger then cal. I'm going to be shooting these to around 2700-2800. Thanks

[JTknives]

Here are some pictures of boolit and mould

[stocker]

JTK: I am patching a 255 grain smooth side boolit from Accurate Molds. It drops at .352 or very close to that. I'm patching with design vellum which brings it up to nearly .364. I run them through a .360 sizer and they must have some spring back either in the boolit or the paper as they are .362 when they come out of the sizer. They are shooting better than fine for me at velocity comparable to jacketed bullets. My boolits are BHN 9 and BHN 11 for two different lots.

As long as they will fit in your case and the cartridge will still chamber I think you'll be fine shooting them although I would be cautious initially if you are using a very hard boolit but I can't think of a reason why you would be doing that.

Nice boolits from your mold by the way.

I run my boolits over a file with a piece of soft wood pressing down to impart some texture to help the wet paper get a grip and twist tail them. Clip tail when dry and apply either Smiling Mink boot dressing or Imperial Case Forming lube to the sides of the paper before sizing. I'm also putting enough PSB to give a compressed load over the Re 15 powder I'm using.

[JTknives]

That's a good idea about the file. My boolits are just air cooled WW so not very hard. It chambers just fine. I took a paper patched boolit and put it in a fired case and it's a press fit and loaded it long and then chambered it. It pushed the boolit into the case and gave me my OAL to load to. It's shorter then a jacketed boolit but I'm guessing that is from my designed nose length and the throat. I don't have a sizer. I could make one but if it will work how it is then I will just use them.

[stocker]

Should have mentioned my rifles are 35 Whelens. You may wish a different powder than the Re 15 I am using.

[pdawg_shooter]

Sounds like a winning combo to me. I prefer grooved bullets sized to what I need, plus the grooves let the patch hold a bit more lube, but that is just me. Got rid of all my molds dropping smooth bullets and started making push through dies to give me the size I needed.

[MDF99]

What twist barrel are you guys using with your 35 cal. paper patch rifles shooting the heavy bullets and what velocities are you having success at? I have a 1:12 twist 35 cal. barrel blank gathering dust and am trying to determine if it would make a nice lead shooter or if it would over spin at high velocity?

[stocker]

MDF99: My two Whelens are 1/14, 5 groove King barrels. I know they stabilize to 287 grains (358009) but haven't tried anything heavier yet. The paer patched 255's I'm using are just a bit over 2500 fps. I'm intentionally keeping my alloy a bit softer than straight wheel weight metal. Your 1/12 blank should stabilize well over 300 grains if you want to go there.

[Nobade]

Yep, that 1:12 will limit how fast you can go with normal cast boolits, but you can get away with a tighter twist if you are shooting PP. I like 1:14 myself, as stocker says that will handle a 285 just fine.

[badgeredd]

What twist barrel are you guys using with your 35 cal. paper patch rifles shooting the heavy bullets and what velocities are you having success at? I have a 1:12 twist 35 cal. barrel blank gathering dust and am trying to determine if it would make a nice lead shooter or if it would over spin at high velocity?

My 358 Norma is a 1:12 twist and I have had no problems pushing both grease groove and PP boolits into the mid 2K range. I just tried out some loads with a 300 grain GG boolit chronoed ar a bit over 2450 fps with very reasonable groups at 100 yards. I need to shoot them at 200 and 300 to see if the accuracy holds up.

Edd

[Nobade]

Does that mould you built have a push-out pin or do the boolits just drop out after they have hardened? Looks nice by the way!

[MDF99]

badgeredd, the only 358-300 grain slug I've seen is the Australian mold maker Cast Bullet Engineering 360-300 GC

http://www.castbulletengineering.com/page009.html

What mold do you have?

[windrider919]

it drops right at .350

measured the boolits and thy mesure now at .361-3625

question is this can I shoot these in my .358 bore?

Yes, you can because the paper is COMPRESSIBLE on the PP bullet, where a conventional jacketed or GG bullet that size (.361 / .362) would cause overpressure when fired in a .358 groove rifle.

You might also try not fully sizing the case necks , or either get a bigger expander ball so the case neck tension does not crush the paper undersize....you only need about a thousands smaller than the PP bullet to grip satisfactorily

You might also find that bullets that are cast .352 or .353 before patching shoot better at higher velocities

[badgeredd]

badgeredd, the only 358-300 grain slug I've seen is the Australian mold maker Cast Bullet Engineering 360-300 GC

http://www.castbulletengineering.com/page009.html

What mold do you have?

My boolit comes from a self made single cavity. It was one of those things I had to try and I wanted a boolit near 300 grains for Norma, so...I made it. To be honest, I cut it twice before I got it the way I wanted and I could cut another one to get it a little closer to perfect (in my mind).

Edd

[badgeredd]

Here are some pictures of boolit and mould

JTK,

Those are some fine looking boolits. I just may snag your basic design in the future for my Norma.

I am also thinking that a similar profile may be good in my Whelen.

Edd