Lee C452-300-RF Water Test....

[41mag]

Well the grandson and I were sitting in the house up at the farm week before, bored to tears with the excessive 113 degree heat outside.

So we decided to do a little investigative shooting. I had some 6gal buckets sitting around outside, so we tossed a few in the truck. Then we threw the water barrel in the bucket of the tractor and filled it up. Hauled them all down to the shooting range and set up a board with the buckets on top. I raised up the water barrel and we filled them all three up to about 2" from the top.

At this point the wife and other two grandsons were sitting in the truck with the A/C on so we climbed in and cooled off for a few minutes while setting up the video camera and mounting it on the tripod. With that done and the sweat curtailed to only a drip off the brim of my cap, rather than a stream. WE stepped out of the A/C and set up the tripod, the oldest grandson donned his ear muffs and climbed into the bed of the truck where he could watch over the cab. I started the camera and stepped into the shooting shed, where the 454 Raging Bull awaited. It only took me a second to acquire the yellow diamond on the bucket, and drop the hammer.

Here are the results, and after you watch the short clip click the "Next" tab up at the top fo the frame to see the expanded boolet, we found laying on the ground next to our set up. It made it through two of the buckets and came ever so close to making it into the third. It left a complete indention of the boolit face squashed into the plastic. The first bucket was totally ruined.

Enjoy,

[HammerMTB]

Do you know what the vel of the boolit was?

[LAH]

Cool!!

[41mag]

Do you know what the vel of the boolit was?

Yes the load is using 24.5grs of AA-9 and chrono's at just over 1500fps @ 15ft from the muzzle. These were cast from WW and air cooled.

I was actually looking to drop the velocity down, but had loaded a batch up with varied loads for testing and these shot VERY well. I simply loaded up 25 of them to haul with me to the country in hopes of longer range testing and possibly putting one through a hogs shoulders. Neither of which came about with the heat we had.

My next loads will be using both 2400 and Unique to see how they perform out of this thing. The more I play with it the more fun I am having. Makes me wish I had gotten into casting years ago.

Cool!!

Yep, both the grandson and I both thought the same thing....maybe hm a bit moreso as you can hear in the video..

[HammerMTB]

Yes the load is using 24.5grs of AA-9 and chrono's at just over 1500fps @ 15ft from the muzzle. These were cast from WW and air cooled.

Excellent!
I cast the same boolit from ACWW and can push it about 1350 from .45 Colt in a Redhawk. The info that it 'shrooms some and has a lot of kinetic to give at 25 yards makes it a good choice for when I go bear huntin' pretty soon.

[Ole]

Thanks for sharing!

What was your alloy?

[HammerMTB]

Thanks for sharing!

What was your alloy?

Above is listed
Air
Cooled
Wheel
Weights
or
ACWW for short

[41mag]

Hammer,

Hope that hunt goes well for you. While we were up at the farm, I headed down to a spring fed pond several mornings just before blue light to see if I might catch a wayward hog crossing our bottom in hopes of trying one out on it.

Never saw hide nor hair of one, but to be honest, with it hitting the hundreds by 10:30 or 11 in the morning I wasn't overly upset. Heck it was still in the high 80's at 04:30 every morning.

[Ole]

Above is listed
Air
Cooled
Wheel
Weights
or
ACWW for short

I guess I should have quoted the source, but I was asking the original poster.

[HammerMTB]

I guess I should have quoted the source, but I was asking the original poster.

Understood, but that's what he said in his 3rd post......

[HammerMTB]

Hammer,

Hope that hunt goes well for you. While we were up at the farm, I headed down to a spring fed pond several mornings just before blue light to see if I might catch a wayward hog crossing our bottom in hopes of trying one out on it.

Never saw hide nor hair of one, but to be honest, with it hitting the hundreds by 10:30 or 11 in the morning I wasn't overly upset. Heck it was still in the high 80's at 04:30 every morning.

I know it's hotter'n the hubs of Hades where my kin live in W Tx now.
When I go hunt there, it's in December when the temp is more tolerable. Don't know what I'd do with meat fresh killed in August & 110+F.
Stay in the shade, eh!

[GL49]

I'm guessing no gas check. Any leading? I've GOT to try this with my 454.

[41mag]

I know it's hotter'n the hubs of Hades where my kin live in W Tx now.
When I go hunt there, it's in December when the temp is more tolerable. Don't know what I'd do with meat fresh killed in August & 110+F.
Stay in the shade, eh!

Hammer,

Yep it's been a scorcher for sure. My mom lives on the family place in E. TX not too far southwest of the Tyler area, and is pushing 85yrs old pretty hard. She said, she can remember it being like this only once, and it wasn't a good thing then. The oldest grandson is staying out there with her during the week, while he is out of school, and they have been for the most part only going out before 09:00 or after 19:30. It was crazy seeing the, well what used to be the grass, all burnt up, and the leasers cows followed us around like puppy dogs. They have been throwing hay since mid June, and are simply hoping to make it through till winter.

Your right with the meat too, but depending on where and when it hits the ground, I have a chest freezer sitting there with just ice in it for just such occasions. Between me the wife and the grandson, we can have one from field to freezer in less than a half hour if needed. It might not be pretty but it's effective.

I'm guessing no gas check. Any leading? I've GOT to try this with my 454.

GL49, yes this particular boolit DOES have a GC, if you look you can still see it attached on the bottom,


To be honest, I have seen only very slight smears since I first started working with this project. Also, thanks to a tip I got here, I have found that I get very little, if any, leading "IF" I run a patch with a little LLA or Xlox on it, through the barrel and cylinders, right after cleaning it. This said, I do have one area in one grove, where I get a very slight streak no matter what. It doesn't build up, but it gets there, and stays until I scrub her down good.

The other load which uses WC-297, runs about 1540fps and initially I used both the air cooled and water quenched, all tumbled initially in LLE and then after installing the GC, they got a second coat of 45/45/10, and with that powder the WCWW seems to group the best hands down. With the AA-9 loads the ACWW is the most accurate for what ever reason.

Good luck with your trial and I hope you have as good a luck as I have with the leading. As I touched upon I am actually trying to work the load down to around 1300fps or so. It's been somewhat assbackwards to how I usually go about things, but I didn't know what the velocities were going to be when I started and I have been dropping the powder charge with every attempt.

[RobS]

Nice video................it looks like you are having fun!!!

[LUCKYDAWG13]

cool thanks

[41mag]

Nice video................it looks like you are having fun!!!

Thanks, the old tape video cam still works pretty decent but it is a pain to go from the tape to the net, and have it look halfway decent. HArdest part is my video card is about shot so all I can see here is broken up screen shots with seconds in between missing. I haven't really got a clue how it looks till I get to work and look it over.LOL

As for the fun part, well anytime we get to spend with the grandkids is fun, but with the temp pushing 108 and the heat index up around 115 that day it wasn't much fun being out in it.

Still even with the heat, the wife and two youngest sat in the truck with the A/C going and me and the oldest sweated it out playing with the water buckets and such.

[lwknight]

Those video cards are pretty cheap now days.

Anyway , I think you have a great bear medicine bullet. You have found deep penetration with controlled expansion. However , your bullets may still be a bit hard if you want that same expansion on flesh. Water tends to be harder on the bullets than flesh so you might test an even softer alloy.