3 cold field expedient 150 yard shots in a wind storm
The Pacific NW winds were howling, blowing in a storm to rid us of what was a brief sunny day.
I was bored. I took the 25 LBT Airsuper to the garage and topped it off at 3000 PSI and walked down to the 150 yard point on my metal range.
I dialed in one full turn on the Burris Fullfield elevation turrent. The wind flags were litterally standing on end, but steady, so I fired three fast shots off of the grape bins with no bags, just my hands.
They looked close and the wind changed so I decided to chicken out and measure them.
The rifle takes 200 PSI per shot to get 120 FPE out of a 17 inch barrel with the 57 grain bullets.
This rifle is my best performer at 150 yards , beating out my 25 Condor with Kings, and even the Royale 400. But then I have not tried the Ranger 45 at this range, and will not due to the down range liability of such behavior.
Cutting off the LW choke was the single best mod I did to this rifle.
They measured 2.15 inches, passed thru both metal plates, the 1/2 inch plywood and into the 50 inch Doug FIr beyond.
Regards,
Roachcreek
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Yes I did, seems to work, I forgot to use it last time tho and used something else.
Thanks,
RC
RC,
did you ever try the hexagonal boron nitride yet?
Bogman,
I have not shot it much at 50 yards, but at 36 yards it shoots into 1/2 to .80 for 5 shots.
I do not weight them, or have not yet, I spray them with moly after casting and size them to .255 with a Lee portable hand press and their custom made die.
I did open the lead, it is very difficult to impossible to chamber the slugs with out the lead being opened.
After going to the 17 inch barrel, I redid the 24 inch barrel, there was enough room on the 24 inch barrels breech end for me to cut off the lead I had opened on it, set it back in the bushings to change it back to shoot Kings.
Regards,
Roachcreek
Thanks for the info, RC. It’s great when someone makes a bold move, like chopping off a choke, and it works better than expected. A few more questions, if you don’t mind:
Any idea what the accuracy is at closer range, e.g. 50yds?
Are the slugs weighed/adjusted or do they come out of the Lee die ready to shoot?
Do I remember correctly, you opened up the breech a little to accommodate the slugs or is it just a real tight fit?
Many thanks!
Nice!
Bogman,
I have revised my sizing routine. I used to lube with Lee Alox tumble lube to size the slugs in a Lee Precision die and hand press, then I would clean them with hot soapy water, let them dry and then line them up setting on their bases and spray moly on them from all angles giving them a good coat.
The sizer die I use is a .255 die as my 24 inch barrel was .2549. The mold drops them at .256. The 17 inch barrel is close but just a few thousands smaller, perhaps .2547.
The problem with the choked 24 inch barrel was that I got severe leading in the choke with every lube I used, and I am very experienced with lubes having made my own lubes for years. I had to clean after about every 10 shots and scrub it well with bronze wool.
Cutting off the choke did away with the leading and I can now fire hundreds of bullets.
Removing that choke also changed my lubing requirements, now I spray a light coat of moly after casting, just giving them time to cool is all, then I size them in the .255 Lee Precision die and they are ready to shoot.
As far as FPE overwelming shooting conditions, the difference between these bullets and JSB pellets as seen thru the scope during their flight to the target is astounding. Yes they are effected by the wind, but they fly so much more consistant, the wind deflection is minimal compared to JSB 18.1 22’s and 25 Kings, and the drop is significantly less on the long range targets.
And bear in mind the pellet rifles have 14 and 15 power high quality scopes and the 25 LBT has a $149.00 Burris 2×7 on it.
Over the years I have cast/sized and shot in either smokeless or BPCR, .459,.458,.429,.428,.410,.401,.358,.356,.338,.309,.308,.253 and this is not considering sizes I purchased outright from bullet makers.
This LBT bullet /LW barrel/Condor is shooting right up their with the best, some have done better like my Kreiger barreled Sharps Borschardt, but not by much, and to shoot this far this well with my Air Rifle is just delightful.
But it all came about when I cut that damn choke off with my flex shafted Dremel! 💡
Regards,
Roachcreek
NICE!!
Nice shooting RC!
😯
I repeat
😯
Outrageous shooting! Guess the fpe was able to reduce the weather impact.
What kind of post-casting treatments are you doing on the slugs?
😯
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ive heard tungsten disulfide works good too, but the consensus among all the PB forum guys seems to favor hex BN…