55-65 grain options for .251?
Right now I am pushing 87.3 gr hunter supply with the stock barrel and one of dougs hammers and valves. If I keep them just under 900 fps (880) I can keep them under 2″ at 50. If I push to 910-950, its a paper plate sized group. Gun is still choked. Shot string is fairly irratic. I shot .2515 and .2505 and the .2505 shoot a little better. I think the hunter supply just have too much meat on the sealing surfaces. I was thinking Jerry 6 ring but they are still waiting on molds (right?). I even though about hunter supply 60 grains but think I may run into the same problem unless I cut my choke off. Really don’t want to do that unless its a last resort.
Any other options in the 55-65 gr range? Preferably something with very small sealing bands?
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Jeremy,
When you slug your barrel and measure the slug, you are getting the widest measurement possible, that means that your getting the GROOVE diameter, the groove diameter is the lead upsetting into the grooves cut in the barrel, and it is the ridges on the bullet that you get after slugging your barrel.
A cut rifled 30 caliber barrel for instance is called a 30 bore in some places and we call it that in many cartridges, like the 300 Winchester, or 300 savage, it started life as a smooth tube with a .30 hole down it, the grooves were cut into the barrel and the grooves give it a measurement of .308, so that slug you use to measure your barrel needs to upset into those grooves and the bullet you choose needs to be at least that diameter.
You want your bullet to extrude into the grooves when you shoot. If you buy bullets that are .248 and your groove diameter is .251 in a firearm, your probably going to make it work, that is because the jolt of that powder exploding at 55000 PSI uspets or expands the bullet in the bore. On air guns that shoot bullets that does not happen, it will with pellets, but not with bullets, so you want your bullets as close to groove diameter you can get, I usually try to go .001 over.
The Ranchdog mold had tiny little driving bands. The smallest bands on a cast bullet in recent memory have been the bands on the NOE 80 grain .257 bullets that Tofazfou and I cast.
What ever alloy that HS uses is the very best there is for whatever you might consider doing with it, if you don’t believe that just ask the fellow that makes them. 😛
RC
LOL!
I don’t know, the main man over at HS sais his bullets are NOT HARD! THey are 20-1 lead he sais!
I couldn’t help it. Sorry to get off topic.
Ineteresting, didnt know the HS started out as a .61 bullet. They are pretty hard.
Did the ranchdog have thin bands or thick driving bands?
Is it preferable for a bullet to ride the lands and the grooves at the same time?
Any 25 caliber lead bullet will work for slugging your barrel. You first have to smash it down to a size larger than your groove diameter. You can do that by tapping it with a hammer on the bullet nose while it is setting on its base. Try to get it big enough that it shaves a little lead when you tap in into your breech with a brass hammer or wooden mallet, you probably know this, but do not use a steel hammer for tapping it into your br
I do it that way, then I lube the bullet with a good oil and use a small brass punch to get it started in the barrel an inch or so, then I use a cleaning rod to go half way down the barrel, then put the rod into the muzzle and drive the bullet back out the breech.
I had a Lee 6 cavity mold for a 25 acp bullet that dropped at 256 257, it was a tumble lube design that RanchDog designed and had Lee make up for him. I got it off Ebay and occasionally see there. It dropped out at 51 grains and was a copy of the LBT bullet profile. It would have probably worked for what you want.
Hunters supply also sells 25 ACP bullets that are .251 and 50 grains or so.
RC
LW barrels are in the .253″-.254″ before the choke.
Hunter supply has the 63 gr but I don’t know how they shoot in a choked barrel. They shoot good in my .25 TJ barrel. The problem with there bullets is they are harder and they are sizing them .010″+ to get them to .251 because they offer .261″ in the same bullet.
Are there any slugs out there similar to jerrys? I’d probably cut the choke off in the lathe and recrown and see but I wanted it to be a last resort if possible. I don’t have any lead sizing slugs. I used a slug that was .2515 and it came out the same size at the half point as the choke. Thinking I got a big bll. Can a flared pellet skirt work for sizing or is it too hard to measure afterwards?
Yep! Listen to Tof, he knows from where he speaks.
Sometimes, you get lucky. RC sent me some LBT flat nose bullets that shot very well out of my custom L/W BBl, WITH Choke, but that is super rare. And to make it worse, he got rid of the LTB Mold. 👿 😥
Got another Un-choked W/L bbl and tried it with several bullet types and makes. All BAD!!!. The bbl. won’t shoot bullets or pellets worth a damn. Grrrrrrr!!!
It’s a real crap shoot. And a lot of this is because the W/L barrel is 1-16 twist. Too darned slow to stabilize a bullet. May work for a light, mostly hollow pellet, but not a solid, much heavier and longer bullet.
Best bet, go with a TJ bbl liner in 1-14 for most of the bullets and 1-10 for the heavier longer bullets. And Leave the airgun barrels for shooting pellets. 😉
Slugs and Choked barrels are a no no over 90-95% of the time. Maybe even higher. So its honestly no surprise that you are getting 2″ at only 50 yards. That choke is sizing and smearing that bullet while its moving 500+ MPH down your bore.
Jerry’s slugs are da bomb and will work better. But just not sure of his current mold situation.
Barrels aren’t that expensive and I would even buy one and have someone cut the choke off and recrown it. Or buy a TJ’s 257 barrel and have it fitted to your gun.
There are options here but I don’t know what your willing to do.
Maybe MR Hollowpoint has some bullet options that you are looking for
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RC thanks for all the great info. And everyone else too. It’s nice to be able to have a database of knowledge to tap into. Lifes too short to make all the mistakes yourself, learning from others is the shortcut. Again, thanks for all the info and help. I guess I need to weigh my options and see whats the best option for me. Either chop my barrel or find a different ammo solution. Whatever I choose I will post back up what the results are.