LBT 25 caliber mold update

I am pleased.

I have been on this 25 Condor cast bullet quest for several months now. I have gone thru 4 molds, a RCBS 25 acp 52 grain rn, a Lyman 65 grain swc, a Lee/Ranchdog 56 grain swc and finally the LBT mold that I had Veral Smith custom make for me, a 57 grain two band LFN bullet.

I am using a 24 inch LW barrel that mikes .2549/.251 for the bore/choke. I have opened the lead in that I can seat with firm thumb pressure a 57 grain bullet sized to .255 that had cast out to .2565 from 20-1 alloy.

I have tried two lubes with this bullet, ATF and Spray Moly. And Spray Moly is the hands down favorite with this bullet.

My Condor is set up with a 2×7 Burris FUllfield shotgun scope set on 3 power to alleviate as much Parallax error as I can at the range I am testing, 30 yards. I have it sighted in at 1.3 iches high at that range, but more on that later. I used this scope because the rifle combination is dedicated to these slugs and it is to be used on smaller animals like coyotes and coons, definately not the top of the Doug Fir starling gun.

I am using a heavier spring, the next wire size up, .80 that I obtained from a Airarcher kit and a Airarcher hammer, valve spring and valve retainer all from Airarcher. The spring I altered to fit the PW and shortened it to the length of the standard Condor/Talon spring.

Using a PW setting of 0 and a Top Hat setting of .13 and a 3200 PSI fill the rifle does not give a bathtub ballistic curve, the velocity goes straight downhill. With the chrony at 15 feet the first 5 shots are 1033,1022,1011,1011, 1004. That is 130 FPE. The next 5 are 999.981,971,964,960, which is 120 FPE.

Prelimitary testing seems to show that 120FPE seems to be a bit more accurate than the 130FPE, going into .75 and the 130FPE at 1 inch.

However there are two factors in accuracy here, #1, I have not sorted these bullets, I cast 270, I found two glaring defective bullets while sizing, sprayed them with Moly and shot them from the can. I weighed one bullet to see how heavy the alloy cast and that was it. This is not quality casting here for shooting groups, nor is using a 3 power scope, so they are probably capable of far better accuracy.

Now the lower level of 120 FPE or 975 FPS with a 85 yard zero this is the bullet path:

30 yards + 1.3″,
40 yards +2″,
50 yards +2.3″,
60 yards +2.2″,
70 yards +1.6″,
80 yards +.65″
85 yards Zeroed,
90 yards-.76,
100 yards -2.5″ where it retains 99 FPE.

As I say, I am pleased.

My 58 Merdedes 220S bench rest.

120 FPE group

Regards,

Roachcreek