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
All Replies
I have been toying with the idea of having another mold made up to use with barrels that have a factory lead.
Same design, just have the nose look more like a TC Maxiball.
I had drawn up that design earlier and Veral talked me into his WFN. Now I need to see if I can get him to make that nose band about .040 or smaller instead of the .90 it has now.
I bid on a Ebay Lyman Maxiball mold this week, I won the auction so for $40.50 I will see if it flies in the Ranger. I am sure it will, I have shot some of Jerrys bullets he sent me to try that were either that maxball or a close cousin.
Of course there is nothing wrong with the performance of the LBT bullet I have now, it is that you have to alter that barrel lead so that it is a either or proposition instead of Kings and cast.
Just glad to share the knowledge.
Regards,
Roachcreek
riff…
you know damn well i didnt mean it literally, but i am in the market for a few when he gets them right… 😉
Jerrys not going anywhere unless Timmy gives it up. 😆
Roach is in this for his own personal use, and is graciously sharing his fortunes and misfortunes along the way.
So far he has saved us a ton of money by paving some bumps out of the road. He should be charging a fee to read this stuff, its a very costly endeavor.
Looks like your almost there RC, but I have a sneaky suspicion you aren’t quite satisfied yet. 😉
i got a feeling we aint seen nothin yet,
he wont be happy till he puts jerry out of biz… 😆
Nice research RC and nice report! Glad you finally got some satisfactory results with this quest 😉
RJ,
Yes I have. And that would have been the next step if I could not get these to shoot.
My LW barrel has a great and consistant interier, so I suspect it would shoot cast bullets great without the choke.
I also have a 18 inch barrel I got from Tagdagger, and I was torn between trying it with cast bullets by opening up the lead and lobbing off the choke if the 24 inch barrel did not work.
Trouble is I would have to redo the breech on the 24 if I wanted to shoot Kings in it again, once it is altered for this bullet it is not too good with Kings.
I have a Talon frame I am going to put the 18 incher in when I get my latest parts fix from AF, hopefully Monday, and it will be the dedicated King shooter if it shoots them.
So nothing is carved in stone yet, but it is nice to see these cast bullets can shoot in small bores.
Regards,
Roachcreek
HEY RC have u thought about using an unchoked barrel
hexagonal boron nitride.
dry powder lubricant similar in structure to moly but cleaner, non-fouling, and a lower friction coefficient, ive seen it used on both bullet and bore with great success
No century spring. What size you want? Stainless is 20% shofter than steel in same spring. I have quite a selection. I have the .082″ in stainless and steel for bigbore.
Moneyshot,
My ignorance is shining thru, what is Hexganol BN?
I think a gal in Phnom Penh, Cambodia tried to get me to do that, but I am not sure, being drunk at the time and all. 😆
RC
rc,
you ever try hexagonal BN on the slugs?
Dayotat,
It is a little hard to cock alright, with the rifle uncocked it has hammer pressure, when cocked it has no play when turned into locked postion.
Do you get your springs from Mcmaster carr?
Regards,
Roachcreek
Nice job. That spring is way stiff. Stock is .062″ and I run .072″ stainless. How hard is it to cock? To run .130″ tophat are you not locking the breech?
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there is another on here that took the choke off his barrel to specifically shoot jerrys slugs which is what he wanted to do and also lost the capability to shoot any other pellet to his standards