Ranger 45
Well I have a tracking number for the Ranger 45 that was assembled, test fired, chronyed, and shipped today.
28 inch barrel, standard stock and black crerakote finish, $1230 dollars including shipping.
To early to get the arrival date, it is not in the system yet.
Chrony numbers were:
Round ball. low setting 3000 PSI……1018 FPS
225………. low setting 3000 PSI……..877 FPS
405 shot 1 hi setting 4500 PSI………804 FPS
340 shot 2 hi setting 4500 PSI………843 FPS
These numbers will improve by 30 to 50 FPS as the rifle breaks in.
Regards,
Roachcreek
All Replies
So far the 453 and above shoot the best. I found that out from the start with both my bullets and Butchers bullets and learned it again today.
I cleaned well between the alox and the atf and I notice when I went to the dry bullets today without cleaning, the first couple of shots were high, and then they settled down, I figured they were cleaning the ATF out.
I still have a lot of 20-1 left and when I start casting with the pure lead, I will add some to get the right tension.
What I did not have was good flux or a good mold conditioner and sprue plate lube, so I have some coming from Midway. I am going to hold off casting anymore until I get the mold lube for the sprue plate. I have plenty of bullets now and do not wish to damage my mold.
I was just using some Beeswax for flux that I had left over from making BP lube, and I was using graphite for the sprue plate.
Jerry have you tired opening up the Lee sizer dies to go up from lets say 452 to 453 or 454?
I think I tried it years ago and found them to be harder than the hubs of hell, but it has been s long ago it is hard to remember.
Roachcreek
RC,
For your pot, add about an inch of tin from one of the standard tin “bars” and you’ll have a alloy that has low enough surface tension to cast weel still acts like pure lead.
Mello makes a good point. If you shot using alox…clean that crap out the barrel! I might have mentioned it before (or just gave up between all the “good” ideas I heard here) but most lubes for airgun slugs are counter-productive. Clean the barrel to be sure you haven’t left anything in there.
Lube with your ATF or a light oil to help keep the barrel clean or shoot dry and swab the barrel a bit more often. Either way will be better than alox or esoteric lubes…
Also, have you tried the .4515 slugs? As good as the .452s shot, I doubt the .4535s will do as well but the .4515s might just be the ticket…or not…
Have you cleaned the barrel after using all these different lubes .Marvin
Jerry,
I am pretty sure with the 408’s it is the sizing, whether it is the sizing to 452, time will tell, but today shooting the unsized slugs, they shot very well.
I am ordering lead tomorrow, and I mean pure lead, I had the mold cut to cast 452 wth pure lead, so I will try that, if they are too small I will just add some tin to get some girth.
You have to realize I am using a cheap caliper also, and who knows how accurate it is.
Roachcreek
Hey RC,
Don’t despair! There is probably a factor you’ve just not noticed yet. The 408s shot great before and great groups are rarely a coincidence!
As far as the burples go, those are .452 slugs. The color has almost no measurable thickness. Yes, it has a dimension but it is super thin as far as measuring goes and insignificant when chambered. That coating just melts away when the slug chambers and at any point where metel to metal contact is forced. Hell, just open the seal on the package and rettle them around for a while and you’ll see that the coating is not high strength (nor was it intended or advertised to be).
I’ve measured more of the slugs through that die than I sent you. The Burples are .452. If you like how they shoot, than .452 is a good size.
That said, if you think that a bigger size might be worth a hoot… try those .4535s I sent. They will not chamber effortlessly but that is not always a bad thing. So long as you don’t have to beat them in too hard, they might work great!
Also, don’t ignore that size might not be the actual issue at hand. The .4515s I sent might work. If they do, there is some thinking to do regarding the size thing…
It’s all good. Sometimes a little mystery appears and then it all turns out to be a transitory issue that doesn’t really count in the big scheme!
I bought this really neat little Lee hand press and a Lee .452 die a few weeks ago because I started having trouble chambering the 408’s.
Just about that time my accuracy on my 408’s went to hell. I thought at first it was the lube, I had used Lee Alox tumble lube, so I switched to a different lube, then another. Then the mold started kicking out really big slugs, .456, because it had a lead build up between the blocks, so yesterday I cleaned the mold and then cast some more, and sized some more.
Today I shot the new bullets out of the cleaned mold at 75 yards, and they stayed on a piece of typing paper but not much better than that.
I went up to the shop to switch tanks and picked up some of my reject bullets I had put in the melt pile.
They had not been sized.
I went down to the range and shot the rejects, and I realized why I don’t like to size bullets. The groups magically tightened up like before.
Seems either my gun does not like sized bullets or at the very least .452 is too small for my bore. So I either order a .454 die, lap my .452 out to .4535 or just quit sizing all together.
So then I shot some Burple slugs, which on my Chinese digital caliper for HF says are .4525 to .453 depending on where they are measured.
I shot them on high power on a 3800 PSI fill, normally I would use medium power , but I was at the range and had no wrench at the range, they were cooking though.
And they shot pretty damned well, again this is at 75 yards.
How much for those slugs Jerry?
I order my metal from Roto Metals, it was 20-1 last time, this next week I will order 60 LB of 40-1 from them, with a ladle pour pot and not able to put down a fluxing cover, I just have too much tin oxidizing with 20-1.
60 LBS will run me 161.45 delivered to the post office 3 miles away. I will get 1024 bullets, they will cast out heavier, probably 410 grains. Price per 50 will be $7.88.
I was casting and thinking about shooting Jerrys slugs at medium power, and thinking what would these 408’s do on medium power.
Or would they just get stuck in the bore.
So after I had sized and lubed the bullets of the day, I set up the chrony.
I filled to 3800 and shot one shot, 750 FPS, so then I refilled to 3800 again and shot two shots, 752FPS, 750FPS. The two shots so close indicates that 3800 PSI is just about optimum for pressure at medium power.
It would make a good inside 100 yard deer medicine.
Tof you asked how they shoot, here is a group from before the mold went bad.
Regards,
Roachcreek
Charlie …. Thanks for the bullet care package ! 😆 i can’t wait to shoot some and see how they do in my ranger , if they do well i think i will get the same mold you got Charlie,
thanks again , Dan
Good power and great shooting/casting RC. Very happy that things are working out for you with all your new gear. Its great when you have NEW STUFF to play with…lol
Oh yeah, RC, i totally forgot that i had a green can of CRC moly lube in the garage. Damn thing was about 3/4 of the way full. I sprayed about 25 bullets of each weight but, when i got to my shooting spot..the wind was so bad that my paper targets NEVER stayed still long enough for me to get off a shot. But i did shoot a few down range at various objects. But i really need to punch some paper with them.
I had some cool video for you guys but man, the wind in the microphone was just too much to bare. But there will be a next time.
Well I went out and cast another 120 408’s today, that gives me over 200 in two days, I had more but I sent some off in a care package.
I order my metal from Roto Metals, it was 20-1 last time, this next week I will order 60 LB of 40-1 from them, with a ladle pour pot and not able to put down a fluxing cover, I just have too much tin oxidizing with 20-1.
60 LBS will run me 161.45 delivered to the post office 3 miles away. I will get 1024 bullets, they will cast out heavier, probably 410 grains. Price per 50 will be $7.88.
I was casting and thinking about shooting Jerrys slugs at medium power, and thinking what would these 408’s do on medium power.
Or would they just get stuck in the bore.
So after I had sized and lubed the bullets of the day, I set up the chrony.
I filled to 3800 and shot one shot, 750 FPS, so then I refilled to 3800 again and shot two shots, 752FPS, 750FPS. The two shots so close indicates that 3800 PSI is just about optimum for pressure at medium power.
It would make a good inside 100 yard deer medicine.
Tof you asked how they shoot, here is a group from before the mold went bad.
Regards,
Roachcreek
I second what Jerry said.
Cant wait to see em group
Nice to see that mold/boolit back in action!
Looking good!
Independence.
Got my Accurate mold up and running today
Regards,
Roachcreek
OK i got some shooting in , i put over 100 rounds through the gun i figure ,
here are some numbers ….keep in mind these are break in numbers on a new gun , not that there bad numbers i just think it will improve with a few hundred more shots ,
a few 1 air charge strings shot today , on last half of the shooting that i did .
mid power 4200 psi 250 grain bullet
1. 987
2. 968
3. 948
4. 891
5. 849
6, 798
mid power 4000 psi 250 grain bullet
1. 984
2. 966
3. 958
4. 903
5. 861
6. 817
7. 762
8. 720
mid power 454 round ball 3800 psi
1. 1150
2. 1124
3. 1092
4. 1014
5. 979
6. 944
7. 911
8. 877
mid power 454 round ball 3400 psi
1. 1128
2. 1111
3. 1066
4. 1029
5. 975
6. 954
7. 922
8. 890
i was shooting at around 60 yards the accuracy seams to be good with the 250 grain at around 1-…1 1/2 inch spreads .
454 round ball was crazy accurate , toward the end of the shooting day , if i was really on i could shoot a hole through a hole ! or just blast a bigger hole ,
the last shooting i started just shooting cans, and plastic bottles that were laying all over this gravel pit area , on their side not standing up ,with round ball at all different distances, and i hardly ever missed a shot ! this gun loves round ball for sure .
there was about 20 people that showed up off and on , shooting their powder burners , when they heard,and seen my gun shooting they were all over it asking questions like crazy , i let a few of them shoot the gun off my table /chair , and bags that i had set up , it was all grins 😆 😆 😆 all these guys were simply amazed at how my gun was shooting on air !
i let a father and his younger son shoot it , his kid was so stoked ! 😆 very exited ! 😆 , so i then pulled out the 22 career and had them shooting both guns , they were shooting a AR 10 that was all tricked out that they had, when i first got there . They left, then another 2 cars showed up with more powder burners , this time i had like 6 people standing by my table watching me shoot my gun , with comments like-
” Dude that is insane for, and airgun ” ” where did you get that gun ” ” did you have it custom made , never seen a gun shoot like that before ever on air ” ” that is just Crazy ”
they just went on ,and on about it .
these guys all seemed like good people that new what they were doing ,shooting wise , so i let them shoot the ranger , and it was funny because they started shooting there own guns a few times ,after , and then just stopped shooting , to watch the ranger shoot over , and over in a disbelief state of fascination it seemed like , it was kind of cool turning these powder burners on to the high powered air gun ,
i know Dan Mcvey is going to have a lot more people looking at his site , the more people see this gun shoot ,
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I’ve not tried opening up a sizing die. I wouldn’t even think of doing that unless I had a lathe (and some better skills) or I owed a bunch of money to Vito…
Of course, I have a .4535, .454, .456, .457 and a bunch of others so I’m not hurting for choices.
Actually, I’d recommend getting a die cut if you want a specific size but I can also see trying to buff it up a bit since you just need the one perfect size for the one perfect slug…
I expect if you can find a way to spin it, you can find a way to get an extra .001 out of it!
That said, heavier, longer slugs with more bearing area can often be sized .001-.002 smaller than the light short slugs and shoot extremely well. It’s an airgun thing…