Test #2/ 4400 psi fill with new 4500 psi Bottle

The NAA 30 gr, swaged, .224 ammo is pretty darned nice too. About pellet price IIRC, and very consistent. I have been shooting heavier cast to good effect, and have not turned the Marauder down to shoot 60-65 FPE in a while.
cheers,
Douglas

knife… How goes the bottle? have you settled on a perfected tune in yet?

It depends on how your barrel is getting it’s air.

On the Haley 257 the barrels unscrewed with hand tension and the port was in the receiver not the barrel, so like a AirForce platform, the best lead I found was to have the bullet seat until the bullet base was flush with the outer edge of the barrel. Now bear in mind that this would be if you are cutting the lead for a specific bullet, however if it is a 257420 it will also accept the Lyman/Ideal 80 grain spitzer and the NOE 80 grain due to the shape.

I never heard anyone doubt Askins shootings, but he used to bait prisoner, i.,e sticking the barrel of his riot gun close to their face on the off chance of them pulling on it to take it away. Trouble for them was he would have his finger on the trigger when he did it. He claimed to have killed one man that way and caused another to loose a leg or as he put it they cut his leg off at midnight at the local hospital. Or hiring a Mexican whore to drug a murder suspect, he had murdered a young Border Patrolman, on the Mexican side of the boarder and call him to pick him up after she slipped the murder a micki, all the time having the motive of taking him into the desert to execute and bury him.

According to Askins, the murder was in the rumble seat of their car, this was during the 30’s when cars had rumble seats, and he came to in the seat, pulled a pistol out, they had failed to search him, and a gunfight ensued while they were driving down the road. If I remember correctly Askins claimed they buried the fellow in the desert.

Askins was involved in several shootouts on the boarder in the 30’s and then went into WW11 and never skipped a beat, he once shot a German mechanic, a prisoner of war, he caught destroying German captive vehicles in Italy, shot him in the back with his personal 1911. He also shot a 16 year old boy who was seeking into camp to steal items from sleeping GI’s. He claimed to, unsubstantiated, have killed the very first person with a S&W Mdl 29 44 mag in a article in the Rifleman.

He received a lot of flack as he got older about his stories and how they bordered on the sheer cliff of homicide, I always suspected that brought on his retirement earlier than he wished, but bear in mind he was in his 80’s when he quit. Askins was one of those characters in history that was neither good or bad, but his exploits were entertaining.

But no, I do love to jest and I never did have the notoriety or expertise to write for the Rifleman, but I did stay in a Holiday Inn once 😛 .

Perhaps the Holiday Inn reference will either date me or go over most heads, but I am also not as old as Askins as I am still alive.

Several gun writers have really influenced my shooting over the years.

The first was Col Jeff Cooper, his book Cooper on Handguns taught me how to shoot in my teens with a Ruger Standard Auto. Somewhere I have a letter from Jeff Cooper inviting me to the Soldier of Fortune match back in the days when it was by invite letter only.

Next was of course Elmer Keith, I got my love for big bores, black powder cartridges and big bore pistols from him and of course Cooper, both of which brought me together with my first Mdl 29 in 1972. I also snook out and called for coyotes in a meadow once owned by Keith outside of Lapine Oregon around midnight while in full Oregon State Police winter uniform while I was working the 2nd night shift.

Then of course my name sake, Col Charles Askins, I loved to read his works, but have to admit a lot of his on duty shootings while employed by the Border Patrol leaned towards murder. I did however much respect the man and that is why I picked the name “Unrepentantsinner” for my Yellow moniker after what was I believe his last book.

And your welcome Mike.

Sorry guys, the internet here in the Philippines where I am at has been down a few days.

You want that bullet sized to a 1/2 thousands over groove diameter if you can get Lee to make the die the size you request, you would think Tom Cruise works there for getting that die the right diameter from Lee truly is “Mission Impossible” most times.

As knife says, the air guns do not have the power to bump up undersized cast slugs like PB’s do and if undersized they will never shoot as good as a properly sized cast bullet that is 1/2 thousands over groove diameter, groove diameter being the ridges found on your bullet after you push it down the bore, groove diameter is the relief in the bore caused by the rifling being cut and you need to fill that area with your cast slug.

On the same note they, air guns, also do not have the power to size down a slug without loosing velocity as Knife found out. I have shot “as cast” bullets in air guns if they are close to groove diameter, some like the owner of HS Bullets think that you should fill the lead completely with as large a bullet as you can fit in your factory cut lead, which is pure poppycock and probably why his bullets do poorly as some on this forum have found, that and the fact that he way oversizes some bullets. Never size more than .003 meaning if your after a .258 bullet, hope your bullets don’t drop more than .261.

Now you can fill the lead completely if you have a properly sized bullet for your barrel and your lead was cut properly for your barrel, once you have slugged your barrel, and found a die that puts you at 1/2 thousands over, meaning your barrel in example slugged out at .258 and you have a die that sizes them to .2585, then size some down and as you cut or polish that lead in use the sized slugs for gauges, using them only once as you will size them down slightly by fitting them in a lead that is too tight fitting. Once your lead is opened enough to allow a sized cast bullet to give slight resistance as cork in a wine bottle, your there and you properly filled the lead and will get the best accuracy. If you are having a gunsmith cut your lead, send him several properly sized cast bullets to use as a guage.

Factory cut leads are seldom in my experience cut to the right size, the reason is they are cut to fit all ranges of weights and as a result they are cut way too long. My Haley would almost take two 257420’s at a time in the lead. When I had Doug fit my 1-10 twist barrel I sent him the 1-14 to cut back, and rough in a undersized lead so I could finish it in by finish polishing with a 1/4 inch Craytex dremel bulb to exactly fit the 257420, sort of like cutting a undersized chamber in a M1 Garand or a M14 barrel, called short chambering and finishing it with a hand driven reamer made for that application.

Anyway, remember the less you have to size that bullet the better it will shoot in most applications. Sizing will always deform a bullet somewhat, but the Lee dies deform them less than other dies or sizing systems. A common problem is trainling lead off the base of the bullet after sizing too much, you can get around that by using Imperial Sizing wax as a lube.

Yes some say I did write for the Rifleman under the name Elmer Keith and some times as Charlie Askins. :winkn:

Ha! I had the predecessor to that American Arms micro sized .22LR revolver made by Dick Casull!
It was a fun gun to shoot with shorts, CB caps and snake shot but could pack a bit of a wallup with some CCI Stingers. I can’t imagine that the .22 mag version would be very fun to shoot. Probably like holding a black cat firecracker in your hand. Which reminded me that ya had to be very careful to keep those fingers outta the way of that barrel. I got pretty good at shooting that thing too, especially with the CB Caps! It took some getting used to, I found it to be not a great gun to let your friends shoot. Too tricky. Somebody stole mine with my 4×4 truck back in 1987. Replaced it with a Walther TPH. Another fine SS .22

Yes, me too. I find his posts very informative and usually a bit entertaining too. Did he use to do a little bit of writing for the American Rifleman magazine? Ya know, I always had intended to slug a few barrels back in the day but never got around to it except that contender barrel but l never could seem to get a very accurate reading using my dial calipers. My suspicion was that most of the whole herd of many .22 caliber (smallbore fetish) in a variety of unusual chamberings, it was the finer arms that seemed to make the most difference. SAKO , KIMBER, TC CONTENDER,BULLBERRY, Those all improved while the autoloaders such as the Ruger mini 14, and every version of A2 AR 15 from std to hbar delta elite. Usually degraded. Also noted a trend that Fast twistrate =less performance with 1 thou undersized.
Also the remingtons adl, bdl and vs didnt improve nor degrade, however remington model 722 had a big improvement.
My observations were far from controlled and not at all scientific. Its just I accidentally purchased some .223 bullets instead of .224 and hadnt realized it until I had loaded a hundred .22ppc rounds. I decided to shoot them rather then pull them and they worked so well , I started buying .223 instead of . 224 whenever presented with a choice. (.223 is actually a bit obscure) Hornady usually offered up the best selection.
Anyways I just think my better arms had tighter bores than the others. Also this made a better difference with lower pressure loads and lower velocity ( .22 hornet) and worst was higher velocity (22-250)
Yeah, I went through a .22 thing for awhile but I am way off topic! :5: