The long road to accuracy….my story
Got a Condor with heavy hammer and R&L shroud. Bought some Hunter Supply 83gr .251s and sized to .2505. Accuracy was crap. Several inch group at 50 with wild flyers. Aint even worth putting a picture up of the groups.
With advice from the guys here, got dougs hammer and valve (NICE!). Still shot like junk…shroud was clipping. Removed shroud for all further testing. So I followed the advice here and chopped off the choke (1″), slugged the barrel (.2545″), and opened up the lead in (.255 reamer). I tried the 87gr .251 just for fun. 2” group at 50 yards with erratic velocity. No surprise.
Bought some .257 63gr Hunter Supply and sized through a homemade sizer to .255. Gave it a few shots and ended up with this. Here’s the 50 and 100 yard groups (~2 and 3″ respectively). Getting better!
Still not satisfied, I ordered a lyman 257420. The Hunter Supply bullets had badly distorted bases from Hunter Supply sizing operation. They didnt even stand straight (before I sized them) when set on a table. I had a chance to MAAS the barrel and polish it up. Meanwhile, Doug gave me some RJ Porter bullets and some hollowpoints to give a try. They were doing better but not great. These are 100 yard groups.
I finally had a chance to mold a few lymans(15.388lb lead + .03lb 60/40 lead/tin solder) ~72 grains. I found what the gun really likes. Im satisfied with this as there was easily a 5mph wind with gusts.
My current setup: 72gr lyman at 150 ftlb (~950 fps) fill at 3100psi, 5 shots with dougs hammer and valve, 23” barrel (talon, not TJ), stock air tank.
I bored the baffles out to .3125 per instructions here and will probably get a little trigger time in this afternoon (maybe) with the shroud back on. I’ll keep yall posted. Hopefully the accuracy stays (not looking at getting a TJ barrel, hoping to enjoy shooting the gun for a bit first.
Put in the hands of a better shooter and no wind conditions, I think this gun could really tighten the groups at 100 yards, but I am happy…for now!
Things I learned:
-Guys here rock!
-Guys here know their stuff
-Guys here are EXTREMELY helpful (I can’t stress this enough…DOUG, Roachcreek, Tofazfou, etc.)
-Chop off the last inch of the barrel
-Slug it
-Use a good quality bullet that stabilizes at the rate you push it.
-Listen, listen, and LISTEN to the advice given from here. I incrementally did these steps on purpose (minus the jacked up shroud alignment) to document the accuracy changes. Hope it helps someone else out.
Ok, off lunch break…back to work!
All Replies
Those bullets were from my LBT mold and 420 HP mold.
Try some pure lead or 30 to 1. I believe u can get better groups.
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Looks like it is really coming along Jeremy! 😀
What are you using for a bullet lube?
I too was getting about 930 with the 420 lyman. 20 fps slower than yours, but I have a 21″ bbl, and 10 fps per inch is about right. But for some reason, it lost 30 fps over night, 😳 The only thing I can figure is the spring taking a set. But it is now at 12 on the PW and it was getting the 930 at 9. 😯
I finally in a desperate attempt, milled off the gas check area for the mould and the bullets now cast at 54 grains. I was shocked to see accuracy actually increase. But it is more erratic in the wind. And here in TEXAS, there is always WIND! 👿 The velocity increased to over 1000 fps. 1009 in fact. But no doubt it would be higher if the spring was preforming as it originally did. (If it is indeed the spring that is the problem) 😕 Still testing.
Both RJ and Doug sent bullets for me to test. The spitzers from both shot very well. 😀 Thanks for your efforts Guy’s. (For any one who hasn’t seens Dougs work first hand, they would be very impressed! And those that know me here, know that I am not easily impressed. Especially when it comes to metal work. In fact, I can be a bit of a Prick about quality! If somthing isn’t right, or of quality, I’ll catch it instantly.) 😆
Old Goat mailed me some more custom bullets to try, and will post the results soon. Goat said that the package should be here Thur.
The bullets he is sending is also a modified 420, along with a moded 80 NOE. I think he said it was now 66 gr. or so. I’ll weigh them when they arrive.
Jeremy, what are you using for bullet lube for shooting? Not sizing, but shooting? And have you lapped the barrel yet? It really helps with the leading issues. It Doesn’t take long for our bbls to lead up, and accuracy really takes a dump.
RC was able to really stretch his shot count out by fire laping. I did the same, with the same results. (As per RC’s instructions). It’s well worth while.
This is a different journey, and a strange one at that. But all in all, a LOT of fun!
KnifeMaker