Been a while since I've been out for gophers. Had someone from our senior center contact me about his gopher problem. Whoopee, only ten miles from home. Truly a honey hole. Forgot how my 1710 doesn't do Winchester bulk. Switched to CCI std rn, had some getaways. Shot lots with the 452 FS. My 1710 does well with Blazer of which I have a couple cases. Did a session with the Waltz die to mod a brick of the Blazer to HP. Going out this morning to check the results. 452 Lux will be backup this time, it chews through the Win bulk without a problem.
Gophers
- Thread starter metalbender
- Start date
Correct. Anschutz 1710 DKL. Started out using Win 555 bulk HP. 1710 really has trouble chambering them. Had some CCI std rn, shoot well but not terminal on the gophers all the time. Finished that session with my CZ 452 FS, no problem with the bulk. Those also give good results in the bang flop dept. Blazers were always a good shooting round. Have a lot of them, ran some through the Anschutz, happy gun. Since they don't come in HP, ran a brick through the die to give them a HP. The Waltz die is as they say " A game changer " Have had and used it for some years. Gophers had a bad day. The Anschutz ran flawlessly. Back up today was my CZ 452 Lux, happily chewing through the Win 555.
^100%
For my "gopher trips" out there, I use CCI Blazer with as big/gaping a hollow point as the Walz die will allow. Slow process, especially since Blazer is a waxy round and it gums-up the die pretty good. you can always do 50 rounds before having to clean it out a bit. I could post pictures, but suffice to say...they're very hard on gophers. Hit with a loud "pop" and you can see flying goo on over half the hits. Blazer solids are no comparison, but the best I could do on a case of 5,000 was about 4,200 rounds. Over a couple of months. lol
Just got back from southern Alberta. Grass is too tall. We spent a day in with the cattle on a grazed field. Shoot about 600 mini mags and 100 17 rem. Great time. Partner did about 400 federal hp and 75 k-hornet. The centerfire did quite a number but it was hard to get on them at distance.
We try to get down end of may but this year wind, rain, and other prob held us off a month. Tall grass made it hard to spot them. We didn’t even go to our best pasture as the cattle weren’t there yet and grass was way to high. It was a good time and the 17 Rem sent lots flipping through the air. (I got high gore score).
I fully understand shooting gophers, so I won't go into why I don't like shooting them anymore. It's fun and in many circumstances, they overpopulate and become a destructive nuisance.
My reply, is more about the accuracy increases with the "Waltz" die.
It's not a new concept by any means. There used to be several different makers of a similar die.
I tried a similar type for ammo being used in two different match grade, small action Martini rifles, chambering the 22 LR.
One of these rifles had an actual minor bore diameter of .218 and the other .220.
At fifty yards, shooting from bags on the bench, dime sized groups with cci standard velocity ammunition were consistent with both rifles.
I tried other types, but even though there was improvement, not enough to justify the extra expense at that time in my life.
A good friend, Sgt Walter Rogers, PPCLI. suggested a similar die and he just happened to have one.
On the rifle with the smaller minor diameter (.218) there wasn't any noticeable or measurable difference in group diameters over ten rounds.
However, the rifle with the .220 minor diameter bore showed significant improvement of group size.
I sold the die with that rifle, to help pay for a nasty divorce, one of the regrets.
Another friend/mentor, Al Forslund, had a different type of "die" which was used to uniform rim thicknesses on the 22 rimfire ammunition he bought to shoot through his Lilja, bolt action repeater, with a Lothar Walther barrel, with a .218 minor diameter.
He took off the barrel and set it back about an inch, then recut the chamber so the bolt would just close snugly on the smallest rim thickness he could measure on several hundred 22rf cartridges.
He made up a die for his RCBS press so that he could compress the rims of all the cartridges he was going to shoot through that rifle so they were all of uniform thickness and the bolt would close consistently on each case.
He also used a match reamer for the chamber, which I still have.
That rifle shot any type of ammo he put through it incredibly well.
Different brands would shoot to different points of impact by .250 or less, but the groups were all around .350 with the same brand at the time.
If that Waltz die is actually improving the accuracy of your rifle, I'm willing to bet that it's expanding the bullet diameter a thou or two when it's forming the flat top or punching the hollow point.
My reply, is more about the accuracy increases with the "Waltz" die.
It's not a new concept by any means. There used to be several different makers of a similar die.
I tried a similar type for ammo being used in two different match grade, small action Martini rifles, chambering the 22 LR.
One of these rifles had an actual minor bore diameter of .218 and the other .220.
At fifty yards, shooting from bags on the bench, dime sized groups with cci standard velocity ammunition were consistent with both rifles.
I tried other types, but even though there was improvement, not enough to justify the extra expense at that time in my life.
A good friend, Sgt Walter Rogers, PPCLI. suggested a similar die and he just happened to have one.
On the rifle with the smaller minor diameter (.218) there wasn't any noticeable or measurable difference in group diameters over ten rounds.
However, the rifle with the .220 minor diameter bore showed significant improvement of group size.
I sold the die with that rifle, to help pay for a nasty divorce, one of the regrets.
Another friend/mentor, Al Forslund, had a different type of "die" which was used to uniform rim thicknesses on the 22 rimfire ammunition he bought to shoot through his Lilja, bolt action repeater, with a Lothar Walther barrel, with a .218 minor diameter.
He took off the barrel and set it back about an inch, then recut the chamber so the bolt would just close snugly on the smallest rim thickness he could measure on several hundred 22rf cartridges.
He made up a die for his RCBS press so that he could compress the rims of all the cartridges he was going to shoot through that rifle so they were all of uniform thickness and the bolt would close consistently on each case.
He also used a match reamer for the chamber, which I still have.
That rifle shot any type of ammo he put through it incredibly well.
Different brands would shoot to different points of impact by .250 or less, but the groups were all around .350 with the same brand at the time.
If that Waltz die is actually improving the accuracy of your rifle, I'm willing to bet that it's expanding the bullet diameter a thou or two when it's forming the flat top or punching the hollow point.
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I still have the one-page print-out that came with it, it does make that claim. On all the ammo types I tried with it, accuracy was either slightly better, or unchanged. Didn't lose accuracy with anything. I did mess around with some 36gr. HV HPs (MiniMag?) and just made the hollow point bigger.
I talked to Neal Waltz the other day. He is too old to make the die anymore. He has a friend in Ohio who makes his original waltz design. His name is Greg- (614)580-5002 incase anyone else is looking for a Waltz sizing die. Just waiting to hear back on final price delivered to Canada.
Having cleared far too many jams with Winchester white box, we eventually dubbed it Losechester.
CCI is my go-to bulk .22 supplier, with Eley for premium mostly because of supply chain issues lately with other good ones.
CCI is my go-to bulk .22 supplier, with Eley for premium mostly because of supply chain issues lately with other good ones.
