fingers284
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Alberta Cowboy Ranges
I purposely coated some 350 gr (plain c. o. WW) .458 slugs a thin as I could get them and still have a total shank coverage to try a "barrel leading" test.
These slugs dropped from the Lee mold at .458 and after a very quick pray with the gun and cooked, they were still only at .459. The powder was surplus J.D. Yellow from a commercial coater in a generic pail so don't know the particulars on it. With this quick thin coating the yellow was pretty much a thin translucent covering on the slug, you could see the lead thru it. It has to be thin to only mike .001 thicker than dropped dia., that only allows .0005 actual thickness on the walls. I didn't think a "thickness" that thin would be doable but I have about 180 slugs and can randomly pick anyone of them and get the same readings.
I loaded up a 50 rnd box of these last week and for fathers day set up a target and spent the entire afternoon just shooting them thru my 1895 Cowboy. Now this was not a "high velocity" test so your opinion of the results might be a little tempered and I understand that but for 99% of the shooting I do it is appropriate. These round were at 15-1600 fps.
The meat of the thing is that after 50 rounds there was not a speck of leading visible in the barrel.
The second aspect of the test was testing accuracy of these loads...new powder ( AA 5744 as my supply of SR2759 is dwindling) and my first kick at the cat with these slugs. Group size was around 2", completely acceptable to me considering that they were better than I expected with iron sights & one old eye.
These slugs dropped from the Lee mold at .458 and after a very quick pray with the gun and cooked, they were still only at .459. The powder was surplus J.D. Yellow from a commercial coater in a generic pail so don't know the particulars on it. With this quick thin coating the yellow was pretty much a thin translucent covering on the slug, you could see the lead thru it. It has to be thin to only mike .001 thicker than dropped dia., that only allows .0005 actual thickness on the walls. I didn't think a "thickness" that thin would be doable but I have about 180 slugs and can randomly pick anyone of them and get the same readings.
I loaded up a 50 rnd box of these last week and for fathers day set up a target and spent the entire afternoon just shooting them thru my 1895 Cowboy. Now this was not a "high velocity" test so your opinion of the results might be a little tempered and I understand that but for 99% of the shooting I do it is appropriate. These round were at 15-1600 fps.
The meat of the thing is that after 50 rounds there was not a speck of leading visible in the barrel.
The second aspect of the test was testing accuracy of these loads...new powder ( AA 5744 as my supply of SR2759 is dwindling) and my first kick at the cat with these slugs. Group size was around 2", completely acceptable to me considering that they were better than I expected with iron sights & one old eye.
