Subsonic 303 loads

[Rayleigh_Scattering]

Have you recovered any fired .32 balls? Do you get good clear lands engraved all the way around?

I looked at a recovered 00 ball, and found that the lands are nice and clear, but the contact patch on the grooves is uneven. Wide between some lands, narrow between others.

The original ring-forming was even, so I'm not sure what caused the uneven engraving. Rattle-loose chamber clearance?

I'm going to have to cerosafe the chamber some day so that I know what I'm working with.

 

[Andy]

Have you recovered any fired .32 balls? Do you get good clear lands engraved all the way around?

I looked at a recovered 00 ball, and found that the lands are nice and clear, but the contact patch on the grooves is uneven. Wide between some lands, narrow between others.

The original ring-forming was even, so I'm not sure what caused the uneven engraving. Rattle-loose chamber clearance?

I'm going to have to cerosafe the chamber some day so that I know what I'm working with.

I never did recover a ball. It sounds crazy, but I chronied them on a 100 yd target, and although they showed the place on the paper where they hit, they didn't penetrate very far and didn't stay put to recover. Not accurate - at all.

If I could get around to it, I'd just shoot one into a piece of plywood in the basement, ala "Gallery Shooting". That said, what I get and what you get depends on our chambers. I see no remedy for this either. As I mentioned, a chamber cast would show that with these little balls and other short projectiles, they sail through the freebore and start of the leade without any contact except air and are then guided into the rifling at a pretty good speed.

 

[donor]

Thanks Donor, Great stuff, nesessity is the mother of invention. What powder is good for you. on your plinking loads Cheers G

I used Red Dot, Blue Dot,Green Dot and a variety of really old shotgun powders found on gun shows mostly by Winchester.

Dot powers were best but not by far. I really had to do my part to see the difference.

They all worked just fine. Some,like Win powders,needed more cleaning afterwards but overall I could pick up any old shotgun powder and use it.