Hello All,
Well I finally received all the accessories that were purchased with the rifle; the brass, and dies, and bullets. I got 101 bullets. They are 650g lead with 2 grooves. I got 103 pieces of 20-.577 brass with the rifle. NICE! Of the 103, 38 were used, and 55 were "brand new". And the dies? WOW!! What a set of dies. They are huge. Pictures below is the 20-.577 sizing die, along side a std 30-06 sizing die. Big difference. These dies are 1-1/4" thread, compared to the std 7/8" thread. Unfortunately, my press won't take dies this size; I'll have to modify the press.
But, not to be deterred I used the dies by "hand-loading" with them similar to the old fashion "Lee" tools. I hammered the cases into the dies with a mallet. It took a while, but I got 10 loaded. I used the lead bullets because I wanted to try 650g bullets as the rifle was originally regulated for that weight, albeit nickel plated bullets, not lead. But I paper-patched them to keep the bore clean. Paper-patching them made them a bit "large" - .588 dia - but I was able to pound them into the cases, and still get the cartridges into the chambers.
Here are the first "comprehensive" field results. 10 shots, fired in groups of 6 and 4.
I'm very pleased with these results. The velocity is a bit higher than expected; 1604 ave. I will cut back the powder by 3 grains and try again tomorrow. Since most of these shots were "crossing" at this velocity, I'm hoping they'll uncross at a lower velocity. I'm very happy with 9 out of 10 going into a 4" group. Recoil was the most of any of my doubles, with recoil energy being about 49-1/2 ft lbs. The highest of my other doubles being the 500 BPE at 35 ft lbs.
After absorbing nearly a quarter ton of energy from this shooting adventure, I was looking for a lion to walk through the range.
