BIC

I'm just starting to work up my 1895 Win in 405, and now have the Lyman 37 style sight to be installed, and it has to go back to the custom shop so I won't get much done in the near future. 

Anyway, I'm playing with Benchmark, which is so very close to 3031.  With 47 gr. Benchmark behind the 350 gr LBT I got a 10 shot average of 1985 fps.  I found no leading and no case head expansion with this load. 

Morning Gents;

We fellas with 405s need to come up with secret hand shake and means of identifying each other from across the room.

I've got a Winchester 95, in 405 and have been tinkering with the powders using a NEI 330 grain mold (Not testing with this mold yet) and a mold from Mountain molds throwing 350 grain bullet.

My major problem was getting a sizing/lubing die for the Lyman machine. I did a lot of shooting with bullets that were .411 at the back end and .414 at the front end. Didn't seem to effect accuracy too much as this bullet has a bore riding nose, so I suspect the bullet got bumped up to the bore diameter real quick, anyway.

I've now got the proper size die, .413, a honed out Lyman die.

Ok, I've shot a bunch of IMR 4064, up to  53 grains gave so-so accuracy but that was with the tight tailed bullet mentioned above. I've used IMR 4895 up to 48 grains again with the tight tailed bullet.  Both of these powders need to be revisited with the proper sized bullet and see if that improves the accuracy any. From past experience with my 45-70, IMR 4064 will not give top end velocity but will give a velocity near the top with what appears to be very consistant accurate loads, with a case full of powder.

IMR 3031 seems to be the powder for my rifle. The closer I got to 54 grains of 3031 the tighter the groups got, with my 350 grain cast gas checked bullet. I'm working with the 54 grains of IMR 3031 for now, as that's about as much recoil as I want to enjoy during an afternnon's shooting.This bullet is not a long range proposition, I'm betting on 200 yards or so. The bullet design is blunt nosed, bore riding, good deep lube grooves. I use Hornady 416 gas checks, annealed, LBT Blue lube. I can feel the bullet seat itself into the lands as I close the lever. If I eject the cartridge there is no tendancy towards de-bulleting, but there is nice engraving one the bullet nose showing there is good engagement.

The reloading dies are Redding, bought a Hornady, what ever their super duper seating die is, which is truely super duper. I use the Redding dies, sizing die, neck expander then the Hornady seating die to seat the bullet and the Redding sizing/crimp die to crimp the case. If I were to make any additions to this set up I'd get a Lyman M-die, polish the long leade portion so the case puts a true death grip on the bullet shank

Jim

Took the Winchester 95 out today to finish up some load testing, using my 350 grain cast and IMR 3031.

Shooting off hand at a six inch gong at 100 yards,  46.2 and 46.5 grains of IMR 3031 appear to be equally accurate. This load is punishing when fired off the bench, but 40 rounds off hand was pleasant, comparitively. I wish I could report that I was hitting the gong with each shot but the human failed the gun and ammo.

I was most pleased with the effect of that bullet hitting the gong. The alloy is wheel weights with a dash of tin quinched at hardening. Of course, the bullet disintegrated on impact with the three inch thick steel, but there was a satisfying thwack and the nearly ninty degree backwards motion.

Some of the fellows online were amazed at the silver streak from the muzzle to the target. it was late in the afternoon, I guess the sun was at the right angle to reflect off the bullet.

All in all a good day at the range.

Jim

405 shooter hi sign 

I made a little 405 smoke today too. Just messing arround and having fun. Trying to burn up some old powder that show signs of breaking down but cant make myself throw them away. The duplex load 6gn 4756/4.3cc H5010/ 300LBT shoots as good as I can ask for and I managed to burn quite a bit of it. The H 5010 dont look so good, kinda rusty with red dust when poured out. The old paper boxes were crispy and could be crumbled by hand. I know I know but save your breath caus I aint throin it out Im shooting it and thats all there is to it. It will be gone soon enough. Tried some M-9 surplus that said use 3031 starting loads but it seems a bit hotter than 3031 to me. 41gn m-9 did good with the 350gn LBT but still havent chronoed any loads. Tried the M-9 with the 300gn LBT. At 45gn it was consistantly holding a nicely cemetricle 4 foot group. Tried adding some lube cause it was quite cold and that had a very positive effect  shrinking groups to a consistant 3.75 feet. Feeling that the rifle could still do somewhat better I dropped two gn powder to a charge of 43gn M-9 and what a waste. All the holes were in one little 1.75" area leaving most of the target comepletely untouched,what a waste. Having aquired a big big container of something labeled only as 4831 I ventured fourth bravely filling cases to 100% dencity with the 300gn LBT.  This amounted to 63gn and again a near total waste of a perfectly good picnick plate only some 2" of it being used. Both powders left unburned kernals in the barrel that had to be blown out between shots to facilitate ease of loading. Well there you go. No break through but lots of fun and I managed to burn a good part of that old H5010 . All loads and bullet weights shot to the same POI accept the 45gn m-9 as the 5 acre lot I was shooting in was not large enough to allow accurate determination of the actual group center. 

BIC/BS

Wayne

I've been looking for a Redfield reciever sight for my 95. I like the idea of a steel sight rather then alloy. If I can't grab on to a Redfield I'll opt for the Lyman #66 for the Winchester 1886. I'm also looking for a better front sight, the itty bitty gold bead just does not show up very well under anything other then perfect back or side lighting.

Have you installed a recoil pad on your rifle? If so what variety did you use?

Jim

The case of the 405 that wants to be a 416, or Dat gun do shoot

Had a little time to play with the Browning 405 again  today. After the success with the  .412"  300 and 350gn LBT/LFN boolits I thought if this would be my spring bear gun it was going to have to shoot at least a 400gn so I put MT Dan to work on that. Just to see if it had enough spin for a boolit that long I thought I would try  one from an old NEI mold that has worked great in the 416 magnums. This is in Walts DD bore rider at 400gn. Problem!!! Best I can figure is this rifle has a .4125" groove and I have a gap in sizer dies from .412 to .417" I was pleasently surprised at how well the .412" sized boolits shot being .0005" undersized. OK so how about a boolit thats .0045" over on the drivers and how about that big DD nose ment for a 416" groove? Well being the technicle and sientific type I says if they will go in the chamber they will go down the barrel. Not having much load data for such things I went to my personal balistics program(scratched my head) and came up with 57.2gn IMR 4831. This presice ammount was decided on as it is all I can fit in the case and still get the boolit in. The results as you can see are not tu shabby. I fired three three shot groups all about the same at 13/8" at 100. Wish I told Dan to go .415" instead of .413" on the new mold. No chrono today but I can tell ya its a stout load. Too bad it wont make a hunting load though cause it leaves a bit of unburned powder in the barrel. That might slow the reloading process at a time when I nead to reload post haste or be forced to draw sabre. No problem just kick up the burn rate one click. So looks like im gona need some 4350 or there bouts. So for this little B-78 405 that wants to be a big 416, well I like it I like it alot.

BIC/BS