Phew that's alot of work

[Don McDowell]

Been quite a while since I spent much time with grease groove bullets... Lubed and sized 90 for the Raton rifle, and 80 for Old Jim's highwall , in hopes of taking both rifles on a fun run next weekend...
But good lord that's a lot of mess and trouble,,, Might be about enough to make a fella stick with patched and be done with it.

[Kurt]

Ya but just think the fun you will have sending down that new barrel and getting it all leaded up

I just got home from the range and got all of the brass fired once in the .44-75 so no excuses and blaming the brass for not fitting the chamber anymore for the bad hits

[Don McDowell]

Ya but just think the fun you will have sending down that new barrel and getting it all leaded up

I just got home from the range and got all of the brass fired once in the .44-75 so no excuses and blaming the brass for not fitting the chamber anymore for the bad hits

Yup probably better get me a new can of turpentine.

How is that 44 working , still as good as the first few rounds?
Sure hope you make that Milan match, it'll be great to see how that performs for you.

[Kurt]

Cant really say for sure Don. I just shot the first ladder loads at 100 yards and they looked very good for shooting in brass that has not been blown out for the chamber and the cases I kept .023" long for the first firing.
Yesterday I shot 75 rounds for the first time to get them blown out to fit the chamber cleaned and trimmed them to the proper length and today I shot another 75 rounds with 1.5 KIK just dropped into the case cant say what the weight was and I used three different bullets from partial trays I had and they weight from 460 to 525 gr and the largest percentage stayed in the 8 ring on a 10 ring target at 200 yards. Those cases are cleaning now.
I'm going to load up a ladder load again today with the 505 gr KAL elliptical like I gave you and the best three will have to do for Sat and Sundays Midrange Match.
I pulled off to the side of the target and shot 5 of the old sharps bullets 528 gr and I must say they stayed in a very good group less then 3" round. That 16 ROT handles them in fine shape.

Don, I must say I really like this rifle. It has the best trigger of any of my rifles. I mounted the tang sights and this is the first rifle that I did not have to drift the front sight over or level up the tang sight. Everything is in the center and the first shot cold out of a clean barrel hits center from yesterdays last shot fired.
And I like the action for shooting dirty. I fired 15 rounds dirty using bullets patched just under bore by one thousand and that block will cam it right in with no problem.
I got the wood in the rough. It was inletted and mounted and I did a lot of sanding and I have three coats of tong oil on the wood and it is looking very good. I left the wood just about a 1/16" above the metal because I don't know how dry it is and I don't want it to shrink below the edges. I just wanted to get enough oil on the wood so I can shoot it this weekend. For standard wood it sure looks nice.

Kurt

[Don McDowell]

That sounds pretty good so far Kurt. It will be good to see how she holds up at distance, but I'm betting with that 16 twist it'll be fine.

Dave Gullo called today about the gift certificate bullet mould thing I had sent in, it got lost in the shuffle, but he's found it now, and after we chewed the fat for a time I believe we have a paper patch bullet design worked out that should work great in the 45-2.4. That barrel he provided for the Raton rifle has an 18 twist.
You are sure right about the trigger on these CPA's , pretty darn hard to describe just how sweet they are. And that camming action of the breechblock is really nice when seating long and enguaging the rifling.
Almost of a notion to go find the guy with the 4082 here, and see if he's still wanting to sell it, send it to CPA with another of these Oregon barrels in 44, and have them fit it with a 22 barrel while its there as well... Just need to find that gold mine...[/i]

[Lumpy Grits]

long live GG bullets
For me-GG is much less prep and work-
Gary

[Nuclearcricket]

Don, didnt you ever listen to Jerry Reed, he told all of us a long time ago that She got the gold mine and we got the shaft!
But all that aside, yes the CPA's are nice. and I am sure that Paul and Gail would be more than happy to set up some barrels for you.
As to the lubing of bullets, yea they can be a pain at times but, for me any way, once I got things set up and adjusted it was mostly a painless and relatively quick operation. My biggest problem was bench space, and rigidity. I think I have since gotten that worked out. I have run many many bullets through my luber/sizers and just always figured it was just part of the game. One thing I have not done is spent any serious time paper patching bullets. I do think about it at times and have questions about it also but when I am ready to make that leap I will fire up some questions before I start and see how it goes.
Sam

[Kurt]

Don, I don't think I would get another barrel from them at this time. The Jury is still out on the one I have. It was to far out of specs from what I ordered. I ordered a .438-.446 and got a .4495. And scoping that barrel I see grooves on top of the lands and it's pretty rough. But so far it's showing good down range results with what I put down so far.
Having a XX Douglas .22 barrel mounted on that action will run a little over $600.
I tried to twist the barrel off the action and put the .22 on. I could not get it loose by hand. It's still tight on the action that It might take two or hold the barrel in a vice and twist it off. I think changing them over a few times it will make it easier.

[Kurt]

By the way, the fouling is a lot darker in this barrel with the deeper grooves but it seems to clean up as well as my Krieger barrel.
And it shreds the patches in fine shape and the important thing , the holes are round with all different lengths and shapes of bullets I shot through it so far.

[Don McDowell]

Kurt you did loosen the set bolt first?

I haven't looked inside this barrel , but as smooth as it feels with a patch going down it and as easy as it cleaned after the 3 shots I fired, I'm not worried.