Krag Cast bullets in the 21st century

Ammunition, reloading, shooting, etc
madsenshooter
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Joined: Thu Sep 10, 2009 5:00 am
Location: Upper Appalachia aka SE Ohio

Re: Krag Cast bullets in the 21st century

Post by madsenshooter »

The last of the bullets that weighed 203gr that I shot was during my experiments with the boosted 860 and 150grFMJBTs. They were going quite fast, maybe as fast as 2300fps, but I didn't get any lead blow back on the case neck like I was getting trying to get to 2100fps with regular powders. RL19 and WW760 I specifically recall trying and I was getting blow by before getting the speed I wanted. What I am thinking is that the gases from the booster compresses the ball powder ahead of it and that forms a semi seal preventing any blow by around the bullet before it starts moving down the bore. I'll be experimenting with those loads some more, since the last time I was at Camp Perry I bought another jug of 860 to burn. But before that I have some Garand ammo to work on. I managed to get some Accurate 4064, but one tenth grain above the published start charge is giving me primers a bit flatter than what I like! Heavy LC 69 brass might be the reason, but the data was made up using Rem cases, which are generally about as heavy as LC. I wonder if Hodgdon saved Johan's job when they acquired Western and Accurate? I don't like that Western and Accurate doesn't list pressure for their start charges like Hodgdon did. I use that for extrapolation sometimes. Take for instance data for a 173gr FMJBT. Won't find that in Krag data, but looking at .303 data you can get an idea of a safe start charge sometimes, if they used the powder you intend to use.

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