Where to start...
Remington Bolt Conversion - Field TestingWith the new bushing installed in the end of the modified Remington Bolt, I headed to the farm to get some shooting in. Had a couple of goals in mind. Of course the first one was to see how much blow back I was able to eliinate with the new set-up, second I wanted to try the new to me chrono I just got, and third i wanted to shoot some BH from the gun.
Another change - I want to tell you about. You can see I removed the 'copper' weather shroud - that I felt was necessary for protection from flying primer parts and replaced it with a segment of a simple 20 gage shot gun hull. I was very confident the primer would not come apart and I was pretty confident I would not be getting large amounts of blow back pressure in the breech. I am glad to say both conerns were non-concerns...
At the farm I set the target at what I thought was about 25 yards and the chrono about 12' off the muzzle. Back at the shooting bench I did check the target with the range finder - it was actually 34 yards and 4 degrees up angle. The range finder also read 41 degrees for air temp - great day for shooting.
I had already decided to shoot the XTP's, T7-2f, and Winchester T7 primers first. The T7 are not noted for being the cleanest primer in the world so I thought that would be a good test for primer blow back. The Win T7 primers are the ongest primer I use and when I closed the bolt on them there was some resistance to closing. Nothing bad or real tight but definitely snug. I shot 5 primers at the ground - check the breech not material at all - hard to prove I shot any primers.
Next I loaded up the first shot, a Hornady XTP in a MMP sabot, 110 grains of T7. Touched the it off and checked the breech - clean! Used the capper to pull the spent primer out - If I had finger nails i would have been able to use them. A point here not only are the T7 the longest primer I have they are also the skinniest... there is a lot of room in the primer holder. Shot this load 3 more times with the same results. Group#1
Next I decided I wanted to try some Lehigh Gold .40/200 HP's so I broke out the box and shot two of them... could not force myself to shoot anymore of them at paper at 34 yards - money down the drain. Group #2
Then the switch to BH-209 (Black Gold) shooting a Cheddite 209 primer... Excellent instantaneous ignition... Still shot 110 grain of BH, with a Harvester 4540 sabot and a .41cal 210 grain speer Gold Dot... Group #3
I hope you can see in the pictures the total lack of blow back anywhere in the breech area...
There is a negative(s) - or it will be a negative for some. My conversion has no means of extracting the spent primer. You will need a tool to that with. I was using the TC primer tool and it was a pretty simple. For myself and even hunting it would not be much of a problem
The other negative - I could not get the chrono to read the bullet - it would only read the sabot - but that might be a elctronic problem with the chrono reading the second object through...
Here is a picture of todays episode... I have other pictures of the breech if you-all would like to see them...
Oh! and I thought the gun with that cheap old (and I mean old probably been on one muzzleloader or another for 5-6 years now) $49 Tasco rifle scope shot pretty good as well...
