I spent a few hours today at the show looking for trimmer pilot, dies, shellholder, and bullets. My wife found a few christmas gift items. I didn't find dies but got an RCBS shellholder, trimmer pilot .368 dia., a partial box of Hornady .375 dia. 270gn spirepoint bullets (36 slugs/$5), and a box of factory Winchester ammo, 250gn rn (16.95 there were 2 boxes but I only wanted one, for comparison purposes).
The factory rounds chambered fine and the rifle ejects a live round smartly. The factory round I put my calipers on measured .392+, about .050 back from the case mouth. The factory rounds show the coke bottle bulge, off center just like my first attempts, just not so much a bulge and strait in the case. My best attempt with the Lee dies and RCBS shellholder look better than factory ammo in this respect, the bulge is very uniform around the case (eyeball "measure"), just more pronounced. My rounds made with the .380" cast bullets measure .397". The one round I made using the jacketed bullets worked fine too. It is .392 just like the factory stuff (the cases on the factory rounds appear to have been annealed). My apologies to the Lee company.
So, The bullets I'm using are too big for the chamber, in my cases. You guys have already figured this out I see. Kinda embarraskin' to be wanting to blame the dies for my own sloppy technique. But, If I'd just shot factory ammo I may never have known this, or would have found out the more frustrating way by wondering why the rifle wouldn't shoot. I'm guessing again here but I'm pretty sure that this piece will not shoot good with jacketed bullets. I tried one of the Hdy bullets in the rifling by putting it point-first into the muzzle, it dropped about 2" into the bore and stopped, probably hung up on a piece of fouling left in the bore after I pushed a dry patch through it. I was able to push it the rest of the way out the breech with ease using a 36 cal. ramrod. So jacketed bullets are out with this barrel.
A fired round, one of my "crush fit" ones, comes out of the chamber at .397, same as a fired factory round. Good thing I started real light on the powder charge because there can't be any room for my cases to expand upon firing, the bullets must be squirting outta the cases. So, I need to open up the chamber a few thou (again you guys are ahead of me here but I needed to prove it to myself. But you know by now that I'm a bit thick-headed). I don't have a mandrel for my neck turner in .368 or whatever it needs to be for this case, and I don't want to go that route anyway; this would work but it's not a fix.
So, do I polish out the chamber or cut it, and if so how much. I figure The .005 I'm over using the .380 bullets ought to be about right. I wonder if I ought to rent a reamer that size, if they're available, or if I could do something else, like maybe make a cutter out of a fired case and turn it in the chamber with some 600 grit polishing compound. Maybe an empty case with the primer pocket drilled out, and threaded for a socket head cap screw then chucked up in a drillmotor and spun slowly, maybe 150 rpm, for about 15-20 seconds at a time, then flushing it out and trying a case with a bullet seated in it. Need to think about it some. See what you guys think.
In the meanwhile, I want to shoot this thing and see how it'll shoot. I've tried cutting back the length on the cases on the thought that since the chamber is tapered, I should be able to trim them back to a point that the rounds I can make with the components I have will be an acceptable fit in my chamber. I've cut one case back to 1.950" and it almost chambers the way it ought to. I'll try cutting another one back to 1.930 next but this may not work either since the case walls thicken a bit as you get closer to the head. Plenty of room in there for powder for cast bullet loads.
Comments?
