I went to Tullos, LA today to see my old friend,
Junior. Many of you know him or have read his work. He had some target ammo loaded for his broken rifle, Ole Bill and wanted to see how it would shoot in the .30-30 Handi.
My Handi has a 1:10 twist microgroove barrel. Junior had loaded some ammo a couple of years ago with the Lyman 311041 out of an old Lyman iron mold. He had loaded it with 1.9 cc of IMR 4895 and estimated the velocity at something like 1750 fps.
So, with rifle and ammo in hand, Junior cranked up his benchrest, a Dodge pickup truck and parked it at the firing line. Understand, we're shooting in his front yard. His little home range is about 73 yards from firing line to target butt. He placed a piece of rough-cut lumber to use as a firing bench and set up across the bed of his pickup truck.
Junior's Ole Bill ammo shot just fine in this rifle, averaging just under an inch at 73 yards. Don't let anyone tell you that a microgroove barrel won't shoot cast bullets. They shot just fine. I was pleasantly surprised at how well they shot, as was Junior. He had convinced himself that the twist was too fast for that bullet.
I had some .30-30 ammo I had loaded, using the Speer 130 flat point bullet, over 33.5 grains of Reloder 15. That load shot exceedingly well also, well under an inch at 73 yards.
So, now I have to decide if I want to use this Handi as a cast bullet rifle, or zero it for the 130 load.
