Alternative for a big bore on a shoestring.
Posted: 15 Feb 2017 10:12
I thought I had done a thread here about the Raptor project , appearently I was mistaken. 
It seems in the world of hunting rifles the are rifts , you know the speed kills guys , I want two holes to leak , short and quick , beanfield .......
Me I always figured if there was 1000# dumped in the chest cavity the temporary CNS disruption should last longer than the 0² in the system and the critter wasn't going anywhere . New hunting experiences and crime dramas readjusted that view some as well as getting into cast bullets . The 06' and 257 Roberts are completely safe but with the change of scenery coming the need for a 264 WM as a flat shooting 400 yd elk slayer will be a bit overkill.
So the 30-30 ,32 Rem,358 Win have found a place in my gear .
What's a short range brace of hunting rifles without a 45 ? Well boring I guess . The 45-70 is ideal and even better in the modern day but a repeater needs special attention or a lever gun . 450 Marlin or 458 WM are ..........expensive and too much of a good thing in no particular order.
Enter the 45 Raptor . What I really wanted was a 460 Smith and Wesson repeater but unless $1200 is a nice start that's unlikely to happen , a nice 336 based on the 450 should have been easy .
I had a 95 Mauser saved from the crusher with a horrible bbl that on its best day shot about 4" @ 100 with an HP target bullet and leaded the last 12" with paper patch and continued to flake and scale with each cleaning.......
Rhineland arms had a kit for 45 ACP and these days $160 for a prefit bbl is cheap . I caught a suitable chamber reamer on a clearance sale which I will have on hand for a couple of other projects to drop off with the properly licensed folks when I'm ready .
I'm sure I have the skills to fix the straight bolt . This is really about proving that I want to have a pro build the real one ,and that I need such a beast , so the straight bolt lives on .
I have a Scout rifle with a short bit of rail and a 2-7 scope so I figured that one of the dot optics would do the job ...... recoil is a detail I may have not considered . After chasing the third set of screw threads out and taking a BSA RGB to the forehead I scrounged up a set of Handi rifle sights and set about getting them on . The rear base needed to be lapped some to match the curves but it wasn't a big deal . The front sight leaves a lot to be desired but for the immediate needs it is good to go . I begged a take off peep sight for the Williams rear base and in spite of it being on the front ring I'm pleased with the view . It doesn't look to bad either .
Load data is available for powders as slow as 4198 and 4227 and is mostly held to 46 kpsi for the 460 and is full interchange for the 308 cased sister . I used PMC 308 cases for this because I had just 25 of them on hand and they didn't work out for the 358 Win . I used a 40 then 45 ACP expander to get them up to dia and trimmed them back to 1.8" . I'm using carbide Lee 460 dies for expanding the now formed brass and the seater. The full length sizing die however coke bottles the case so for now a 458 WM or universal decapping die does the primers and an ACP FCD does duty as a neck sizing die .
I did manage to get a group of 2 before the optic dismounted each trip and chronograph data .
I loaded 12 gr of Unique under each of the following .
454424 Lyman 1320 fps
454424 NOE 1330 fps
452-255 Lee. 1310 fps @ 265 gr
429421 Lyman 1350 fps @ 257 gr .448 dia paper patched
454-350 Mountain Moulds custom 1220 fps
Admittedly these are only running about low 454 speeds but it's with Unique and I could shoot these all day .
H322 under the 350 is a whole nother beast . The new 45-70 325 gr lever evolution Hornady goes 1900 fps in a 16" GG so running this 350 plain base over 1600 makes me pretty happy . I got to 1700 but the alloy gave up .
Questions and comments ?
It seems in the world of hunting rifles the are rifts , you know the speed kills guys , I want two holes to leak , short and quick , beanfield .......
Me I always figured if there was 1000# dumped in the chest cavity the temporary CNS disruption should last longer than the 0² in the system and the critter wasn't going anywhere . New hunting experiences and crime dramas readjusted that view some as well as getting into cast bullets . The 06' and 257 Roberts are completely safe but with the change of scenery coming the need for a 264 WM as a flat shooting 400 yd elk slayer will be a bit overkill.
So the 30-30 ,32 Rem,358 Win have found a place in my gear .
What's a short range brace of hunting rifles without a 45 ? Well boring I guess . The 45-70 is ideal and even better in the modern day but a repeater needs special attention or a lever gun . 450 Marlin or 458 WM are ..........expensive and too much of a good thing in no particular order.
Enter the 45 Raptor . What I really wanted was a 460 Smith and Wesson repeater but unless $1200 is a nice start that's unlikely to happen , a nice 336 based on the 450 should have been easy .
I had a 95 Mauser saved from the crusher with a horrible bbl that on its best day shot about 4" @ 100 with an HP target bullet and leaded the last 12" with paper patch and continued to flake and scale with each cleaning.......
Rhineland arms had a kit for 45 ACP and these days $160 for a prefit bbl is cheap . I caught a suitable chamber reamer on a clearance sale which I will have on hand for a couple of other projects to drop off with the properly licensed folks when I'm ready .
I'm sure I have the skills to fix the straight bolt . This is really about proving that I want to have a pro build the real one ,and that I need such a beast , so the straight bolt lives on .
I have a Scout rifle with a short bit of rail and a 2-7 scope so I figured that one of the dot optics would do the job ...... recoil is a detail I may have not considered . After chasing the third set of screw threads out and taking a BSA RGB to the forehead I scrounged up a set of Handi rifle sights and set about getting them on . The rear base needed to be lapped some to match the curves but it wasn't a big deal . The front sight leaves a lot to be desired but for the immediate needs it is good to go . I begged a take off peep sight for the Williams rear base and in spite of it being on the front ring I'm pleased with the view . It doesn't look to bad either .
Load data is available for powders as slow as 4198 and 4227 and is mostly held to 46 kpsi for the 460 and is full interchange for the 308 cased sister . I used PMC 308 cases for this because I had just 25 of them on hand and they didn't work out for the 358 Win . I used a 40 then 45 ACP expander to get them up to dia and trimmed them back to 1.8" . I'm using carbide Lee 460 dies for expanding the now formed brass and the seater. The full length sizing die however coke bottles the case so for now a 458 WM or universal decapping die does the primers and an ACP FCD does duty as a neck sizing die .
I did manage to get a group of 2 before the optic dismounted each trip and chronograph data .
I loaded 12 gr of Unique under each of the following .
454424 Lyman 1320 fps
454424 NOE 1330 fps
452-255 Lee. 1310 fps @ 265 gr
429421 Lyman 1350 fps @ 257 gr .448 dia paper patched
454-350 Mountain Moulds custom 1220 fps
Admittedly these are only running about low 454 speeds but it's with Unique and I could shoot these all day .
H322 under the 350 is a whole nother beast . The new 45-70 325 gr lever evolution Hornady goes 1900 fps in a 16" GG so running this 350 plain base over 1600 makes me pretty happy . I got to 1700 but the alloy gave up .
Questions and comments ?