Here's one for you boys
Forgive me if this seems a little boastful but I been trying to do this for ages
Nice groups are nice but in the money zone is really nice!
100 yards this morning, a bit of light breeze right to left across my range - nice clear day - eyes workin not so bad, this 76 has tormented me at times - I laid it in the sun on the back of the lounge right close to the window this morning for half an hour, nicely warm but not hot to handle - a fouler in the berm then hunkered down and shot 5 - no scope to distract me - pulled one a little bit high and right but pretty good result.
The load -
70 grains of my own FFg powder, drop tube - light compression
60 thou x 461 HDPE overpowder wad (I cut those from the sides of 15 litre water container.)
CBE (Cast Bullet Engineering) 460-535PB boolit, pan lubed and unsized --I lathe turned the base band and one lube groove OFF of it and weighs now a whisker over 470 grains (will order a new mold cut the same today)
Boolit is seated with one lube groove and a third of the second band exposed and of course these longuns are a single load deal
NOT crimped but I made two swage dies
1) with about a two degree taper I use to turn the bell mouth back in after loading on this case and the 45-70 and
2) a straight die that gives me .4835 to .4840 overall neck diameter - I run that one to the base of the neck as the last operation in loading
My brass is formed from 348W shells and its thick in the neck - a pretty slick (only just) fit in my rifle - I dont resize my cases - if those necks get out to .485 they are right stiff or will not chamber!