SmallCaliberCentral

The best one is the 32BK that tumbled its way across the paper at 100 yards.

Some shot good, as you can see, others refused to.

I trickled every powder charge sans the 3 shot 40 Vmax group. I measured the out of round on the necks of every round...never over .001, but closer on most to .0005. I FL sized all my brass, yet a couple felt a slight bit harder to chamber...not hard, just not as easy as most.

I am going to go relax for a bit to calm my nerves. At least I got some brass today. Picked up some Remington 30-06, a few Remington 300WIN, about a box worth of 40S&W, and 27 pieces of Remington 7mm-08, which I don't even own a rifle for, but I thought it was 308...which I still don't even own a rifle for lol.

That group with 29.5 BL(C) 2 looks pretty good to me. I would concentrate on that one and try varying the seating depth to see what happens. Four shots touching is good in anybody's book.

Why don't you try some Benchmark with those 32 gr bk? They shoot great in my Cooper. None of the v-max bullets shot very well in my gun, neither factory or my reloads. It really came to life with the blitzkings and Benchmark. I did try some 10x that shot well, may have to try it again.

More tumbling Sierras? Out of a Cooper nonetheless. Thats why I don't shoot them. I have a bit of history with tumbling and self destructing Sierras myself.

Have we been down the "Are you sure your getting the copper out of that barrel" road before?

Before you go nuts buy some 35 and 40 gn Bergers. Might even want to consider a powder change.
As Skipper said the 29.5 load is showing the most promise.

I might not be the most experienced loader, but I refuse to believe this is a powder issue. A gun might not like a powder, but to give me the results I have gotten the last two outtings (bullets going 2.5" to 5" off target, both 32gr and 40gr), there seems to be something else at work.

Factory 32gr Hornady V-Max will shoot bugeyes with this rifle.

jo191145 wrote:More tumbling Sierras? Out of a Cooper nonetheless. Thats why I don't shoot them. I have a bit of history with tumbling and self destructing Sierras myself.

Never hear that before. I only hear good things about BKs.

Have we been down the "Are you sure your getting the copper out of that barrel" road before?

I just cleaned my rifle. The patches didn't come out green at all, they came out looking like they went in.

Before you go nuts buy some 35 and 40 gn Bergers. Might even want to consider a powder change.
As Skipper said the 29.5 load is showing the most promise.

I will load a few more of the 29.5, but the bullet thing is not going to happen yet. I will buy more factory 32 vmax ammo before I buy anymore bullets. At this point I am not sure there is anything else to do other than see if what previously shot excellent in my rifle will still shoot. At least that will narrow it down to the rifle or the reloads. I can understand a rifle not liking a certain load and shooting stuff like the upper left most group. Not bad per say, but bad compared to what the rifle can do. But some of these other groupings just make me sick to my stomach.

Okay, I have had time to think about this. It looks to me like, and this is just a possibility, but that most shots are on a fairly consistent horizontal plane. The varying wind could be the cause of a good amount of the horizontal spread. That still leaves a few shots unaccounted for, but it would mean that the bulk of 32gr BKs were where they should be, just spread out from the wind.

Still not 100 percent sure about that theory, but it doesn't seam too far fetched to me at this moment.

Never hear that before. I only hear good things about BKs.


I just cleaned my rifle. The patches didn't come out green at all, they came out looking like they went in.

Theres been a handful of shooters over the years who experienced tumbling with bk's me included.
I also had a batch of 39's that lost their nylon tips downrange. Found a little nylon tip stuck in the front of the target/backer board. If that little tip had not made its own little keyhole in my target I never would have figured out what was going on.
Most shooters here do swear by them and they can't all be wrong. I'm fairly certain I lost a 32 about three weeks ago. A poster had inquired about the velocity of N-140 and 32gn pills. I indulged him by loading some up. Those five shot fine and the results looked promising. I tried it again a week or two later and only four made it to the two hundred yard target. Probably from the same old box of pills. I haven't bought 32 bk's in years.

I do have 500 new 39's and so far no problems. Havent used alot though.



Now if your getting white patches out of a barrel that just burned BLC2 then we have a problem. Not sure how that could be possible. I haven't used BLC2 in a couple years but I remember it to be fairly dirty. If your not using a bronze brush you need too. Even a Cooper has to get carbon in the barrel. Its the nature of the beast.
Small Story
When I first began shooting my Kreiger barrel (308 Win) I looked through all my cleaning potions and chose Butches Bore Blend. Ran the patches through till they were white, no brush. Not much carbon came out. Then I decided to put some Hoppes lubricating oil in it till the next weekend. The patch came out black.
Now I use Shooters Choice and a bore brush on everything.

Retrying the 32 factory's sounds like a great idea. If they go haywire its a cleaning issue. Unless the gun/scope has a problem of course.
Good Luck

jo191145 wrote:Now if your getting white patches out of a barrel that just burned BLC2 then we have a problem. Not sure how that could be possible. I haven't used BLC2 in a couple years but I remember it to be fairly dirty. If your not using a bronze brush you need too. Even a Cooper has to get carbon in the barrel. Its the nature of the beast.
Small Story
When I first began shooting my Kreiger barrel (308 Win) I looked through all my cleaning potions and chose Butches Bore Blend. Ran the patches through till they were white, no brush. Not much carbon came out. Then I decided to put some Hoppes lubricating oil in it till the next weekend. The patch came out black.
Now I use Shooters Choice and a bore brush on everything.

Retrying the 32 factory's sounds like a great idea. If they go haywire its a cleaning issue. Unless the gun/scope has a problem of course.
Good Luck

No, they were not white right off the bat. lol They started out filthy. But I cleaned it until they came out the same color they went in. That said, I have yet to see a hint of green.

Basically, I put a couple wet patch of normal Hoppe's through it, until it ceased to give me any more powder, then sent the brush down once or twice, and repeated with more patches until clean. I sent the brush down again and followed with more patches until clean a third time. I then sent down a patch soaked in Hoppe's Bench Rest 9, and let that sit for aboiut 5 minutes. I put the brush through it once and then used a patch soaked in regular Hoppe's again. At no point did I get any hints of green.

Ahh I see said the blind man

UPDATE


This got a bit long, but I *THINK* it makes sense towards the end.


So I am having a new theory that goes along with the other one.

I just measured the fired cases lengths, and there seems to be a variation or two.

In the target, we will concentrate on the left column of groupings using the 32BKs. I will call them #1. #2, #3, and #4 from the top down.

#2 all came in at 1.844, with one at 1.847. As you can see, 4 grouped up, and one shot in the target bullseye. ...Bare with me.

#4 (the group with the air show stunt plane) measure in at 1.853, 1.853, 1.850, 1.847, and 1.846. The target has 3 grouped right at the bullseye and two monster fliers. But look at the case lengths... Two, maybe 3 are really starting to pull away from the "starndard" size. I call it standard because #1 was also right in the midst of 1.845-1.849 for a length.

Now I am sure that is not the only reason, so here is the rest of my reasoning....

I had some rounds that felt different when closing the bolt. Not hard per say, but no where near smooth either. And if I recall, they were in groups #1, #3, and a couple in number #5 (with a few others in those 40gr groups too). Now why would that be? I am thinking my mixture of 204 brass from two rifles (60 rounds from a previously owned Ruger #1, and 140 rounds from the Cooper) might not be getting FL sized 100%. I am not certain yet, but that is what I am going to be testing here. I have a bag of about 100 pieces of my fire 204 brass I have not loaded or sized yet. I am going to insert them into the Cooper. I will find a few that fit nicely, and I will (hopefully) find some that are a bit tight. I will size them and then attempt to chamber them again. It is my estimation that I just might have a few rounds that are slightly more difficult to chamber. If that is the case, then I think I will have solved my problem. I will need to screw down my FL die more until those slightly tighter pieces fit like the ones that are from the Cooper. Basically, I purpose that nothing is getting 100% FL sized, but since most are from the Cooper, it doesn't matter as much for most.

Of course some of this could be attributed to user error, but given what I have shot previously, I have to say the bulk is not.