hunters_life

I'll Google the site. Thank you for the facebook link but I think this forum is enough of a stretch for me and social media. I already gave my wife a small heart attack when she saw I was actually on a forum. I'll see if I can find a way to contact Mr. Fisk another way.

hunters_life

It's done Gm54_120. It wasn't difficult at all once I figured out a couple of things. Now for loads. He noted he was planning on using a booster duplex load using 10-12 grains of N110 as a booster under IMR3031 main charge. Whenever the sizing die gets here I'll order up some bullets for testing. I am by far nowhere near as good as he was on a lathe so manufacturing my own copper solids will be a no go. I won't be able to use this sabotless here in Illinois. .44 caliber minimum bullet so I will be testing full sized. I may also take this on a memorial elk hunt since I rarely moose hunt. I never really got into moose hunting like him. All of us are into firearms and hunting but not a single one of us, except maybe Alex, was into hunting pretty much anything edible like that man was. He lived to hunt. Any suggestions on bullet selections that you or anyone else may have? I am familiar with pressure signs and by far not 100% inept. Just new to smokeless muzzleloaders.

BarnesAddict

http://dougsmessageboards.proboards.com/#category-4

Gm54-120

Since you have a LRMP module system and centerfire receiver its well documented. No need to duplex with that setup but N110 is a great booster if you wish. Remove 10gr-15gr from main and replace with 10gr of booster.

Dont go over 70gr of IMR4198 (or total powder weight) for bullets upto 275gr and you should be just fine. I stop at 65gr with a 300gr bullet in my Savage small shank. That is plenty to kill anything with hooves in NA.

Parker 275gr Ballistic Extremes are crazy accurate sabotless. One of the easiest bullets to get to shoot. They should load with roughly 1 hand loading pressure when sized correctly. An adjustable sizing die will be a HUGE help getting bullets sized just right.

Just for reference, Hankins LRMP system (HIS) 66gr of IMR4198 and a 275gr bullet is right at 2600fps and a 300gr is slightly under that. A little more if you have a 28" or longer barrel. So as you can see, you are well into 458WinMag territory.

hunters_life

Apologies, I meant I won't be able to use this rifle here in Illinois with a saboted bullet. Only sabotless with the .44 caliber minimum restriction.
BarnesAddict, thank you for that link. I had already come across a couple of pages from that Dougs Message Board doing some Googling. I got a little deeper with that link and found a couple of posts with pressure and speed calculations from quick load. Lots of good information on there so thank you.
Gm54_120, thanks to you too. I already had Parkers in mind and Lehigh bullets are on the whitetail hunting list. The old man got Alex on them and I have seen the results of their use. Not to mention Alex has a couple hundred of .458 caliber 220 grain. I don't imagine I will be shooting anything further that 200 to 250 yards at most with more than likely 100 yard shots being the normal range. He always taught me to get as close as possible. He'd always say nature has a way of farting a gust of wind right when you shoot at a long range target. Man had a descriptive way with words no doubt.

Gm54-120

IMR3031 takes A LOT more powder to be stable and reliable. I would suggest sticking to what is well documented for now until you are more familiar with loading a SML.

Its also better suited to bullets a little heavier than 300gr but it can work if you use enough of it.

hunters_life

Well Gm54-120 and BarnesAddict, everything arrived last week. And with it's arrival I learned something quickly. The 275 Parkers are a no go from the start. They are .451-452 and that doesn't work with a full sizer. I needed .458. If I had a smooth sizing die they would work. So back to the idea train I went. Dad had a pretty good bin full of several .458 size bullets for his .458 socom. While sorting through that mountain of bullets I ran across some 300 grain Nosler Ballistic Tips. I do believe we have a winner with them. After a couple of tries I got the sizer set up to size the bullet for a perfect heavy one handed loading for that barrel. I did decide not to duplex and went with 4198. Started out with just 60 grains just to get the feel of things and pretty much dial things in. I ended up at 68 grains with the rifle zeroed at 150 yards. I had Alex set the old gong up at 300 yards for her and I to have a little fun. Her with her little Thompson Center Impact and me with this demon spawn. I centered the gong 10 out of 10. She banged it 10 out of 10. I do believe the old man would have been happier than a hog in slop with this rifle. If it's nice this weekend I'll pull it out again and do some fine tuning and run it across the chronograph to get some speeds. I would really like to thank you both for the information you helped the old man with in putting this together. I can see it now, he would have been on the phone with me almost instantly to get my big rear over there to do some shooting.

hunters_life

I am under the assumption that those Lehigh CF bullets are basically the same thing as the Bloodlines. I have seen those Bloodlines in action from my little sister and my dad. With this smokeless firebreather I would like to see how well it performs with sabots. In another thread Sabotloader posted a link to Lehigh and I ran across their .400 215 grain CF bullet. I also noted that they recommend 1:20 minimum twist rate for stabilization. This looks like a bullet I would really like to give a swing. Just wondering if any of you have tried it from your smokeless rigs or on an animal. Doing the math, making my head hurt in the process, I think I can get that bullet up to a little over 2700 feet per second without pressure problems. I do believe that would deliver a pretty decent amount of energy out to 300 yards on a deer or elk.