I had a long session Friday evening with one of the Sinful Sisters



And some of MountainDevil's home cast MaxiBalls.



The only lube I had handy was a fifteen year old tube of CVA Grease Patch Lube that was near empty. So I put a bunch of the Maxis in a Zip Lock bag and squirted in the remainder of the lube. After working the bag a little with my fingers all of the bullets were coated. Messy to handle, but good enough for a shoot.

After setting a target out at the 50 yard marker I loaded up with 75 grains of GOEX FFFg and began shooting.

Here's the five shot target.



I wasn't too impressed with that group. Not real bad, but not what I'm looking for. The rifling just barely cut the top band of the bullet. I could push it into the bore with my thumb and it slid down the bore very easily. Also, I didn't swab between those shots and had the impression I could shoot them all day without swabbing. The only loading resistance felt was the last inch or two before seating on the powder, and that resistance was the same for shot #5 as it was for #2, 3, and 4.

So I bumped the charge up to 85 grains and took five more shots at 50 yards. I wiped the bore between shots with both sides of a patch moistened with Windex With Ammonia. Here's what I got.



Now I'm starting to get happy. That's not a bad group at all.

Bumped the charge again to 95 grains, took five more shots, and got this.



Now that's darn good. Actually, it's better than I expected with the bullets loading as easily as they do.

Of course, I couldn't stop there. Upped the charge to 105 grains, took five more shots, and got this.



Not too bad, but it looks like it's starting to open up. Let's try 115 grains just for the heck of it.



NOPE! It looks as though 95 grains is the accuracy load.

Let's try another group with 95 grains and see if it holds up.



Yep! Ninety-five is the right load. Then I began to I wonder if I can tighten it up a little by adding a wad under the bullet. So I tried five shots with a 1/16" hard fiber card wad.



That kind of surprised me. I really expected the group to tighten. Well heck, how about a 1/8" thich felt wad. Five shots later I was looking at this target.



OK, no joy. But I learned something - shoot them without wads.

It was getting late and the light was fading fast. But I had time for one try at 100 yards.



That group is OK. Not great, but OK. Certainly good enough for hunting. That wild shot was probably my fault. One day I'll try 125 and 150 yards. But that's another range session for another day.

Thanks for the bullets Devil. I enjoyed playing with them.

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I thought you were shooting them out of a slow twist rifle. That 95 grain in a fast twist is the ticket. That would clean the clock of your deer. Nice shooting and good report.

I shot the .54 caliber 300 grain REALs out of a slow twist this morning. Results were bewildering. I'll post that report tomorrow.

Youre welcome.

115gr 3f? YERRR SICK!

You try any 2f goex or even RS?

I laughed when i saw you try the wads out, I too had horrible groups when i tried a wads with them. They just don't like em.

Not really. That gun weighs 9 lbs. 5 oz. Recoil isn't bad at all. I took 45 shots in that session over the course of about two hours. No sore shoulder. No bruises. Of course, I have a little more meat on my bones than your skinny ass. Also, our shooting bench allows an upright posture.

Nice report Semi - I do like that 95 gr load also. Should work well on just about anything you shoot it with. My theory on the Maxis and wad load is that the wad provides too much cushion. You need the Maxi setting right on the powder to compress the base of the bullet slightly so it can expand against the rifling. Much like a miniball. Your targets pretty much confirms that theory.

When they load loose they have to upset more to shoot good the wad cushions them so you loose part of the up set capability.

You were taking 10gr jumps. Maybe 5gr jumps will find a sweeter spot.

Semi,
Nice report and shooting as always. What is your thoughts on those bullets compared to your gold dots are far as taking a whitetail inside 100yds?

Bronko & Lee, I agree with you guys regarding bullet upset into the rifling. That's why I tried the hard card wad first. I figured it wouldn't provide much cushion and give me a gas seal.

But, as you know, good Gas Seals are rarely encountered.


Good point Muley. I'll give it a try next time out, although I haven't found small increments like that make a great deal of difference with GOEX.

Jaybez, I would have full confidence with that bullet for any whitetail at any angle. Big heavy chunks of lead always seem to do the job even at slow speeds. Maybe even especially at slow speeds. If I can get groups of less than five inches at 150 yards I would have full confidence using them out that far once I learn the trajectory. Accuracy wise, at the 100 yard mark they compare very favorably to both 300 and 250 grain Gold Dots from that barrel. Not quite as good, but close.