Well, everything's packed. I'm ready to leave the farm.
I went with the idea of loading as I went, 5 rounds at a time, and I got a chance to survey all the territory between 42 grains and 50 grains of H4895. Accuracy was best between 42 and 44. I was able to break 2500 with 50 grains, however both the accuracy was poor and the velocities were all over the place.
My conclusions are as follows:
1) 43 grains of H4895 gave consistent velocity and decent accuracy. It was getting late in the day when I tried it, but I had a couple of 2-shot groups that would fit inside a 50 cent piece.
2) The velocity variations increased with the charge weight.
3) When it came down to it, I had to look back at the overall goals. I had a hand-cast lead bullet-- check. It could kill a deer at 150 yards or better-- check. 42-44 grains produced a pleasant amount of recoil and 46-50 grains did not buy me anything except more wear and tear on the shoulder.
4) The Whelenizer went from a hot 358 WIN-ish with slightly downloaded 200 grain jacketed loads to a hot 35-Rem-ish deer gun with cast lead. I'm happy; it is mostly going to be pointed at whitetails.
5) The Whelenizer kept its distinctive and authoritative report with the new load. When it barks everyone on the neighboring ridges will know I've shot.
This was my first attempt at loading at the shooting bench. The hardest part was getting a dead-level surface to mount the scale. I used a bubble-level app on my tablet and a couple copies of the local phone book (up two pages to the right, down three on the back, etc.) The other problem I had was trying to use a scale in something other than dead air. For the first part of the day, I had nearly no wind. However, even the slightest breeze would skew the scale. If I did this regularly, I'd build a box with a plexiglass door, and screw feet on the bottom for leveling. Transporting the stuff was easy. I fit everything in a 20mm ammo can.
