The 400 made it's maiden voyage to the range today. I only had eight rounds loaded with 300 grain Hornady flat points. The rest were loaded with 16.4 grains of Bullseye, topped with corn meal and some paper wadding or crayons depending on whether it was 35 Whelen or 30-06. I fired five rounds cleaning between each shot then fired a three round group at 100 yards. A two inch group, not bad for starting off. Then about 80 rounds of corn meal fire forming. I had a few failures, 10% to be exact. It seems to me that the 16.4 grains filled out the military brass that had been originally expanded to 35 Whelen and the factory 35 Whelen a little better than the regular 06 cases.

The recoil with the 300 grain flat points and 54 grains of 3031 was noticeable but not significantly more than my 35 Whelen. I am sure the 400 grain bullets will be a different story.

Here's a few pics.

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Left is brass from the 54grains of 3031 and 300 grain bullet, middle is a former 35 Whelen and right is a former 30-06.
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Ended up with 48 out of 50 on the 30-06
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The 35 Whelens had a few more casualties but they had been loaded and fired a time or two as 35 Whelens.
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And of course a few failures.
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All in all it went pretty well for my first go at the COW method of fireforming. I used 16.4 grains because I was trying to get close to 16 grains after trying a few loads at 12 and 15 and not getting quite the fill out I wanted. My Little Dandy powder measure throws 8.2 grains with a number 15 rotor so I threw two charges in each case.

I'm now waiting on the dies and the expander die so I can try that method of making cases and compare the two.

Mart

Chronographs, bore scopes and pattern boards have broke a lot of hearts.