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Well, I'm back from the range. What a surprising experience! Shooting this double is nothing less than awesome.

My goal was 1500fps with a standard 1000g Woodleigh bullet. Using data obtained from Accurate Powders, I loaded 16 cartridges with 5744 at 5 grain intervals, starting at 100 grains, alternating between jacketed and lead bullets. Each cartridge had a 1-1/4" long piece of 3/4" dia. foam backing rod over the powder to act as a filler in order to keep the powder in the bottom of the case and against the primer.

It seems that in this double, the starting load of 100 grains was already too high resulting in an average velocity of 1562 fps with Woodleigh bullets. My next trip to the range will be with cartridges loaded with only 85 grains of powder. At that expected 1500fps velocity, the recoil will be a managable 67.2 ft/lbs.

I went to the range with cartridges loaded with 3 types of bullets; (1) 1010g Lead bullet of my design - .697" dia, (2) 1000g Woodleigh Soft Point - .699" dia, and (3) 1000g Woodleigh Full Metal Jacket Solids - .698" dia.

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Here are the results of the testing. There was no measurable differences between the Woodleigh Soft Points and the Woodleigh Full metal Jacket Solids. Here is the data.

powder wt bul wt vel recoil
-------------------------------------
5744 100 1000 1562 77.1
5744 105 1000 1582 80.5
5744 110 1000 1605 84.2
5744 115 1000 1708 94.5

Now-

What came as a surprise to me was the very first 2 rounds I fired through the rifle. I thought I would save money by using cast lead bullets, which are virtually free, over using store bought Woodleigh bullets, that cost over $3 each. Well, I did save money, but WOW! That first shot unexpectidly bashed me into next week, with over 106 ft/lbs of recoil.

In fact, one of the two friends at the range commented; "I never seen a neck get stretched that far, without the head snapping off at the adam's apple."

I was expecting 1400fps which would result in about 55 or 60 ft/lbs of recoil. The second shot was the same, but at least this time I was ready for the beating. Before I looked at the chronograph reading, I wondered "what did I get myself into?" If this rifle kicks this much at 1400 fps, what would it be like at 1500 fps? I was starting to second-guess this entire project. Then I saw the chronograph readings: "1900fps" and "1902fps", and instantly decided not to shoot any more of the other lead bullet loads, which contained even "more" powder. I then went on to the jacketed bullet loads and was very much more pleased with their recoil, albeit they well still higher velocity than my 1500fps goal. Here is the data.

powder wt bul wt vel recoil
-------------------------------------
5744 100 1010pb 1900 106.1

I had experienced higher velocities with lead bullets over jacketed bullets in the past when shooting my 600NE. The lead bullets obturate to fill the bore completely with no gas getting past them, unlike jacketed bullets which allow some leakage. But I never before seen such diffrences in velocity as measured here. I will recheck this phenomenon but with some lighter loads.

Worth mentioning is that the Federal F215 Magnum primers functioned perfectly in igniting the 5744 powder in these large cases. Also, the cases that were made from the 50BMG brass showed no measurable difference in velocity. All primers (even the 1900 fps load) were flat, but with round edges and no cratering or flow-back into the firing pin hole. Same for the 50BMG cases with bushed primers. Also, all cases had easy extraction with little resistance, and could be replaced back into the chambers, and the action closed.

update


This time the velocities were a bit low, so tomorrow I'll increase the loads ever so slightly. I'm going to try 95g and 97.5g of 5744 powder.

Needless to say, I was absolutely surprised with today's results. Keep in mind that this was fired from a rifle that was assembled by a gunsmith that mathematically calculated the convergence. No actual shooting regulation was done. I guess you can see why he is a "Master Gunsmith".

Here are the targets:

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You never pay too much for something, you only buy it too early.