For those people who were following this thread I have not forgotten it. It's been a busy last 2 weeks. On Friday the 24th the wife and I made a quick 5 day trip to visit a cousin who has (had) terminal cancer in Grand Junction Colorado. (923 miles one way) She passed on October 4th. 6 days short of her 74th birthday.
I did get to the range on September 29th. I had 5 bright orange 1/1/2" Birchwood Casey targets set up on a sheet of cardboard on the 100 yard range. I would like to say I saw improving accuracy as the flash holes got bigger. I didn't get that. I got flyers on targets #1, #3, #4, #5. I got a group of .880 on target #2. All of the brass was LC 17 and all cases were loaded with 24.4 grains of IMR3031. The barrel was freshly cleaned and fowled before shooting for results. The trigger pull is the factory Ruger trigger. I understand the factory sets the pull at 4.5 lbs.
The flash hole size was:
factory:#1.076 to .080
#2. 086
#3 .091
#4 .096
#5 .101
My results were inconclusive. The primary issue was flyers. All targets were shot with 4 shot groups except for #1 to sight in the scope and fowl the freshly cleaned barrel and #5 to look for pressure issues.
The last group was #5 and I fired 10 shots. Since that was the largest flash hole I wanted to see if there were any pressure issues. 3 out of the 10 pieces of brass had very flat primers with a bit of splash and the other 7 had flat primers. No primers were pierced and I had no issues with a hard to lift bolt on #5. I won't be shooting #5 with primer holes at .101 again. I don't see any value in repeating that test. I gained no accuracy and I was at the edge of pressure at the primers. The primers on target #4 had one flat primer out of 4. The other 3 pieces of brass showed no pressure signs.
As for the flyers I have no conclusions. The 4 shot groups without the flyers was 1.5". With the flyers making the groups right at 2.5" It could of been me or it could of been the flash holes, I don't know. I still have 64 rounds of ammo left. I have every intention of doing this again as soon as I can find a day with no distractions and get back out to the range.
kwg
Last edited by kwg020; 10/05/21.
