Don,
I shot the Bee again this weekend with cast bullets. My previous results have been very encouraging. Nothing is learned without a few setbacks and I had some small ones. I made two mistakes this weekend. I changed two load parameters at once, primers and crimp. I probably could have gotten away with the primer change but the crimp was a genuine mistake. I load these in the tube magazine of my Marlin. I think I need a crimp, even if light, just to be sure I don’t set back a bullet. My accuracy went from 1.5" at 50 yards to 2.5" with Alliant Bullseye and 4" with Hodgdon Titewad.
I shot three ten shot strings with 2.8 gr. of Bullseye, Lyman 225415 with no gas check. These are unsized and tumble lubed with Lee liquid Alox. I switched to primers from Winchester small rifle to Winchester small pistol primers.
First string-1315 fps with an E of 32 and SD of 12 fps.
Second string-1319 fps with an E of 21 and a SD of 8 fps.
Third string-1331 fps with an E of 19 fps and a E of 7 fps.
I assume that the crimp held the bullet and let gas escape around the base and up the side of the bullet. There was no leading.
These loads are just a little faster than we had discussed. I shot my Browning 22 Auto for comparison. Federal Lightning .22 Lr. Chronographed at 1184 fps with an E of 52 fps and a SD of 19 fps.
Switching to the pistol primer seemed like a good idea….. I got smaller extreme spreads with small rifle primers. The crimp was not very successful.
