Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Express Rifles and Big Bores Only Ordering A New Barrel

Shot this target at 60yds offhand open sights with the Ruger pictured first above.It has been months that I have not shot and I am beginning to practice once again.I shot 458 cast and 308 cast.The 458 throws some flyers from time to time-I don't know why but I still have the most fun.

Flyers? I would say that is where the sights were when it went bang sir.

I have fired it off the bench a few times and observed flyers.It could be my cast bullets-I am new to casting...but getting better at it!.

Here is a target I shot the same day.I forgot my targets so I hit the trash and found this one to use.

Some are flyers and some are bad shots.

The rifle doesn't group that well-again it could be my bullets.At the end of my shooting it seemed like it was settling and grouping tighter.Maybe next time I'll have a nicer target to show.

soldered on tension sight

I shot this offhand with my 22LR this morning.It was at an indoor range at 60yds and the lighting was poor-I could not see the orange circle.
A 22 is good for offhand practice.I also shot three rds of international trap.Life is good-lol.

I used to do some plinking with a 458 and some jack rabbit hunting with lead loads. For me the Lott is too much of a good thing, if I was a PH then yes I would get one. With age my recoil threshold has gotten lower (or maybe I got smarter, not likely). Now the 375 H4H is about the tops I am willing to put up with. Even when younger I would dread bench resting full house 500-510 grain loads unless I had a standing bench rest set up.

Back to the original question as local a gunsmith as possible is my first choice. With that CZ though I would completely trust African Hunting Rifles to do their wonderful conversion especially the stock work.

Cast bullets can be tricky, with light loads a filler or an over shot wad has made a big difference in eliminating flyers. For the 458 I always used lead loads for the 45/70 as so much development has gone on with the 45/70 with lead loads. These were great fun rounds to shoot.

I was out shooting my Lott with cast bullets today.I cleaned the bore with a brush and solvent beforehand to start off with a clean bore.This I have done before and noticed a good group offhand at 60yds but like other times the POI was too far to the right.As I continue shooting (I shoot 50rds and only stop to pic up the cases between loadings),the POI moves to the left-about 4 or 5 inches and it settles around bullseye but groups are a larger than right after cleaning and I could get flyers.I wonder why the POI is always so far to the right after cleaning? The barrel gets very hot when I shoot-so much so that I keep my hand on the forearm stock at all times.Could it be that the cast bullets are affected by the heat?

I suggest you read the 458 Win thread before to go to the Lott.

I would also suggest having the gunsmith choose the brand of barrel. This isn't necessarily because they'll know the best brand--but because some barrelmakers hesitate to replace barrels they sell directly to shooters, because they don't know how good the smith who installs it might be.

If gunsmith uses one particular brand a lot, it will not only probably shoot well, but the barrelmaker will be more likely to happily replace a sub-standard barrel. And just about all barrelmakers occasionally make one of those....

with much respect i would be very careful with who rebarrels your rifle , maybe have a machinist who replaces barrels for bench rest shooters do your barrel work. good luck ,Pete53

Here is another rifle I will use for offhand practice.It is a CZ 22LR-the ones with the replaceable barrels.I have a Lilja barrel on it and installed a Bushnell RXS-250 4 MOA reflex sight.I installed the barrel myself using the shims provided by Lilja.I took it to the range yesterday and shot it for the first time not knowing what to expect from the rifle and the sight.All went well.The rifle shoots very good.Here is an offhand target I used to adjust the sights.The shots in the black are from the final adjustment at 60yds.

DBoston,what did you use as a filler and what is an overshot wad?

I shot this target this morning offhand at 60yds with the Lott and cast loads.Once the barrel warms up it's POI moves to the left and stays there.
I am going to check and see if I have a higher front sight to bring the group down a bit.

Here is a target I shot this morning offhand at 60yards with my Lilja,22lr.I made three adjustments to lower the sight elevation-that accounts for a few shots that are a little high.The Lilja is looking good! Life is good when I am shooting.

I just got my importer to order me one too.Douglas ,chrome moly,458 Lott,1-14 twist,5A sporter contour(458SPT),26 inches

I fellow I spoke with their said there is a two week turn around time...but it would probably not be here for at least a couple of months.I am going to let my smith chamber it.

I am adjusting the sights on one of my Rugers.This is at 100yds-open sights.There is a three shot group just to the right of the bullseye and a first shot fouler to the top right.I used a little oil in the cleaning process-that is what I think threw the first shot off.
I need to drift the rear sight a bit to the left and reshoot.The process is much not that simple.
Speaking of oils,I don't know what they put in the stuff but it seems that once in the bore it never comes out.I now only use wipe-out to clean my bores.I might use JB for the carbon ring in front of the throat after many rds but that's it.

I have three targets from last practice session.One from my 22LR with Benchmark barrel, the other from my 308 win and the third from my ruger Black Hawk 45 Colt.I cast bullets fort he 308 and 45 Colt.I am at beginner level for handgun having just started a coupe of years ago and don't shoot with it often-but I am shooting more and more with it because it is increasingly fun to shoot.The 308 barrel has many thousands of rds through it and shoots many flyers-even from the bench.All targets were shot offhand and standing of course.The 308 and 22LR were shot at 50yds and the 45Colt at 35yds.

I shot the 22 off the bench at 50yds to test its accuracy.I am going to shoot it again and pay closer attention to sight picture.



I shot another one of my Ruger Lotts out to 100yds from the bench.Again I am going to pay closer attention to sight picture next time out.I checked my cases afterward and noticed that a couple were too long and needed trimming.I don't know if that caused the one to shoot high.I will shoot again next time and see what I get with the trimmed cases.

My gunsmith so it squared up correctly. He told me sometimes they are off slightly, all I needed to hear.