Thread: 500 BPE load advice

Originally Posted by Maca49

Well no, if you find a double for a couple of hundry I’d be keen!!

Well it was a slight exaggeration on my part.
But he'll thats an expensive book
It's on my list of things to look out for .. but to be fair it's a long list

I have just chronographed the 500 express loads

70 grains of FFG behind the 450 grain projectile with a PEF rod filler and card wads

1370 FPS

So currently doing 50-70 speeds as you might expect from 70 grains of black powder
It looks realistic and safe to be able to up that to around 50-90 performance
There is still a heap of case capacity with a 20mm length of PEF rod and 2 card washers being used currently.
90 grains will be a nice easy fit

Sadly I now know I am going to need to re size at least the neck to be able to re chamber the fired cases and hold the projectiles

Recoil is fairly stout and muzzle rise is also pretty impressive from a 7 1/2 pound rifle.
Unfortunately the express sight leafs flip up under recoil ( good problem ) so I will need to look at how I can tighten up the pins because is a friction only system with no flat springs.
I guess I could heat it slightly and dab a tiny drop of araldite into the hinge leaf gaps and hope it just increases the friction ?

Fill an unsized case with powder up to about where you think the projectile touches.Add a card wad and push your projectile down onto the over powder wad.If you hear a crunch and the bullet sits naturally in the unsized case neck at the point where you seated it with your reduced loads,you now have your maximum charge.

Your not dealing with smokeless,your not going to grenade the gun.

I fire 110 grains of Swiss 1.5 FG behind a 780 grain Conical Ball from a tapping breachloader made in 1854 for a bit of perspective.

For the back sight,try peaning the pin at each end with a spring punch.

I have never used Card Wad with Backer Rod but if you want to then why not.I only ever use card over BP or A Felt wad/Grease Cookie/card wad stack but back then I was single

@norsk

I just put the first card wad in to let me compress the powder down a little with a 1/2" drift punch
And the top card was just because I was having some fun.

Yes I know I could rip into a bigger load but its all a learning curve and I'm just firing it and looking at the cases and seeing what they are telling me.
I'm off to see John this afternoon and I expect he will have some die blanks there and advise me what to do to make a sizer for the necks
They only need a little bit of a tweak to hold the bullets again and the cases are only about 3 to 4mm off fully chambering.

I'm picking somewhere around 90 to 100 grains will be where I find the limit of my appetite for punishment.
Then I will load up the 5 cases I have and make a big hole in a deer

I turned a couple of basic sizing dies this evening
One is a straight die that sizes about 10mm of the neck just enough to hold the projectiles
The other die is exact case taper and just smooths out the corner pushed up by the first die.
So now I can get on with accuracy testing
And i guess I will want to anneal the necks to make them last longer

Ok all you smart buggers

I have just put 2 rounds each down range of 70 grains and 80 grains FFG to look at what I need to do for the front sight height to bring it on target.
It has no front sight when I got it.
I just knocked in one that fitted.
It's way to high so impact is very low.
Anyway thats an easy fix I will make a new sight and file to zero.

But the interesting info from the 2 groups are that it's ok accurate in poor light conditions and that the 80 grain 2 shot group is even lower than the 70 grain group.

70 grain 150mm low
80 grain 300mm low

Not what I would have expected!

Ok picture is on its side
Again

The 500 are the big holes

Don't get confused by the .22 holes

Another interesting observation is how useless those beautiful English splinter fore ends are on light weight high recoil rifles big bore !

If we are talking just the gun and not the shooter,I would say the bore is being "seasoned".

You have only fired a few shots after god knows how long that gun has been idle.All the rough spots,rust,dried oil etc are being shot out the end/filled up etc.

You may have fired your first two from an oiled bore as well.I wouldnt expect any kind of stability for a good 50 shots and even more after you have cleaned it and fired it a few times.

Thats what I recon anyhow.

Originally Posted by akaroa1

Another interesting observation is how useless those beautiful English splinter fore ends are on light weight high recoil rifles big bore !

Grip the barrel tighter and feel the burn!!

Originally Posted by akaroa1

Ok all you smart buggers

I have just put 2 rounds each down range of 70 grains and 80 grains FFG to look at what I need to do for the front sight height to bring it on target.
It has no front sight when I got it.
I just knocked in one that fitted.
It's way to high so impact is very low.
Anyway thats an easy fix I will make a new sight and file to zero.

But the interesting info from the 2 groups are that it's ok accurate in poor light conditions and that the 80 grain 2 shot group is even lower than the 70 grain group.

70 grain 150mm low
80 grain 300mm low

Not what I would have expected!

Attachment 131955

My #2 musket rear sight starts at 200 yds, makes it a challenge at 50 metres, I’ll take the 70 grains down to 40 and see what happens, I’m throwing a500 grain, 45 cal projectile. A 3” fore sight is just ugly!!

Originally Posted by norsk

If we are talking just the gun and not the shooter,I would say the bore is being "seasoned".

You have only fired a few shots after god knows how long that gun has been idle.All the rough spots,rust,dried oil etc are being shot out the end/filled up etc.

You may have fired your first two from an oiled bore as well.I wouldnt expect any kind of stability for a good 50 shots and even more after you have cleaned it and fired it a few times.

Thats what I recon anyhow.

That's not very helpful @norsk I was planning on going hunting with it on the West Coast this weekend when I'm over there.
I want it to settle down before then but don't fancy running that many rounds through it in such a short time span

Originally Posted by Maca49

My #2 musket rear sight starts at 200 yds, makes it a challenge at 50 metres, I’ll take the 70 grains down to 40 and see what happens, I’m throwing a500 grain, 45 cal projectile. A 3” fore sight is just ugly!!

Making a lower sight will be pretty straight forward

Its the faster load being heaps lower that's got me a little confused.
But I will keep burning carbon and trying out other loads and see what happens

It's a good thing I only have 5 cases at the moment
Four rounds at a time is about ideal

MAYBE its a little like a pistol round...the heavier recoiling round hits higher as muzzle has lifted more....maybe your faster round exits muzzle sooner so is lower?????