Ian
Notorious member
Had just enough daylight and lull in the cold rain to shoot the third and fourth groups in this little adventure after work. First target got destroyed by the weather.
Anyway, I'm experimenting with higher velocity powder coat, soft bullets, gas checks, and my beat-up old Marlin 336 "rescue" all at one time. Following Glen Fryxell's lead with powder selection, I jumped right in with 35 grains of H-335 for starters, went to 36, and today eecked up another grain and shot two groups at 37, should be real close to 2100 fps and removes any doubt that the primer worked.
[EXCUSE ALERT] It was cold (to me, 51°F) and I was wearing my super-slippery light mechanic's jacket which didn't like the slick plastic butt plate and I was in too much of a hurry to set up proper bags, so I dumped shot #4 high from the first group and felt it happen. First shot, cold barrel was 1.5" low. The lower group was after I cranked on the elevation knob a bit and shot the lower group from kneeling to see if I could manage the vertical better. Not so much. But three of five from the first group went into 3/8" resting my elbows on the bench so something might be going right. [/EXCUSE ALERT]
Here's a picture of the bore inside the muzzle as best I can take one with my terrible skills and cheapo camera. There's still a little bit of antimony wash and some lead from the breech end being pushed out, I didn't clean it very well before starting this project and lots of too-soft plain-based .38 revolver bullets last summer left some memories behind and I decided just to shoot it out. The powder coated 9 BHN bullets don't seem to mind.
So far so good, I just need to learn how to shoot again, and get after that floppy-loose forearm with some RTV silicone. Will do more as time and weather permit, and get some chronograph numbers going.
Anyway, I'm experimenting with higher velocity powder coat, soft bullets, gas checks, and my beat-up old Marlin 336 "rescue" all at one time. Following Glen Fryxell's lead with powder selection, I jumped right in with 35 grains of H-335 for starters, went to 36, and today eecked up another grain and shot two groups at 37, should be real close to 2100 fps and removes any doubt that the primer worked.
[EXCUSE ALERT] It was cold (to me, 51°F) and I was wearing my super-slippery light mechanic's jacket which didn't like the slick plastic butt plate and I was in too much of a hurry to set up proper bags, so I dumped shot #4 high from the first group and felt it happen. First shot, cold barrel was 1.5" low. The lower group was after I cranked on the elevation knob a bit and shot the lower group from kneeling to see if I could manage the vertical better. Not so much. But three of five from the first group went into 3/8" resting my elbows on the bench so something might be going right. [/EXCUSE ALERT]
Here's a picture of the bore inside the muzzle as best I can take one with my terrible skills and cheapo camera. There's still a little bit of antimony wash and some lead from the breech end being pushed out, I didn't clean it very well before starting this project and lots of too-soft plain-based .38 revolver bullets last summer left some memories behind and I decided just to shoot it out. The powder coated 9 BHN bullets don't seem to mind.
So far so good, I just need to learn how to shoot again, and get after that floppy-loose forearm with some RTV silicone. Will do more as time and weather permit, and get some chronograph numbers going.
