Just wanted to do a quick update. I just took delivery on a second 35 Whelen AI - this time on a M70 Featherweight. Pac-Nor Barrel, 1:14 Twist, 22" length. I had it contoured to match the factory barrel, so it dropped right into the factory stock with no work at all. Instead of a 3X-9X like my Remington, the Fwt has a 1.5x-5x Leupold VX3i.
This time Thumper (water dropped) was lubed with 2500+ and I did not fill the top lube groove. The leade on this rifle is a bit different, as the reamer came from Manson instead of JGS, so the OAL of the loaded rounds was a bit longer. I just wanted to get a feel for how this slug would do in this rifle, as the throat is also a tad bigger than my other rifle and I wasn't sure if the already sized Thumpers would have too much clearance and cause leading. I loaded up 10 with 52.0 grains of WC852f and lit them with Fed 215 primers. Brass was formed from Winchester once fired 30-06, and this was its first firing in the Improved chamber.
I scrubbed the barrel as clean as I could in the 10 or so minutes that I had available, but I know there was still a bit of copper left from my earlier shooting. The first 3 rounds would not be considered a group, but then it settled right down and made a pretty decent group. I did have one unexpected flier, which impacted close to one of the first 3, but that means nothing really, and I am not sure what cause it. The group ended up with 6 rounds in it, minus the 7th round flier which was about 1.5" wide, and the group measured 1.35" C-C. Velocity from the PACT Chrono averaged 2070 FPS (and this load is below max by at least 4 grains, and is 3 grains below the best group from my Remington). A full charge should put this round at over 2300 FPS. The round in the upper lefthand corner was from testing some Speer Hot Cors.
There is more work to do, but it is a promising start.
