Ian
Notorious member
Guys, I got one that just won't shoot cast bullets. My AR-45. Been struggling with it for a couple of years and have fixed a variety of issues with it, but ultimately it still won't shoot cast accurately.
Since Ramshot True Blue recently came back in stock in a few places, I picked some of that up because it has always been an excellent performer in all of my medium to heavy handgun loads and I have missed dearly not having any of it around in the last five or so years. Ballistically, it does not disappoint. But it didn't fix my problem with the AR-45, either.
First target is from bags at 25 yards with a 3 MOA red dot. This thing has a 16" barrel, mind you. And did I mention the group was shot from bags?
The right hand target was shot immediately after the first with Federal American Eagle ball ammo. The first shot going down on top of the BLL wasn't even a flyer. But look at the chrono data.....pretty pathetic.
The bottom target was fired standing, off-hand, with the magneto-speed chronograph mounted to the revolver's barrel. This is a fixed-sight Uberti with a 4-5/8" barrel and the first three shots were me trying to find paper with this load. Finally figured out where to aim and got a respectable group (for me, anyway). Compare that to the benched rifle group with the same exact ammo. Nuts.
When I first got this upper it was grouping around 2.5" at 50 yards with a bullet style that it won't feed, since then it's been downhill. I've tried Clays, Bullseye, Titegroup, HP-38, Red Dot, Unique, Universal, True Blue, and Herco. I've run the AM 45-230L, 230C, 255C, Lyman 454190, 452374HP, 452664, MP 45-200 SWC, Lee TL-230TC, standard 230TC, 228-1R, some cast with straight WW, some with some tin added, and some cast of 50/50 alloy. I've used Felix lube, SL-68.1, and a couple variations of BLL. I've tried matched and mixed brass. Messed with crimp a lot, to no effect. I don't get any barrel or throat leading with most of the above combinations.
I don't like admitting defeat, but I think I'm going to have to throw in the towel on this one, 20 MOA isn't even fun to shoot...and I have shot it at 100 yards and it's actually more like 25 MOA at that range.
Since Ramshot True Blue recently came back in stock in a few places, I picked some of that up because it has always been an excellent performer in all of my medium to heavy handgun loads and I have missed dearly not having any of it around in the last five or so years. Ballistically, it does not disappoint. But it didn't fix my problem with the AR-45, either.
First target is from bags at 25 yards with a 3 MOA red dot. This thing has a 16" barrel, mind you. And did I mention the group was shot from bags?
The right hand target was shot immediately after the first with Federal American Eagle ball ammo. The first shot going down on top of the BLL wasn't even a flyer. But look at the chrono data.....pretty pathetic.
The bottom target was fired standing, off-hand, with the magneto-speed chronograph mounted to the revolver's barrel. This is a fixed-sight Uberti with a 4-5/8" barrel and the first three shots were me trying to find paper with this load. Finally figured out where to aim and got a respectable group (for me, anyway). Compare that to the benched rifle group with the same exact ammo. Nuts.
When I first got this upper it was grouping around 2.5" at 50 yards with a bullet style that it won't feed, since then it's been downhill. I've tried Clays, Bullseye, Titegroup, HP-38, Red Dot, Unique, Universal, True Blue, and Herco. I've run the AM 45-230L, 230C, 255C, Lyman 454190, 452374HP, 452664, MP 45-200 SWC, Lee TL-230TC, standard 230TC, 228-1R, some cast with straight WW, some with some tin added, and some cast of 50/50 alloy. I've used Felix lube, SL-68.1, and a couple variations of BLL. I've tried matched and mixed brass. Messed with crimp a lot, to no effect. I don't get any barrel or throat leading with most of the above combinations.
I don't like admitting defeat, but I think I'm going to have to throw in the towel on this one, 20 MOA isn't even fun to shoot...and I have shot it at 100 yards and it's actually more like 25 MOA at that range.