Morning Folks

Last time I shot my 35.303 the cross hairs and objective lense failed in my Scope. Tasco to their credit honoured the limited lifetime warrantee.

Yesterday I got the 35.303 SMLE sighted in at 50 metres and when I marched it back to sight it in 2" high at 100 metres I noticed the stock worked a little loose and it was pointless continuing. Plan was to get the Scope sorted with the jacketed rounds, get the Iron Sights zeroed, give it a good clean then try the 208gr / 38 gr AR2208 cast bullet load I had.

This photo shows the .357 mags first load with the Ideal 356446 mould 161 gr SWC at 50 metres did not go well either. Holes under the tape show the path of the 35.303's initial sighting in. Good accuracy potential thats for sure with the last 2 shots cutting.

I started with a clean bore, put a couple of fouling loads through itand commenced testing with a charge of 6.7gr AP70N [ Universal ] under the plain base 161 gr SWC. The load seemed very similar in recoil and had the same point of impact to a Westcast 180 grain rnfp proj 12.2 grains 2400 I had a 10 rounds remaining of. 1300 fps ish at a guess.

My Lube mix - equal parts Carnuba and Bee's Wax, 1/2 by weight of parrafin and 1/2 by weight of ATF.

There was a faint ATF smell from my homemix Lube, a little smoke. The was no Lead in my Bore but it was dark after 6 rounds. There and evidence of residue, perhaps lube on the Rifles crown and the primers indicated a low pressure load despite it being listed by ADI as a near max load.

In the past I have tried AP70N in this Rifle with mixed results. My .44 mag seems to shoot well with it though. I have a feeling the Rifle just does not agree with it's burn rate

The way I see the above pattern I can increase my load, keep using the lube I mixed and see what happens.

Cast some more projectiles in several different Lead alloys to shoot in the following

I can mix a batch of lube with more Bee's Wax, maintain the same powder charge

Try a commercial lube with same charge

or I can stoke it up a little and try a moderate load of AR2205 [ H4227 ] with both a commercial lube and my homemix

In other words just keep chipping away with the benefit of any and all advice

regards Jacko