Getting to know my Drilling...

Paul, that little Huglu looks a lot of fun. I love my 410 as well - just wish the bores weren't so pitted as alwys embarrassing when somebody looks down them, also the 2 1/2 inch cartridges (only 2 1/2 chamber) tend to stick a bit, so on clays just use the little 2 inch cartridges. On the high tower at the local clay ground - Cluny Clays - am hitting 50% plus, and on game its either a hit and dead or a clean miss.

Can any body though tell me why modern manufactures who use mono blocks insist on putting a band of engraving around the barrels / monoblock joint - IMHO it looks horrible. Even tope end guns have this. With modern tig welding it should be easy to join the barrels with an invisible joint, as they do when sleeving barrels on an old gun.

Sorry to move off thread. Really interesting on the efforts to get the Drilling shooting - just wish had the time and workshop to do so. Sounds a lot of fun.
 
Heym SR2 said:
In the high tower at the local clay ground - Cluny Clays - am hitting 50% plus,
:tiphat:

I learned to wingshoot when I was very young using a Mossberg .410 bolt action shotgun. The most common bird I hunted was mourning dove. I got very good with that gun shooting doves, and I attribute what modest shooting abilities I have to using that gun and learning to 'make the first shot count'. I don't have an answer to your welding/engraving question. My guess would be 'labor/time/money/cost'. But I don't know.

The Drilling work is fun most of the time, but can be frustrating at times. I would never had the patience as a young man, and would have been 'itching' to get out and 'shoot something' instead of "waiting" for the right solution to pop up. I sometimes wish I had the shooting opportunities today that I had in my youth.

Regards,
Paul
 
So I was able to get out and poke a few holes in paper this morning using the Pyrodex RS and L'ilGun loads. Here are the results at 50 paces:

GFStormerTarget1-21-11.jpg


The L'ilGun 3-shot group is 39.0mm x 22.2mm. These were a bit 'warmer' than the first shots, averaging 1937 f/s.

The two Pyrodex RS shots are 3.2mm x 15.9mm. These too were 'warmer' than the first ones at 1377 and 1351.

While 'nothing to write home about', this is fine for me with my old eyes and relatively crude open sites. I would have no 'crisis of confidence' using this on a moose out to 150, or a 'pig' at 50.

Here's the QucikLoad trajectory estimates for the L'ilGun load:
GFStormer320gat1937fps.jpg


Delivered energy at 150 yd is essentially 1600 ft-lbs; more than 100 ft-lbs over what the 'experts' say one needs for moose, and the impact velocity is essentially 1500 f/s which is great for a cast lead bullet and will allow that bullet to perform terminally "as designed".

6" low at 150 is about the width of a moose's heart. That'll "do".

The cases did not fall out of the action, so I am going to be lessening the L'ilGun charge - about half a grain to start with. There's no need to beat this old piece up. Also, I'll be working up some loads for the 225 LEVERevolution bullet. I don't expect anything 'better' from those bullets, but we'll see. Also, Hawk bullets (not associated with Chuck Hawks), has some very optimistic BCs for their bullets. I'm going to measure those BCs and if true, I'll probably get some more of them and use them instead of the Lee cast bullets. They have nice soft pure copper jackets, and pure lead cores. If the BCs of .400, (almost twice the Lee 325's .233), turn out to be correct, their 300-grainer will definitely get the nod. That said, the Lee cast bullets are almost free while the Hawk bullets are more than $1 each when shipping is considered.

You might notice what looks like a second hole by the L'ilGun #1 shot. There certainly wasn't any key-holing, and that mark has a very sharp, round edge, so I am fairly certain that it was the gas-check that had come loose. I'm surprised that it made it out to 50 yd and was still so close to the bullet. Maybe it 'let go' right before it hit the target.

Regards,
Paul
 
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Yup!

Let me remind all of this 'issue' that arose as a result of using 'soft' steel.
CrushedCaseandSpindle2.jpg


j0ebl0ggs suggested that I lose the integral threaded shaft and use a hardened steel screw to thread into the decapping rod on one end and the expander ball on the other. A good idea, and I happened to have in my hands some very nice (same threads) screws just recently scavenged from a broken door handle/lock. They are very hard, and as I said the same 10-32 threads. Trimmed off the heads and 'Bob's your uncle' I had my hardened threaded shaft.

Here are the results.
DrillingFL-DieParts.jpg


DrillingFL-DieParts2.jpg


DrillingFL-Die.jpg


The body of the die is a Calalhan die blank. Callahan Do It Yourself Die Blank Unpiloted 7/8"-14 Thread - MidwayUSA
This particular blank had a pilot hole sized for a .416 caliber for a .416x.348 Win cartridge I have made, but I already have dies for that Cape Gun, so this got used for the Drilling (AKA drei-barrelrustynailuseasashovel ;) ). Works like I knew what I was doing.

The case in the middle:
45-70416x34811250AK348Win.jpg


Regards,
Paul
 
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Kudos Paul, little tweak here little tweak there....
now you are cooking on gas!!!
Excellent work ressurecting the rusty nail!
:thumb:
 
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