280 yard group 1.5 inches with 25 LBT

I recently changed my routine on casting with my 25 LBT mold.

I started only filling one of the two cavities for better consistancy, and I made a jig to hold 340 bullets nose first so that I could inspect them better prior to spraying with moly lube.

Today it paid off.

I set up at 280 yards which is as far as I can get here on the vineyard. I shot from the hood of my Ford Explorer at my rebuilt metal target, I replaced the thinnly metal clad target because the 25 LBT was shooting thru it at 150 and 260 yards. I replaced it with a 3/16th 92 lb 3x4' plate.

I fired 5, 3 shot groups this morning. The first 3 were in a slight wind of about 2 to 3 MPH, they were all 5 inches wide but only 1.5 in depth.

I was shooting 3 shot groups to try and shoot before the wind conditions changed. I am using a 8 inch saw blade off set from the 3x4 plate with a brass bushing, for a bulleye and the two different metal surfaces of the sawblade and the 3x4 sheet give two distinctly different sounds when hit.

I adjusted the Leupold 4.5x14 VXIII 30 MM SF Long Range MI knobs and fired two more groups. The fourth group was shot using the upper mil marks so I could see it below the 8 inch saw blade I use as a bulleye, I superimposed my Hollands MOA reticle over the group to see if I needed further adjustment, I was on so I fired another 3 shot group. Luckily the wind stopped as I shot the last group.

The first shot gave that cybal sound when it hit the saw blade, about 1 inch to the left of center, I fired another shot and it was touching the first shot. I was stoked.

I readied myself for the third and last shot thinking,"this is where you screw it up. At the shot I watched that bullet arch into the saw blade within a inch and a half from the two touching shots and then heard the cybal sound.

The last two groups the lower group is 4.25 the one on the plate is the 1.5 inch group.




The target is just above my windshield where it meets the roof line of my Explorer, just under the tall Doug Firs.




I am shooting the 57 grain bullets at 930 PFS, they hit the plate at 280 yards at 55 FPE. The flight time is 1 second, and the drop is 154 inches above my 40 yard setting. The Leupold has 106 inches of adjustment and I still have 30 inches left once dialed into my 280 yard setting.


Regards,

Roachcreek

now that's what i've been waiting to see!!!! congrats R.C., you finally got it to come together, all at the same time , no less. this Bud's for you !

Longhunter,

Thanks, it was a good day all right. But that was a unusual group.

I hope to makes some further changes and improve the bullets. The wife and I went to her favorite jewelery store where they have a RCBS digital scale, I have given my Dillon to my son, and I made a stellar deal with them.

By buying her a 1200 dollar necklace they let me have the scale for 50 bucks.

Perhaps you would like me to manage your money?

So when the two of us got home me happy with my very nice scale and her with her 1.5 carot diamond and gold necklace, the poor gullable gal is so easy to talk into these things, I weighed some bullets.

At 56.1 grains I found that nearly half of them went into + or - 1/10th of a grain, those will be my serious long range bullets.

And I am eyeing a Caldwell portable bench so I don't have to jockey my Explorer between the grape rows to shoot.

Might have to deal for the Hope Diamond on that one, no wait, I think I had to buy that to get the two FX Royales

Regards,

Roachcreek

The VXIII and a LBT

unusual group or not, i'm glad to see you're getting some reward for your effort. it's encouraging to see someone getting such good results.

just goes to show what can be accomplished with some ingenuity, persistence, and a buttload of luck! seriously though, it DOES prove that there are a lot of untapped resources available to those of us that are willing to challenge the " accepted " way that things are, when it comes to the limits of our chosen vice. persnally, i'm not one to leave well enough alone, and i wouldn't have it any other way.

Yeah, I heard the old hats preach that the Diablo was the only projectile for air guns. Recently Tom Gaylord said it again.

LD wrote how he had tried it and gave up, even had bullets left over.

Well when I got my Ranger 45 and started getting two shots touching at 100 yards, I realized that it could be done in a 45, and if it could be done in a 45 it should be able to work in a 25.

I ended up casting and shooting maybe 6000 bullets to get to this point, 4000 with just the LBT and going thru 4 molds.

Finially I learned that, the choke has to become a cute paper weight, it looks like a mini cannon sitting on my FX single shot adapter. And you have to size the bullet as close to the diameter that you slugged your groove diameter for.

Once you do that it will work. Velocity up to a point does not seem to important, unless it is too fast. I have the LBT carbine doing 770 FPS and shooting great, and the LBT rifle is detuned from 1030 FPS to 930 FPS for best accuracy.

Once I discover those two things, groups started becoming consistant and the joy of watching those solid base bullets streak 280 yards and slamming the bull is intoxicating, especially when only 3/4's of the Diablos will survive that trip without spiralling out of the view of the scope.

I made a mini lathe to cut off the choke, I drilled a hole slightly larger than the barrel in a piece of plywood, put it in a vice, then took a portable drill, chucked up the breech end and spun the barrel in the plywood for a lathe. I had scored the cutting line with a pipe cutter, and while my wife ran the drill to turn the barrel, I had my flex Dremel with a cut off wheel cutting on the line I had scribed.

I then opened up the choke using my Gerber assisted opening pocket knife as a cutter, then polished it up with a craytex dremel blub bit.

The results altho termally "Afghanastan tribal gunsmithing" speak for themselves.

Regards,

Roachcreek

I am lengthing the breech in this photo

what psi is required to achieve the 930 fps. in the 24" barrel?

i did the " double kodiak " test on my condor to check the possibility of using jerry's 6-rings and got 837 fps., if i remember right. that was with a 3000 psi. fill. theoretically, i should be able to get pretty close to the velocity you're getting with 50 grains, i think.

on a different, but related note, what was the mcmaster- carr part # for a 6 " spring with .072 wire for a condor hammer spring? i damned near went cross-eyed trying to find that post. i suppose i could just measure my stock spring, and go from there. i just don't feel like tearing the gun apart, right now. call me lazy.

LongHunter,

I have gotten as high as 1070 FPS before but only for one shot, but going to 1030 FPS I can get three shots with a 3200 fill.

But my rifles are not stock at all. The 25 LBT rifle has all Airarcher fire control parts and a RL valve stem. What that means is it has a ,80 wire hammer spring, a 135 grams hammer, a rear bushing that replaces the power wheel to allow the heavy spring room to compress and expand. Lighter valve sping that is in a recesed valve sping retainer and a tapered derlin valve seat to allow more air arond the valve spring when it is depressed and becomes a solid mass.

My tophat is set at .09 for 930 FPS but was at .12 to get 1030 FPS. I use a 3000 PSI fill for 6 shots at 930 FPS.

Than entire set up is the generation 3 Airarcher system and with the .12 to hat setting will propel a 16 inch carbon fiber shaft at 500 FPS for about 3 shots and then drops into the mid 400 FPS. The Airarcher kit is no longer made but I still get parts from him.

I don't recall what the MC number was for the 72, I think Airarcher sent me that spring to try. On the carbine the top hat is on.07 and the PW at 3 the ,72 hammer spring and the hammer is 85 grams, I cut down a Paris D hammer to make it, at 2700PSI I get 20 shots at 770 FPS and a 17 inch barrel.

If I remember right the stock spring is .60.

Hope that helps,

Roachcreek

I'm SO far out of my league here I don't even know why I'm posting in this thread.

Well, maybe, just to say good shooting!

Wow, fellers.

This is impressive stuff.

Wish *I* had a car to put into *my* pictures!

Yes I seem to be using cars as benchrests, this is my other bench rest I use in rainy weather.

It is a sturdy indoor benchrest based on the 1958 Mercedes 220S.



Regards,

Roachcreek

i really do like that mercedes.

as far as GAYlord, i've been on to him and his alter ego, bbpelleteer, for quite some time. i take anything that guy says with a grain, no, more like a half ton of salt. i really do miss Dr. Beeman, though.

won't get to do any shooting this weekend. my three month old granddaughter is up for mother;s day. it'll be only the second time i've seen her, ( the first was the day she was born ). completely my fault, i'm always gone. ah, the life of a trucker, yeah, right.