Some work with the Wilkinson bullet this weekend.

maillemaker · February 2, 2014, 10:13 AM

Well, after having snow and sub-freezing temperatures on Tuesday, it was in the 60's today.

I made up another batch of .580 Wilkinsons, sized to .576 for my Richmond Carbine. It has a Hoyt barrel. With my usual target load, an RCBS Hodgdon bullet over 44 grains of powder, it is capable of blowing a single ragged hole in the paper at 50 yards. I first shot a reference target using that bullet. I had 3 fliers, I guess I was just warming up. 7 in the black and 5 touching at 50 yards.

I dipped the tails of the Wilkinsons in SPG lube. Bullets were weight before sizing to +/- .05% of average. I made up sets of 10 using 30, 35, 40, 45, 50, 55, and 60 grains of 2F Goex. Loading was pretty consistent through all 10 shots. Not as trouble free as the Hodgdon bullets but loadable nonetheless.

Here are the targets, all shot from a bench rest:
http://imgur.com/a/NgIb3

35 grains did not produce a terrible group.

But 50 and 55 grains made a very nice group. At 50 grains 7 of 10 shots tore a ragged hole. At 55 grains 4 or possibly 5 shots were touching. I'm missing one shot on the 55 grain target. There was one hole with a substantially darker perimeter - maybe 2 shots in one hole? Or it may have gone into the main group hole. Not sure. Pretty sure I did not miss the target.

At 60 grains things start to open up again.

So it seems to me that this larger Wilkinson takes quite a blast to get optimal compression for good groups. I want to try another run with my Enfield.

I love casting this bullet in the 2-cavity mold and really would like to use it for skirmishing as it is much faster and easier to cast. I get virtually no rejects when casting with it.

Steve

February 2, 2014, 10:13 AM	#1
maillemaker Senior Member Join Date: August 30, 2010 Posts: 1,635	Some work with the Wilkinson bullet this weekend. Well, after having snow and sub-freezing temperatures on Tuesday, it was in the 60's today. I made up another batch of .580 Wilkinsons, sized to .576 for my Richmond Carbine. It has a Hoyt barrel. With my usual target load, an RCBS Hodgdon bullet over 44 grains of powder, it is capable of blowing a single ragged hole in the paper at 50 yards. I first shot a reference target using that bullet. I had 3 fliers, I guess I was just warming up. 7 in the black and 5 touching at 50 yards. I dipped the tails of the Wilkinsons in SPG lube. Bullets were weight before sizing to +/- .05% of average. I made up sets of 10 using 30, 35, 40, 45, 50, 55, and 60 grains of 2F Goex. Loading was pretty consistent through all 10 shots. Not as trouble free as the Hodgdon bullets but loadable nonetheless. Here are the targets, all shot from a bench rest: http://imgur.com/a/NgIb3 35 grains did not produce a terrible group. But 50 and 55 grains made a very nice group. At 50 grains 7 of 10 shots tore a ragged hole. At 55 grains 4 or possibly 5 shots were touching. I'm missing one shot on the 55 grain target. There was one hole with a substantially darker perimeter - maybe 2 shots in one hole? Or it may have gone into the main group hole. Not sure. Pretty sure I did not miss the target. At 60 grains things start to open up again. So it seems to me that this larger Wilkinson takes quite a blast to get optimal compression for good groups. I want to try another run with my Enfield. I love casting this bullet in the 2-cavity mold and really would like to use it for skirmishing as it is much faster and easier to cast. I get virtually no rejects when casting with it. Steve