I have been shooting the Lyman /Pope design 308403 this last two weeks .I have been using my target sighted 1903 Springfield rifle as the “test vehicle” I have owned for about a month .So far it is showing itself to be a 2 MOA rifle for 10 shots @100 yards with GC bullets. The 308403 was designed by Harry Pope to be used in the 30-06 for offhand work up to 200 yards According to old literature I have read it was supposedly one of the best. It was to be used as cast and finger seated into your unsized freshly de/recapped and charged case. Shooters were instructed to use the one reprocessed case for all of your shooting for uniformity, The bullet is a “baseband” type with .314-.315 rear band (slightly tapered to the rear for easier seating)with the next two in front @ about .304 and the remainder to the nose being .301 diameter. It is very similar to the breech seated bullets once popular in the Schuetzen rifles of the earlier part of the century. EH Harrison in his NRA work didn't have high praise for the 308403 nor do my cast bullet shooting mentors Bill Anderson and Bob Mills. I think Joe Brennan had praise for it in a F.S. article a year or so ago. I was recently given a nice old “ventless” Ideal single cavity by Bob Mills to “torture myself” as he put it.
My first time out with it I loaded 20 of them in neck sized cases. I lubed with NRA mix with 7.0 of Bullseye and finger started them into the neck and let the chamber do the final seating work. The first group fired was 1” for 5 @ 100 yards. I then shot a 10 shot group into about 2-½”,but much of that was wind I felt. I shot the last 5 into 1”as well. I decided to make up a load at the range kit so I could shoot it as Pope intended it to be. Who was I to doubt the great Harry Pope anyway? The first time out with this setup I got no better than 2” 5 shot groups and 10 shot groups were about 3”.I noticed the tendency of the case neck to get looser as I fired it and figured this could be the problem. A follow-up range session showed similar results.
I went again out today with the same setup with a 310 Lyman setup so I could size the case necks. The poor grouping with the unsized one case setup continued with no inclination of any clustering. I then resized the necks of 10 cases and fired a group with them, still just finger seating the bullet lightly in the case mouth. I was rewarded with a 10 shot group into 2-¼”.I reloaded the same 10 and fired another 10 downrange. Group #2 was 2” even and I was getting excited. I loaded the last 10 and the first 5 started well then deteriorated into a 4-½” group!! Dumfounded I looked in the bore to see if I could see any leading .I saw a strange lumpy buildup that appeared to be my bullet lube. It ran from the end of the case to about 3” in front of the chamber and a tight patch did not remove it. I successfully “shot it out” with three GC bullets.
Now some info on the lube- The bullets were tumble lubed with a liquid Carnauba wax product used for treating the wood on musical instruments that I was given by another CBA member. ( I should know changing two variables is a no no)I had used it in the 22-250 at 2100 fps with very good luck and decided it was a good candidate for lubing these as cast bullets. What I “think” had happened was at the load of 7.0 of Bulleye wasn't blowing out as it seemed to be in the hotter 22-250 loads. Well I scrounged 5 more bullets lubed with NRA formula from my box and the last group went into 1.2”.I am satisfied, but curious how they may have gotten good grouping with the unsized cases “back in the day”, I sure couldn't .I also wonder why my Carnauba lube didn't perform at these lower velocity loads. I hope to do a final test middle of the week to see if I really discovered something. Does anyone else have experience with this design?
Sorry about the rambling post<G>
See attached picture of the targets.
George Damron
"if it was easy we'd let women do it" don't tell my wife I said that!