One of the things I got the wife for Christmas was a Hog hunt in Tennessee.

Of course I am going with her!

It will be kind of a pre 30 year anniversary present too. We hit the big 30 in February!

She is going to use our son in law's Model 70 in 30-06. I am going to use a my 629 5". It will be loaded with a homecast bullet from a 503 H&G mold and my own home made lube, ontop of 20.2 grains of WC820. As a matter of fact I got the 44 mag/spl dies for my SDB for Christmas. Here is a picture:



Do you think this combination will get the job done?

I am heading to the range to see just how these loads perform.

p.s. Paul, this will interest you. I used my Dillon SDB as a single stage press. My cases came factory primed so I didn't want to "reprime" them. I stuck a case in the loading slot, moved the handle enough to "recock" the mechanism and sent the case to the powder station. Then I completed that case until it dropped out the unloading gate. Not all that fast but it worked. Otherwise I would have had to disassemble the primer punch, remove the primer slide and so on. I just thought you would like that little story.

quote:

Originally posted by smith crazy:

Do you think this combination will get the job done?

YES!
Any large herds located are doomed to a cooking pot!

ABSOFRICKENLUTELY!

Skip,

That's a nice looking bullet!

Just about any big bore doing 1000 fps or so is sufficient for the hog slaughter, if you shoot them pretty close to right thru the shoulder or head shoot them.

I just got thru casting some RCBS .41-210 K bullets and I think that #503 is a better looking bullet. It's more like a big 358429 or that .45-255 NEI copy of an Ohaus.

Since I really like .357s, I also cast about 300 358429s and some 358477s. The 358156 mould I have isn't very good, so I didn't cast many of those.

quote:

Skip,

That's a nice looking bullet!

Thanks Paul,
My wife bought that mold off of ebay and paid a pretty price for it too! I love that bullet. Been shooting my 9mm a bunch lately so haven't had the time to invest with this one.

I too have some 357s, one I don't like too much. It is a 357466 but it has a "JW" added to the end. I am not too fond of this mold. It works fine I just don't care for the bullet. I also got a 209BB H&G that I use. Now that one I really like.

Smith Crazy, if you don't mind my asking, where in Tennessee are you hunting? I'm in North Georgia, just a few miles from Chattanooga, and am always looking for places to hunt that are recommended by members.

Good luck and let us know how your hunt goes!

Those bullets should hit like freekin Thor's Hammer!

Nice looking crimps, BTW.

Yeah, I noticed those nice crimps too. What crimping die are you using, smith crazy?

Congratulations on reaching the 30 year mark.

Thanks on the congrats flop.

These were done with my new Christmas gift, a set of 44 mag dies for my SDB. Dillon dies are the only ones that will fit in that press.

I think one thing that makes them look good is the bullet itself. That Keith style just lends itself to a firm crimp.

I will shoot some of them over the chrono real soon and post the results here.

That bullet looks like a hard hitter, just what you will need to down a big Hog.

I'm not familiar with WC820, what kind of velocity will it produce? What about pressure? Did you use Gas Checks on those bullets or are the velocities low enough so you don't need them?

Hey Arch,
As far as WC820 goes it is a surplus powder originally designed for the 30 cal. carbine. There are several lots available and the one I have is supposed to be like AA#9. One thing about it is it is cheap, meters great and has nearly no muzzle flash.

The load I told about in the opening of the thread is producing around 1185 fps. Here is another reason for using this powder, my 5 shot string had these results: 1186, 1176, 1183,1189, 1190fps.

I goofed up and didn't reset my chronograph so I will have to do the math to figure out the standard deviation but I can tell you now it isn't much, which is a good thing.

No signs of excessive pressure at all. Recoil was manageable. No gas checks.

I am thinking about going up in powder to see what happens. This is a little under what I was wanting. It'll work without a doubt.

Also, there was no leading at all, period.

Another good thing!

SD Calculator
Found this on the web. When I plug my numbers in it comes out to 5.04.

I'm not sure what a good SD is supposed to be but I can tell you this, this one is good!

Wow, that's some interesting stuff, I just might have to give it a try for my .357 Magnum rounds. I like cheap but I like those numbers you reported even better. Thanks for the info...

I decided to borrow a Marlin 1894 to take along as well. This is one of the rifles that took a couple of deer this year with some other hand loads I had made.

I thought I would shoot these 250 grainers out of it and see what they would do. I was surprised at the accuracy as well as the velocity. It isn't a sub MOA rifle but I was looking at a hog and their body is much bigger than an inch!

The velocity was an even 400 fps higher for the extra 15" of barrel. I shot them out of the 629 and got 1185 ish and out of the Marlin they were 1580. That ought to do it!

Smith,

We'll never know. After reading this thread heards were seen heading south of the boarder.

Happy New Year!