.38-50 Hepburn

[Distant Thunder]

Kurt,

I'm sure you would have to admit that those longer bullets do better in your .44-90 SBN, where you can drive them faster, than they do in your .44-77 at somewhat lower velocities. Higher velocity means higher rpm and in effect a faster twist.

In my 18-twist (a slow twist) .40-65 I was shooting a 420 grain PJ Creedmoor bullet from a Fred Leeth mold, a most excellent mold, for silhouette and it did very well on all the laydowns including the rams, but it just wasn't consistent. My best and most consistent bullet was the RCBS 350 grain bullet and it worked on all that critters, even the rams. It also shot very well on paper targets out to 600 yards. At the time I didn't understand why the Creedmoor bullet would shoot so well sometimes but spray all over other times.

It turned out that in calm, stable conditions it lumbered on very steadily, but when things got even a bit twitchy it started to wander around and could get really squirrely in the headwinds. I finally learned that my bullet had to match my twist rate and while there is more to it than just length, length is an easy way to calculate if a bullet is suitable for a given twist and weight is not.

When I decided to switch to paper patch bullets in my .40 I started by asking, "What length bullet is best for an 18-twist .40 caliber?". I did not ask, "What weight bullet should I shoot?". Looking at all the info from other shooters and playing with numbers in an online ballistic program I concluded 1.240" was a good length and would be well stabilized in my slow twist.

The next question I set out to answer was, "How heavy of a bullet can I get in that 1.240" length?". I concluded that a bullet design that followed that of the Sharps long range .45 caliber PPB would be about as heavy as I could have and still have a good nose shape for the transonic zone, a reasonable BC..

Because my rifle has a very long freebore, .400", I decided to go with the 2-diameter design that Arnie Seitz and I had worked on for his .40-65 which also has a long freebore. The diameters and length of the base were adjusted to my chamber and I used the Sharps nose design. The resulting bullet is the one I attached earlier in this thread. It is 1.250" long and weighs 382 grains. It has worked better than I ever dreamed it would. It has performed very well out to 600 yards for mid range paper matches and has cleanly knocked down every steel critter I've hit with it while enabling me to shoot my first ever master class scores. The only place it hasn't really improved my silhouette scores is on the chickens! For some reason it does not hit chickens any better than all the other bullets I've tried over the past 18 years!

It is a purpose designed bullet and fits my rifle perfectly. The results say it was worth the time and effort it took to get it right.