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steveleonard
New NOE 360-310 FN “The 35 Thumper”
Here’s my first range report for the new NOE 360-310 FN “35 Thumper” from the recent group buy. These groups were shot in my VZ-24 Mauser, 35 Whelen with a 22″ barrel, 1 in 12 twist at 100 yards. The scope used was an old, heavily scarred Bushnel Banner 3x9x40. Shot 5 rounds then waited for the barrel to cool down and shot 5 more for each group. Conditions were 55*F sunny and breezy with 15 MPH gusts. I thought heft of this bullet would buck the wind good.
Bullets were cast from COWW’s and about 2% Sn, oven heat treated at 430*F for an hour and quenched in ice cold water (with ice). As cast weight was 308gr. The bands measured .360″ and the nose tapered from .349″ to .352″ per the NOE drawing. They were sized at .360″ dry to seat Hornady GC’s and then were coated with three coats of Ben’s Liquid Lube. I waited five days for them to age harden after HT before shooting.
I did no special case preparation, just full length resized. Used Win 30-06 brass resized to 35 Whelen. Case lengths ran from 2.465″ to 2.477″, didn’t bother to even trim them to even them up. They were shot 22 times prior without annealing and had been trimmed back once just to even them up. It really is time to do it again.
Starting load was 48.0gr IMR4831 over WLR primers at an O.A.L. of 3.380″.
Then went to 49.0gr IMR4831.
Future loads will increase in one grain increments. I plan to try three different powders, IMR4831, IMR4350 and H414 (using magnum primers).
One major mistake in my calculations, though. My magazine box will only allow a C.O.A.L. of 3.200″, I loaded these to 3.380″ with no regard to that and had to load them one at a time. I found out they were too long at the range! Will try a length that will fit next time.
Sorry, need to reduce the size of my photos so they’ll fit
Group size 48.0gr IMR4831 was 2.425″
Group size 49.0gr IMR4831 was 1.800″
steveleonard-
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In case I don’t figure out how to reduce the photo size, here’s a link to Cast Boolits with the same post with the photos.
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?289114-New-NOE-360-310-FN-quot-The-35-Thumper-quot
This is my second range report. Trimmed the cases to 2.466″ just to square them off and make them all the same length. Changed the C.O.A.L. to fit my magazine. I was able to seat them to 3.250″. Powder charges were increased to 50.0gr and 51.0gr of IMR4831. The barrel was not cleaned before shooting these or the last groups. Unburned kernels of powder were left there with no attempt to even use a dry patch between range trips or groups.
50.0gr IMR4831, group size 2.145″
51.0gr IMR4831, group size 1.720″With the 3 day Columbus Day weekend, I was able to get another range trip in (trip #3). The only change was increasing the powder charges to 52.0gr and 53.0gr IMR 4831.
I can’t explain the bottom flyer on the first target (52.0gr) other than it felt like something moved on the front rest as the shot broke. That shot opened the group up to 2.405″. This was the first shot of the second volley of 5 shots with a cold barrel and I had slid the rifle back and forth in the bags before this shot.
The second target shows horizontal stringing. It could be good omen or bad….
35Whelen
I’ll try to get the chrony set up but, with hunting season coming up, there will be lots of traffic at the range. I’d guess the speed at about 2100 FPS right now with 3 more grains of IMR4831 to go. I have not changed the scope settings since shooting the Lyman 358009’s weighing 283gr at 2150 FPS and they’re hitting in the same spot on the target (paper plate).
Range report #4. I brought my chronograph but, didn’t bother to set it up because of the strong winds. I increased the powder charges to 54.0gr and 55.0gr IMR 4831. Cheating a little bit, I weighed bullets to +/- 0.5gr before giving them 3 coats of BLL. About one in five was either above or below the mean weight of 313.5gr with GC’s installed Cases used for the 55.0gr load were not trimmed like the others and ran from 2.472″-2.483″. I’ll trim them before loading those up again.
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Winds were strong and gusty today from 10-20 MPH. I had to use two 1 1/2″ roofing nails, top and bottom, to hold the targets down and that wasn’t enough at times. The bull pines were even swaying! The first target blew down after the first volley of 5 rounds and when I set it back up, got it upside down without noticing. I shot at it without changing it anyway because of the other shooters and it’s already large size group. By the end, the 55.0gr target lost the bottom roofing nail and I had to shoot when it wasn’t flapping. Notice that at 53.0gr the group was enlarged and mostly horizontal and at 54.0gr it was enlarged and almost vertical. 55.0gr seemed to want to go back together in a tight group but, with this wind, who knows. I still have room in the case for one or two more grains of IMR4831 powder. No pressure signs at all but, I noticed that the case mouths are no longer as sooty as before.The 54.0gr groups, when put together would probably be about 4″. The 55.0gr group was 2.490″.
Looks like it’s time to adjust the scope setting, the next groups could fall off the target.
Range report #5. Increased the powder to 56.0gr IMR4831 and changed O.A.L.’s to “tune” barrel harmonics using the bullet jump in the barrel. So, shot 5 rounds of 56.0gr loads with O.A.L.’s from 3.230″ down to 3.200″ in .010″ increments.
Conditions today were just a little better than last week. 54*F, cloudy, 10 MPH winds with 15 MPH gusts. This was after the end of a storm that came through last night. When I uncased my rifles at the range, they immediately became covered with condensation.
The edges of the fired primers are still very rounded but, noticed that they have changed and look a little more flattened. There was barely any movement of powder kernels with 56.0gr when the O.A.L. used was 3.200″, when shaking the finished round next to my ear.
I hooked up the chronograph today and velocities are not as fast as I thought. This is for the 10 shot string using 56.0gr IMR4831 at 3.240″ O.A.L. ….
Av Velocity….2041 FPS
ES…………….40
SD…………….11Here is the photo from the first 56.0gr IMR4831, 10 shot group (2.745″) at 100 yards with an O.A.L. of 3.240″. The next is a 5 shot 100 yard group (1.020″) with an O.A.L. of 3.200″. I didn’t bother with photos of the 3.230″, 3.220″ or 3.210″ O.A.L.’s because there was nothing special about them.
3.230″…..2.090″ group
3.220″…..2.515″ group
3.210″…..2.790″ groupImpressive velocities…should be a supreme killer, hitting like the hammer of THOR. I doubt you will ever recover a round in an elk or moose.
Sectional density is .342, the same as a .457″ 500gr bullet.
http://www.beartoothbullets.com/rescources/calculators/php/density.htm?bw=310&bd=.360
Continuing load work and switching over to testing H414 powder. Note that the boolits used were the last of the batch, some heavier and some lighter than the +/- .5gr mean weight and not weighed for these groups. Conditions were tough, wind wise, switching angles and intensity with 5-20 mph gusts.
SwedeNelson
Thanks Al!
I made a mistake and primed all my cases with regular large rifle primers. H414 doesn’t like those and it showed when I shot a group with it. The groups spanned about 6″ vertically.
So, started at 48.0 gr IMR4350. Used all of them sighting the scope in and half of a 49.0 load. Here’s a photo of the 50.0gr load. The bottom two shots were both the first shot of two 5 shot volleys with time to cool the barrel between those volleys.
SwedeNelson
35Whelen
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