Jerry - impressive shooting above with first class components. What does one of those SMLs weigh fully outfitted?
Agreed. The reason for my warning him was something that happened last year. I converted an H&R 45-70 about 5 years ago for a friend. His Parkinsons got bad and he quit hunting. I found a buyer for the gun scale, and all accessories including powder and bullets. Made the guy a deal at $500.Double lungs is how I have aimed for 30 years, regardless of weapon, thus the 200 grain SSTs serve me well. 100% pass through to date, 50 yard tracking jobs, and 100% recovery.
If you watch component weights, especially barrel contour and length, a hunting gun with a 22" barrel could be had in the 8 to 9 pound range including scope. I'm sure that an 7 pound gun is possible with even lighter, more expensive components. My carry gun is 9.5lb. It is a 20"bbl but is a much heavier taper than needed. I would love to have it fluted to reduce weight but I'm scared to death it will be lost in shipping to or from Twisted Barrels. The plan was to machine a lug, weld it on, and install it on my H&R 45-70 Ultra Hunter frame but I ended up building Shorty Forty. She shoots a 300gr Pittman Aeromax hard-core over 83gr of imr4166 at 2750 fps.Jerry - impressive shooting above with first class components. What does one of those SMLs weigh fully outfitted?
Make sure you make double lung shots with those 40 cal sst's because they are explosive. No shoulder shots, etc.
Kyle Pittman of Pittman Bullets is an awesome guy. Meet him in person or talk with him on the phone and you will agree. Kyle lives about 45 minutes from me. When we started building 40 cal sml's with real magnum rifle twist rates and bore diameters (1:13.2 to 1:16 Rock Creek .408 Cheytac barrels), there weren't any good bullets out there. I went so far as to anneal, swage down some .411 Barnes bullets and then full form them. They shot pretty good though.
Kyle engineered the Accumax 225, 250, 275, and 300gr bullets, had dies made and had a test batch ran. I ran some loads with various powders in Quickload. He brought 12 of each weight bullets 225, 250, 275gr and I brought the never before fired loads and my rifle to the Norris rifle range. What transpired that day was nothing short of amazing. Here is one of the targets. View attachment 128260THIS LOAD IS NOT FOR USE IN A BREAK ACTION.
A 225gr Accumax was propelled 3383fps into a .210" group at 120 yards by an untuned never before fired load. I have other groups from that day that are nearly this good with other powders and bullet weights. We also tested the 225gr saboted in Kyle's Krieger barreled 45 sml that day and saw right then that it would stabilize from a sabot and shoot accurately.
I can run a load for the saboted 225gr Accumax in a 45 break action with DI ignition. You could also use the 250gr 45 cal Accumax sabotless. If you're shooting sub moa with the 40 cal Accumax I'd say you have your load. Also, if you're getting 2800fps out of the 225gr bullet, you need to hunt with the hard core version that Kyle sells.
This target is a 250gr Varget load from that same session. 250gr bullet at 3401fps at 1/2 moa untuned load.
View attachment 128261
I'll be keeping an eye out for those!
250gr Accumax sabotless at around 2500 fps, which is the velocity you'll get with break action safe loads, is a deer thumper. You could also shoot the 253gr hard core which has a harder lead core. Go to the website and look around at Pittman Bullets.Have any of you all shot the Pittman bullets at a deer ? What was your out come on performance? I have a cva I need to send off and have converted
I provided a link to them above if you are interested in them.I'll be keeping an eye out for those!
I haven't shot at any deer yet with these but you can read reviews from them on deer at Pittmans website. I like how Kyle has people test his bullets out on deer before he releases them to the public. I'm still working up, but I've been getting 2560s and up fps with the 228 grain 40 cals in a sabot. It's still got 2100 foot pounds of energy at 200 yards so it should be devastating on deer.Have any of you all shot the Pittman bullets at a deer ? What was your out come on performance? I have a cva I need to send off and have converted
I totally missed that the first time! ThxI provided a link to them above if you are interested in them.
I've been running large rifle and large rifle magnums in the Direct Ignition screw in module. Negligible difference between large and large magnum. Maybe 10 fps tops. I've heard magnum primers help out more if you are shooting much larger loads with lots of powder to ignite.What primer are you running in the cva ?