"Bluesdaddy .30" Build almost done!

[bitterman]

Hi Everyone,

Been working on this with Mike the builder since January. It is now up her in canada.

I roughly used the B50/Datsate huntsmaster as a place to start but the whole gun was made from scatch except the trigger group. It is from a b50.

-28" .30 LW Airgun Blank (will give about a 26.5" barrel compared to the 18.5" stock barrel)
-Riser Breech
-Big tube 1 3/4"od (1 1/4" id) .... 8" longer than stock.
-Boyds stock


The stock for comparison is a b50 stock


































we needed more flow through the valve


The hammer


we were not without breakage... this was a valve that did not hold up


Mike did some testing using the gun int eh vice as I had the stock here for finishing



(20:03:51) bluesdaddy: 86gr 900
(20:04:42) bluesdaddy: 68gr 965 to 1065
(20:05:01) bluesdaddy: backed off to 950
(20:05:31) bluesdaddy: getting about 20 good shots with 68s
(20:10:11) bluesdaddy: velocity stays up above 875

To summarize!!!!
154FPE with 86gr @ 900fps
171FPE with 68gr @ 1065fps
136FPE with 68gr @ 950fps

He also tried some 55 grain Mr Hollow points and did 175 FPE with them but were not accurite. First tune was 50.15 Daystate Emporer at 950 fps. Mike was hitting paitballs at 100 yards with it!

Got thinkgs up here from the USA into Canada



Unfortunately shipping was not to kind to us.





I repaired the broken trigger group.. drilling new holes and taping for 8-32 screws. Also had to modify the screws to fit.



the gun did nto have a trigger guard so I made one




I did not like the raw look so I flame blued the trigger guard and stainlees screws. The steel took the blue much carker than the stainless as expected.




This is the Gun befofe lame blueing the trigger guard.. but scope on and ready for action.



Hope to get air soon.. My tank is out for hydro :( I will do a full report on performace once I get the kinks iron'd out!

Bruce

[rsterne]

Beautiful job on the build, and a real powerhouse.... With the decision to concentrate on cast bullets, a .308 barrel would have given you much more choice in cast bullets.... The 113 gr. Lee FN or 120 gr. RN are great rounds in my DAQ....

Bob

[bitterman]

Beautiful job on the build, and a real powerhouse.... With the decision to concentrate on cast bullets, a .308 barrel would have given you much more choice in cast bullets.... The 113 gr. Lee FN or 120 gr. RN are great rounds in my DAQ....

Bob

Thanks Bob! Yeah hind-sight is always 20/20.... We are in the middle of a custom 75 grain mold from Veral Smith at LDT. that will most likely be the normal shooting and plingin bullet for shot count. The 68 grain mr hollow point are getting about 20 shots @ 950fps. Wish had more of them resized to fit to test. Also Miek will modify the mold posibly for hollow point pins :) to drop close to the 68 grains again. Should be potent for yotes.... and a decent shot count. I will back thigs off for pellets still... We have adjustable stroke and also several hammer springs. 12# 20# 25# and 30# springs. So lots of tuning options. The 12# spring is on the light side... Might look for a 15# 3.5" spring also.

The transfer port was on the small side for max power only being .228 instead of the .250 to .280 we would need for maxpower... But that was not the goal.

As some of you don't know and Bob is eluding to our barrel is a wierd size. This is a .30 that went throught he barrel....



Should have gone a .308 barrel and forgot pellets... but honestly was not expecting this kind of power. I would like to see what it does with a 113 or 120 grain too... bet its going to hit 185-190 fpe... but do I need it..... Not unless I coudl go after deer here....

The 68 grain shoot decent eventhough was a bit large a resize.

I am trying to get a custom lee sizing die to size casting doewn to about .301 (the rcbs customer sizer I sent to Mike was .301) Also the .303 my hollow points are very tight... he had indicated they run .3025 to .3035 outa the mold.

The pellets do shoot well acording to mike so a nice option if I need lead and time will tel but might get a nice shot count at 100 FPE.

Bruce

[rsterne]

My experience has been that both FPE and shot count tend to increase as the weight goes up.... If you are fighting a tight bullet fit in the bore, however, the extra drag of a longer bullet that is too tight might change that.... I still find it just wayyyyyyyy too weird that you got an LW barrel that is NOT .308" bore....

Bob

[bitterman]

My experience has been that both FPE and shot count tend to increase as the weight goes up.... If you are fighting a tight bullet fit in the bore, however, the extra drag of a longer bullet that is too tight might change that.... I still find it just wayyyyyyyy too weird that you got an LW barrel that is NOT .308" bore....

Bob

I asked Mike about that and think I may have found the answer. LW does 2 different depths to rifling abotu .0025 deep and .004 deep. Mike said they recomended the shallower rifling for pellets so that is what he ordred. I expect that the bore is a tight just under .300 maybe a bit smaller with a .005 increase in major diameter. The 2 different ties Mike slugged the barrel there was a .005 difference.. the actual measurement is unknown. Also less rifling passes with the button would result in less wear on the minor diameter. I expect for the pellets to fit and show the rifling it does must be on the tigher size. Also the fact that the .303 un resized mr hollow points fit very very tight.... makes me think we are on the smaller size and this is why te pellets work. If I was going to only shoot pellets I woudl be tempted to get a slight chock on the barrel to ensure a more optimal fit fo the pellets as they come out the barrel. Then order another barrel for .308 ammo... Thinking that might be the best option overall really. Then swap barrel for what I want to shoot, change hammer spring and change stroke.

When Veral gets the slugs, I will ask him to let me know the size for minor and major so I know.

Bruce

[SeanMP]

I asked Mike about that and think I may have found the answer. LW does 2 different depths to rifling abotu .0025 deep and .004 deep. Mike said they recomended the shallower rifling for pellets so that is what he ordred. I expect that the bore is a tight just under .300 maybe a bit smaller with a .005 increase in major diameter. The 2 different ties Mike slugged the barrel there was a .005 difference.. the actual measurement is unknown. Also less rifling passes with the button would result in less wear on the minor diameter. I expect for the pellets to fit and show the rifling it does must be on the tigher size. Also the fact that the .303 un resized mr hollow points fit very very tight.... makes me think we are on the smaller size and this is why te pellets work. If I was going to only shoot pellets I woudl be tempted to get a slight chock on the barrel to ensure a more optimal fit fo the pellets as they come out the barrel. Then order another barrel for .308 ammo... Thinking that might be the best option overall really. Then swap barrel for what I want to shoot, change hammer spring and change stroke.

When Veral gets the slugs, I will ask him to let me know the size for minor and major so I know.

Bruce

Bruce first off let me say that your build is absolutely brilliant! Nice job.

I maybe able to help you out with some of those barrel issues.

Firstly, you said a .303 Mr Hollowpoint was really tight. Was it a .303 British casting? If so thats actually a bigger bullet than a .308.

Looking at your push through it really looks like the leade has some issues. My guess is that there is some displaced metal right at the entrance to the bore which is skewing the results. The indication for that is the grooves that are showing in the rifling imprint. Those should be flat and very shiny on a button barrel.

There is only one fix but it is relatively easy to do. Your going to have to lap out the constriction with a cast lead lap and some compound. I'm going to guess that you should be able to get that bore to .300/.306

[rsterne]

Yeah, decent efficiency there for sure.... Accurate numbers are only for the geeks like me that need to know.... *LOL*.... If they all go into the same POI that's all that matters.... The efficiency and shot string length in my gun seemed to peak in the low 900's for some reason.... in several states of tune.... When I finally settle on a configuration I'll do some fine tuning instead of full turns on the RVA and see what I can get....

Bob

[bitterman]

Yeah, decent efficiency there for sure.... Accurate numbers are only for the geeks like me that need to know.... *LOL*.... If they all go into the same POI that's all that matters.... The efficiency and shot string length in my gun seemed to peak in the low 900's for some reason.... in several states of tune.... When I finally settle on a configuration I'll do some fine tuning instead of full turns on the RVA and see what I can get....

Bob

So 11 shots within less than 2% should be great for longer distance shooting ay 100 yards. I will be backing things off slightly I hope to keep the peak under 950... When time and air allows will be seeing exactly what I get for a shot spring. Surprising how much quieter things are at this power level.

Bruce

[bitterman]

Pushed some projectiles through the bore.



Not alot of bite on the pellet head.

Bruce

[SeanMP]

Rifling imprints.jpg

This is a fairly crappy pic but it gives you the basic idea. These are 30cal. The one on the top is a partially complete and the bottom is a final