Steve499
Member
I have been interested in the Whitworth rifle for some time but when I actually got around to buying, I selected a .451 Volunteer instead. I am still amazed at the way these rifles work. You load a bullet that is under bore size and the power generated when the powder blows "bumps up" the bullet so it fills the bore and takes the rifling. No hollow base, no patch, no sabot.
I wanted to recover a fired bullet so the other day I lined up a bunch of milk jugs (13) on an inclined 2X6. The jugs were touching and the lowest one was against the ground. I fired downward through the jugs with an 80 grain charge of Goex. The bullet penetrated all 13 jugs and buried in the dirt about 10 inches. I dug it up and, sure enough, it had rifling engraved on it for most of it's length. The front of the bullet which shows no engraving was expanded, I think, by the impact with the dirt and is larger in diameter because of that. I think if I had been able to recover one without any deformation the rifling would have extended the entire length of the sides, stopping where the nose tapers off.
Also interesting, to me anyway, is how much shorter the fired bullet has become. Both bullets pictured are cast from the same mold. By looking at the grease grooves with the bases even, you can see how much shorter the area of the grooves is on the fired bullet.
The only down side of using one of these rifles for hunting is that, from a clean bore, the bullet only remains seated as long as the rifle barrel is pointed level or upward. I am experimenting with various methods to keep it against the powder charge but, so far, everything which works to hold the bullet also messes up the accuracy. If anyone has any ideas I'm interested.
Steve
I wanted to recover a fired bullet so the other day I lined up a bunch of milk jugs (13) on an inclined 2X6. The jugs were touching and the lowest one was against the ground. I fired downward through the jugs with an 80 grain charge of Goex. The bullet penetrated all 13 jugs and buried in the dirt about 10 inches. I dug it up and, sure enough, it had rifling engraved on it for most of it's length. The front of the bullet which shows no engraving was expanded, I think, by the impact with the dirt and is larger in diameter because of that. I think if I had been able to recover one without any deformation the rifling would have extended the entire length of the sides, stopping where the nose tapers off.
Also interesting, to me anyway, is how much shorter the fired bullet has become. Both bullets pictured are cast from the same mold. By looking at the grease grooves with the bases even, you can see how much shorter the area of the grooves is on the fired bullet.
The only down side of using one of these rifles for hunting is that, from a clean bore, the bullet only remains seated as long as the rifle barrel is pointed level or upward. I am experimenting with various methods to keep it against the powder charge but, so far, everything which works to hold the bullet also messes up the accuracy. If anyone has any ideas I'm interested.
Steve
