.257 HP Raptor

[Motorhead]

Bob,
Yes indeed one nice gun.  yours was one of @20 that got a little extra assembly love these past couple weeks.

Scott S

[Bob Pratl]

One thing I'll probably do in the near future is to buy me a 10 lb pot because with the heavier pellets and slugs I run out of lead fast.  That little old 4 lb single heat still works good after having it for 40+ years it's amazing that it still works.

Wayne, that just proves that old cliche, "They don't make them like they use to" you have to respect these oldies.
I started off with a 10 lb LEE pot and trade it for a 20 LB LEE pot which is much better and the pot doesn't cool down when adding more lead.
I usually add a preheated small mini muffin pan casting to the pot when it drops  1/2" and the lead temperature never sees it.
The 20 lb LEE pot costs very little more than the 10 lb pot. Just my suggestion.

[Bob Pratl]

Bob,
Yes indeed one nice gun.  yours was one of @20 that got a little extra assembly love these past couple weeks.
Scott S

Scott, Thanks and much appreciated for all of you guys in getting a quality product out the doors.
Bob

[Cranky1]

My family use to make decoy and fishing weights. Our old melter holds 110-115 lbs and takes about 10-15 minutes to go from cold to full heat. Maybe I should get me a rifle to cast for....

[Rat Sniper (AKA: PaulT58)]

My family use to make decoy and fishing weights. Our old melter holds 110-115 lbs and takes about 10-15 minutes to go from cold to full heat. Maybe I should get me a rifle to cast for....

With that capacity, you could go into business casting pellets and slugs!   

[KnifeMaker]

15 minutes for that size pot? Oh Yeah!!! I would love that!


Wayne, go big, Big Guy!!!


Knife

[Cranky1]

My family use to make decoy and fishing weights. Our old melter holds 110-115 lbs and takes about 10-15 minutes to go from cold to full heat. Maybe I should get me a rifle to cast for....

We use to make weights for some local sporting goods stores. My grandfather and one of his friends built it, it has a blower motor and runs on lp. The main casing that the pot sits on is a stainless steal sleeve out of a barge engine.

With that capacity, you could go into business casting pellets and slugs!   

[KnifeMaker]

Now, back to the topic. BOB the length of the slug the mold cast is borderline for the twist. Please let me know how the flight looks at longer ranges.

That twist loves the lyman 257420 and its copies from sujch places as Arsenal molds.



Mike

[PCPhack]

That's a fine looking rifle right there. Congratulations. Did they end up keeping the titanium plenum tube for the HP, or did they go back to only aluminum? Their web site says titanium. I would be down for one of those builds with titanium.

[Motorhead]

That's a fine looking rifle right there. Congratulations. Did they end up keeping the titanium plenum tube for the HP, or did they go back to only aluminum? Their web site says titanium. I would be down for one of those builds with titanium.

TI tubing had tube ID surface imperfections and would not create an air tight seal with valve or drop block ... JSAR went to Chrome Moly STEEL tubing on the HP models

[Wayne52]

Bob sometime in the near future I'm going to order me a .257 slug barrel for my M11 and if you have really good results with the  258-63-FN-B6 RG2 like Michael said he has I'll get the barrel machined basically like the one that's already on my M11.  The barrel that came on that M11 is total garbage IMO, it's actually choked at both ends which I don't understand at all, it's like the barrel must have been still hot when SPA did the machining on it because it only seems to be choked where OD machining was done.  It's surprising that it does shoot my 34.5 grain meplats good but pretty much all slugs are out of the question from the stock barrel.  I won't be ordering any more SPA stuff after getting the M11 because it's obvious that they're nothing like the older SPA stuff was which came with unchoked barrels that were actually ideal for shooting slugs.

[KnifeMaker]

Nothing like a good hack saw, file  a machinest square and a round headed brass crew and a bit of vlave lapping compound. it will fix it right up! dont be skeered!  Do it!

[KnifeMaker]

Wayne, the twist on the TJ .257 is 1-14. It works well for full length slugs such as the 257420, but that takes some serious HP! this is where the AF platform excels. But not every one wants a single shot.


The standard L/W with it's 17.8 twist works very well with shortened .257 slugs with the mold decked to throw a bit shorter bullet and give very good velocities. Order NO Choke and Enjoy!


Sadly, even the TJ's .25 barrel is too fast at 1-14 also. . I am testing the TJ pellet .25 which comes in at 1-22 twist. Maybe too slow, but shows promise. 


Mike

[Wayne52]

Wayne, the twist on the TJ .257 is 1-14. It works well for full length slugs such as the 257420, but that takes some serious HP! this is where the AF platform excels. But not every one wants a single shot.


The standard L/W with it's 17.8 twist works very well with shortened .257 slugs with the mold decked to throw a bit shorter bullet and give very good velocities. Order NO Choke and Enjoy!


Sadly, even the TJ's .25 barrel is too fast at 1-14 also. . I am testing the TJ pellet .25 which comes in at 1-22 twist. Maybe too slow, but shows promise. 


Mike

Both of my Sentry's have very nice unchoked barrels in them, they both have slow twists too and either one will shoot BBT's great I'm sure. I do have a barrel from a DAR25 that someone sent me that's a decent barrel but too short for my M11.  I'll probably order a LW blank and have it machined.  I wonder how things are going with Rocker1 these days, hopefully he's doing good I need to send him a PM because I haven't heard from him in a while.

[Bob Pratl]

Bob sometime in the near future I'm going to order me a .257 slug barrel for my M11 and if you have really good results with the  258-63-FN-B6 RG2 like Michael said he has I'll get the barrel machined basically like the one that's already on my M11. 

Wayne, I finally found time to cast up some 258-63, which came out very good, and I sized them to .257" but haven't had time to properly test them as I'm still breaking in the Raptor and getting familiar with it.

[PCPhack]

That's a fine looking rifle right there. Congratulations. Did they end up keeping the titanium plenum tube for the HP, or did they go back to only aluminum? Their web site says titanium. I would be down for one of those builds with titanium.

TI tubing had tube ID surface imperfections and would not create an air tight seal with valve or drop block ... JSAR went to Chrome Moly STEEL tubing on the HP models

Thanks Scott. What PSI are you guys rating that at?

[Motorhead]

That's a fine looking rifle right there. Congratulations. Did they end up keeping the titanium plenum tube for the HP, or did they go back to only aluminum? Their web site says titanium. I would be down for one of those builds with titanium.

TI tubing had tube ID surface imperfections and would not create an air tight seal with valve or drop block ... JSAR went to Chrome Moly STEEL tubing on the HP models

Thanks Scott. What PSI are you guys rating that at?

I'm still only working at JSAR in random 2 weeks spurts and not privy to the actual specs of IIRC 4130 CM, but service pressure should have no problem at 3500/4000 psi.  This is the WHY the original TI idea and now 4130CM was used in the HP models. Simply being the HP is likely to be a .257 / .357 / .30 etc shooter at VERY elevated power levels.
The standard model Raptors / Mini uses an aluminum alloy tube and best run sub 3000 psi.    Once you start to shoot these gun & realize HOW MUCH power you can make on lower pressure settings there is for all but a few really high power applications really no need to buy into the HP version.  It's heavier too !!

JMO tho ....

[KnifeMaker]

Sure would like to know the wall thickness of the cm tubing. I gott's me an idea!


Knife

[E30_S50]

Do you guys thing this bullet would perform well in this barrel? It should fit in the magazine.

[Motorhead]

Sure would like to know the wall thickness of the cm tubing. I gott's me an idea!


Knife

Simple math ..... Tubes O.D. is 1.250" having an I.D. of @ 1.055" on the 4130 CM tubes. That has wall thickness at @ .0975" .