Looking for recomended loads for a Whitacre barrel.

[Dave Howard]

I have a new Whitacre barrel and am looking for recommendations for loads that will work well. I realize that everyone has their own secrets and black magic and technical expertise about the subject, but I am willing to listen to all that will contribute their rich compost of wisdom to the subject. We put a man on the moon and all usin's are trying to do is put a piece of lead through a target at 50-100 yards. Thanks in advance for your suggestions.

[Maillemaker]

My Whitacre P53 barrel likes 46 grains of 3F using the .578 RCBS Hodgdon sized to .576.

Steve

[Robt. Propst]

My Fayetteville Whitaker barrel best combination is the Hogden Minie sized to .576 with 3f Goex at 47 grains. Bob

[S Myers]

My husband's Whitacre barrel likes 45 grains of 3f Goex and a .577 Rapine New Style Minie sized to .575.

Sherry Myers

[Dave Howard]

Just wanted to give you all a bit of feedback about shooting this barrel. Went out this past weekend and took a box-o-bullets featuring Moose wad cutter, Lyman New Minnie, and a Moose Wilkinson. When I got this barrel it had a card on it stating it was .577. When sizing to .576 I found the bullet to be still much to tight. I then sized to .575 and found that to be much more to my liking.

Started with the New style with 40 gr fff of swiss. Found out I got better groups as I added a few more grains of powder. I messed with it for a while and figured I should stop but who could stop without trying the Wilks and wad cutter. I have always been a more economical shooter liking lighter bullets and less powder. Backing down to 35 grains I loaded up the Wilks and to my surprise I shot a group (from the bench) that had 3 touching and 2 within .5" from the 3 shot group. Tried the Wad-cutter with the same powder charge and was able to get a respectable group but not quite as good as the Wilks. These groups were shot at 50 yards. Moving everything to 100 yards found very similar groups between the New style and the Wilks but the Wad-cutter seem to open up more than I wanted. I decided to use my remaining time shooting the Wilks as I wanted to see if I could get the barrel to load up on such a small amount of lube and no hollow. The 25th went down just as smooth as the 1st! I did not expect this result. Upon cleaning there was no evidence of lead and the barrel cleaned up about like normal. The information that I had about the Wilkinson had talked about little lube with cleaner barrel qualities.

I will try and keep updating this thread as I get more data. Please add data as you see fit. Let's have some fun with this....

[ms3635v]

Dave,

I have been shooting a Moose Wilkinson in my Whitacre barreled l Zouave for the last two seasons and it shoots extremely well. I agree with your experiences. Very little cleaning is necessary at the end of a match. The barrel is .577" and I size to .576" and use 40 grains of 3f GOEX with just the base dipped in MCM lube.

[Francis J. Miller Jr, 02601]

Hi Mike,

Question, is your Whitacre barrel on your Zouave a 3 groove or 5 groove?

[ms3635v]

Hey Herb,

It's 3 grooves, 1in 72 twist

[Dave Howard]

My Whitacre is also a 3 groove 1 in 72. After reading the replies I want to get back to the range and up the powder by a few grains. I may revisit the sizing die situation and try a .576. I want to sincerely thank everyone for the replies to this thread. Many years ago, when I first started, we had no forum and no computers. What was accomplished in less than 2 weeks would of taken the better part of a season to complete. I am not saying the system is perfect but, if used right, the advantages far out weigh the negatives. Thanks to all and maybe someday I can put faces with names. After all, this is my second time around the block and I have a lot of time to make up!