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any body shoot cast bullets

gun_doctor

Member
Joined
Oct 7, 2007
Messages
9
have a rem 700 in 22-250, really nice varmint rifle
26" bull barrel, nikon bdc scope dial focus, all the bells and whistles
does anyone here load cast bullets?
these are sized lubed and gas checks
just wondering if the 1:14 twist would rip them to shreds or they would work well

have 53 grain and 63 grain molds both are gas checked and lubed and all that good stuff
 
Your fit, lube, alloy hardness, and intended velocities will be the overall determining factors. With cast fit is King, and Lube is Queen.

That said your probably going to need something pretty substantial in your alloy if your intending to drive them much over 2000 fps.

There are a couple of lubes that I have been keeping my eye on over on Castboolits, that some have been pushing the envelope with in the 22 cal and a bit bigger. Most who are shooting cast are using something in the neighborhood of a 18'ish BHN or so in order to keep them from stripping the lands.

If you haven't gone there already I HIGHLY suggest it and do a little bit of searching or simply look in on the Sub Forums on favorite loads and similar. There is quite a bit of information there that can save you some time and elbow grease.

I wished I could offer more, but so far I am still getting my feet wet with my magnum revolvers. I DO however have several rifle bullet molds but I want to nail down my other loads first.
 
41mag is right.

I shoot cast in my 44 mag pistol, 375h@h , and 405 win and none are over 2K fps. You are more concerned with obduration(bullet swelling up to fill the bore) with cast than final velocity. You need a good, stiff bullet (preferably water quenched) and a gas check and good lube for any hope of results.
Have fun with this if you attempt it; it will be challenging but can be very rewarding. I get 1.5" 100 yard groups with my 375 with cast 280 grain and it recoils like a 270 with it. I'm still finalizing a load for my 405, but it is starting to show some real promise. I should be done with this by now, but I went deep on setting up a few bolt rifles this year and haven't really taken the time to get the lever going as well as I should have.
 
Buy you a Lyman Cast Bullet Reloading Manual and have fun. I've shot 22, 30 and 7mm cast rifle bullets as well as all calibers of pistol for years. Great fun. Start collecting wheel weights and linotype for your rifle bullets.
 
the Lyman book is a very good starting point for cast bullet shooting. Also in many manuals there will be cast bullets called out in the loading data (forget the Hornaday manual as their data is a joke). I like the AA manual and the Hodgdon manuals for shooting lead bullets. But also keep in mind like other posters have said that lead dosn't like to be driven faster than 2000fps (I'd prefer 1750fps). Never had good luck shooting cast lead in modern cases, but that's just me.

gary
 
The biggest problem with hornady and speer data it is for swaged(rather soft) bullets and not hard-cast lead. Swaged pills require a lot less pressure since their softer bodies will obdurate at a lower pressure. As I said earlier, the hardness of the bullet is the key here, not velocity. The target will tell you when you have it right, as the group will suck in. You can't polish a turd, but with a controlled alloy and enough pressure to get it to work, moa is very possible with cast. I barely worked with my 375 and have it at 1.5" at 100. It would group tighter if I really worked with it.
 
I have been shooting cast bullets in 3030 and 308win for 3 decades now. I use the Lyman book for load listings. And I agree stay around 1700fps and you cant go wrong.
My recipe is wheel weights and 50/50 solid core solder (98 pounds melted wheel weights + 2 pounds 50/50).

The mold I use is lyman 311291 with my recipe it weighs out at 162 grn before gas check and siseing
 
most of my cast bullet stuff is out of hand guns, but do use them in my 38-55. The 38-55 is border line in leading, but is so fun to shoot!!! In my 44's I have run into leading at 1650 fps out of my T/C's. I do shoot one load that is good for 1750 fps, and it starts to show lead build up after about a dozen shots. On the otherhand I fire form 30 Herrett cases with cast lead bullets at close to 1900fps without too much of a problem (I can get about fifty shots before it gets real bad.), so I also think maybe the bullet diameter has a lot to do with this problem. Yet I can shoot anyone of the 45LC's all day long without any lead build up to speak of.

The website ought to create a cast bullet forum
gary
 
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