I have been casting for years for my handguns and wanted to be able to make my own bullets for my many .223 chamberings. I ordered a set of dies from Corbin and started swaging my own 6s ogive .224 fodder. The cool thing is I can make anything from 45 grain to 80. I am using jackets made from spent rimfire casings. I am casting cores from stick on wheel weights and am having wonderful success.
I found a load ladder testing for my .223 last weekend. Today I was able to get them out to 500 and hold around .75 MOA. I had to come up with my own bc based on my actual drops, temperature and speed,over the chrony. I came up with .155 based upon my range results today.
Although it is a rather low bc these are only 50.8 gr bullets. I was trying to mimic the success I have had with that rifle and the little nosler 50 gr and Watson 52 gr. I figured I would split the difference and shoot for 51 grains.
After a trip to a local range and picking up all the spent rf cases I could find, I came home and sorted through them and threw out all the ones with either holes in the rim or bent mouths. From there they go into a vinegar and dishwasher detergent boiling bath to clean spotless. I use an old herters model 0 set to swaging position to de rim the case and make it into a jacket. I am annealing brass in my oven on the self clean cycle after de-rimming. From there, I cast my cores to drop around 40.7 gr. I match cores to brass and from here I seat the cores into the jackets. Next step is to point form and polish.
The pictures I am about to post were my first made. I didn't let them tumble enough to get them super shiny. I now tumble the finished bullet for 24 hrs before loading and they come out looking like new brass. See pictures below for the 500 yd group today. Speed was ave 3164 with a 40 es for a 20 shot string. I will post some more on different replies for the process. Load is 25.5 gr h335 br primer seated .002 off lands. Group is 3.69" ctc. This is an older M77mkII with a custom trigger and stock. It is still a sporter though.
I found a load ladder testing for my .223 last weekend. Today I was able to get them out to 500 and hold around .75 MOA. I had to come up with my own bc based on my actual drops, temperature and speed,over the chrony. I came up with .155 based upon my range results today.
Although it is a rather low bc these are only 50.8 gr bullets. I was trying to mimic the success I have had with that rifle and the little nosler 50 gr and Watson 52 gr. I figured I would split the difference and shoot for 51 grains.
After a trip to a local range and picking up all the spent rf cases I could find, I came home and sorted through them and threw out all the ones with either holes in the rim or bent mouths. From there they go into a vinegar and dishwasher detergent boiling bath to clean spotless. I use an old herters model 0 set to swaging position to de rim the case and make it into a jacket. I am annealing brass in my oven on the self clean cycle after de-rimming. From there, I cast my cores to drop around 40.7 gr. I match cores to brass and from here I seat the cores into the jackets. Next step is to point form and polish.
The pictures I am about to post were my first made. I didn't let them tumble enough to get them super shiny. I now tumble the finished bullet for 24 hrs before loading and they come out looking like new brass. See pictures below for the 500 yd group today. Speed was ave 3164 with a 40 es for a 20 shot string. I will post some more on different replies for the process. Load is 25.5 gr h335 br primer seated .002 off lands. Group is 3.69" ctc. This is an older M77mkII with a custom trigger and stock. It is still a sporter though.
