A 1913 smle.

[Sly Old Fox]

I have an unfortunately bubbaed rifle, lovely walnut stock, but with an abortion of a top mount for scope not permitting the feeding of clips.

Today, I finally did a sulphur cast of the bore, about 1.5" from the muzzle.
It has a 5 groove rifling, lands and grooves appearing to be about equal. So when I mike the cast, I get a minimum of 0.308" and a maximum of 0.312".

I realize that I'm not getting the exact measurements even with a quality mike but can some one suggest what mold I should look for, preferably accepting a gas check and casting hard bullets?

Thanks,

 

[Satain]

Try in the Milsurp fourms Sly Old Fox or PM louthepou.

 

[louthepou]

Hmm, wish I knew as much as I would need about casting...

Sly Old Fox, I can only suppose you tried posting in the reloading section?

I know one fellow around here in Aylmer who casts thousands each year, I'll try to find his contact info.

 

[woodchopper]

sounds like a fairly normal bore,

I don't cast, but the black powder guys migh have good info.

I'm using .458 cast with gaschecks in my .361 bore Martini Henry and its working alright. Not the perfect solution but it works

 

[sunray]

"...the feeding of clips..." Chargers aren't normally needed for hunting. A .312" barrel is good though. Hornady jacketed bullets are .312". Sierra and Speer use .311".
My Lyman manual shows a 205 grain cast bullet. Lyman bullet #311299. #2 alloy. They still make it too. Double cavity. Makes a 200 grain .314" bullet. Uses .30 cal gas checks. Part #2660299.

 

[aric84]

I currently have a 314 mould on order from Lyman, going to be using it for my No4 with a .312ish bore. Currently using a .311 Lee bullet with some success, no keyholing and have not noticed much leading. Keep in mind though that I did heat treat these bullets in the oven after casting from straight wheel weights. If I have my mould next time we meet up, I'll try and bring out some bullets of different sizes for you to try out.

Cheers

 

[Sly Old Fox]

A Hard Cast GCed Bullet in My 1913 SMLE

Further to what has been written above, I visited Louthepou on Sunday afternoon. We checked his extensive library and for the year 1913 and the specifications were for a 0.303" bore with the five lands and grooves each of 0.0065". Thus, for each land of 0.0065", there was a groove opposite also of 0.0065". A hard cast bullet of about 0.314" with a 0.30" gas check should be about right.

As far as bullet weight is concerned, I know that I would rather be shooting in the 160-180 gr. weight than 200 gr.

While I do have a small stock of pure linotype metal, the consensus seems to be that wheel weights dropped from the mold into water are hard enough and Aric above says that he tempers them in the oven.

While the 1913 SMLE was the only rifle that I made a sulphur cast for last Saturday, I also have a sadly bubbaed M10 Ross as well as a 1917 from which I have not yet made bore casts and won't be able to for several weeks.

While this thread probably should have been placed in the Reloading forum, I chose this one because of the .303 British fans who frequent it.

Thanks to you all

 

[smellie]

Lee makes a nice mould for the 7.62x39.... 160 grains, takes a gas-check, tumble-lube design. They behave rather nicely in my .303s. I'm using straight wheelweight metal, fluxed to keep the antimony alloyed properly.

The Hornady 150 is my bullet of choice for a load that doesn't bash you all that hard. Nice soft jackets. Seat them out so the cannelure shows, puts the ogive a bit closer to the rifling: works nicely in lots of rifles. For best accuracy, use the Sierra 180 flatbase and seat to the OAL of a Mark 7 Ball round, run it at about 2250. Safe load with 4895, shoots well in several of my old-timers, sweet blue murder in an uncut Ross.