cast bullet reloading question

K

kimzter

CGN Regular
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
I want to load some 200 grain gaschecked lead bullets in my Lee Enfield. Unfortunately all my reloading manuals show is light loads with fast powders like unique, red dot and such. What I really want to do is get the bullet moving along about 1900 feet per second to avoid any leading problem and come close to simulating jacketed bullet trajectory/hitting power.
My manual shows load data for 215 grain jacketed bullets at around 1950 fps.
My question is can I expect to get the same velocities and pressures using a gaschecked cast bullet?
 
You might consider one of the 4895 powders for what you want. It is relatively easy to get an accurate result assuming proper bullet fit and hardness and a good lubricant. I would start with air cooled wheel weights and if accuracy was not good go to oven hardened. That is not the only powder that can get you there but it is so dependable it has become my starting powder for most hunting velocity loads in a range of cartridges from 30 cal. to 45 cal. You can reduce 4895 to 60% of a max. load for a given bullet weight and work your way up until accuracy deteriorates then drop back to where it was best.
 
What diameter are your bullets? Have you slugged your barrel?
"...light loads with fast powders..." "Light" is a relative term. Anything you shoot with a 200 grain cast bullet won't care much about the load.
My 45th Edition Lyman book gives a 205 grain(close enough. 5 grains won't matter.) cast, gas checked, load using IMR4227. The starting load(23.0) runs at 1745 fps. Max(27.0) is 1953 fps.
"...215 grain jacketed bullets..." Sadly, nobody makes 'em any more. Mind you, a 215 grain bullet won't do anything a 180 won't do just as well.
 
You might want to think about Varget also.

The .303 and .308 are pretty close case capacity wise. I have some .308 reduced loads from the Lee manual that I would consider using in .303

You could start as low as 25 grains for about 1680 fps and work up to around 32 grains for around 1970 fps.

HTH,

Craig
 
Last edited:
The speed you can drive a cast boolit is related to how hard the boolit among other things. People do drive boolits with gas checks considerably faster than 1900 ft/sec, but they pay close attention to the hardness of the boolit (components and hardening procedures) and they pay attention to lubes as well. I doubt they do it with pure lead. The best place to start on this project is to read Lyman Manual for mixing components in the boolit. I really like the Lee Reloading Manual's theoretical treatment of velocity attainable with a boolit of a particular hardness. I found Veral Smith's book "Jacketed Performance With Cast Bullets" very useful as well. Mr. Smith doesn't lack confidence in his opinions, but he also seems to know what he is doing and I felt I learned a lot from his book. I haven't had too much difficulty driving 180 grain boolits over 2000 ft/sec with my '06 but haven't loaded for the 303. It sounds like a good project and it would be nice to know how it goes. Good luck. Fred
 
The speed you can drive a cast boolit is related to how hard the boolit is, among other things. People do drive boolits with gas checks considerably faster than 1900 ft/sec, but they pay close attention to the hardness of the boolit (components and hardening procedures) and they pay attention to lubes as well. I doubt they do it with pure lead. The best place to start this project is to read Lyman Manual and the Lee Reloading Manual. I like the Lee manual's theoretical treatment of velocity attainable with a boolit of a particular hardness. I found Veral Smith's book "Jacketed Performance With Cast Bullets" very useful as well. Mr. Smith doesn't lack confidence in his opinions, but he also seems to know what he is doing, and I felt I learned a lot from his book. I haven't had too much difficulty driving 180 grain boolits over 2000 ft/sec with my '06 but haven't loaded for the 303. It sounds like a good project and it would be nice to know how it goes. Good luck. Fred
 
thanks everyone for the answers gives me a good place to start :)
I am using wheelweights just hardened in air . I'm not really looking to get much over the mid 1900 fps so I shouldn't have to mess with extra hardening.
Sunray- I guess i meant slow when i said "light loads". My manuals showed a max of around 1700 fps with the fast powders and I was really looking to get closer to 1950 fps or so.
I have a couple pounds of 4895 so i'll start there.
Kimzter
 
Loading cast bullets in bottle neck cases in strong bolt rifles, is a lot different than loading jacketed bullets. My experience with the 30-06 and gas checks was that too high a load would simply blow a rut past the bullet and let the extra gas escape. When the faster loadings get flyers a foot, or more, out of the group at 100 yards, you can bet that is what happened. I caught a lot of bullets in the snow and proved this is what happened.
Thus, the Lyman Handbook of Cast Bullets, groups the following calibres into one group, for loading information.
7.62 Russian
303 British
303 Savage
7.7 Japanese
With this group, they show listings of 2400, 4227, 4198, 3031, and Ball C, that will all give a 205 grain gas check bullet well over 2000 fps.
It should be easy to get an accurate load in your 303 that is in the order of 1900 to 2000.
They didn't show 4895, but I think it would be a good powder for you. As you keep going up and suddenly find a very ragged group, you have too heavy a load.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom