Cast bullets for plinking

[Ganderite]

I have been playing with some 30-06 hunting rifles. I find the recoil too much for extended strings of shooting.

For hunting, one needs to be able to shoot standing and sitting (I have found most of my hunting shots are standing, a few from sitting and very few from a rested rifle position).

It occurred to me that for my standing practice (50 yards) I could be using a low recoil cast lead bullet.

As it happens, I have 6000 plated 150 gr round nose bullets I got real cheap many years ago. I never used them for the 30-30 as intended because I found they would not shoot unless loaded very mild.

I did some Internet reading and saw a note from a guy that said he got very good accuracy with 16gr of 2400. I have an 8 pounder of 2400, so this seemed like the place to start.

I loaded 10 each of 15, 16 and 17 gr of 2400 and shot 5 each in two different rifles. (Marked G and H)

15 and 16 worked well. 17 blew the group.

Now I will go back and do the same test for the 30-30 to make practice ammo.

 

[Snider shooter]

2400 is my go to powder for cast rifle loads. I am a little surprised that 17 grs blew your group as usually I don’t get good accuracy until 18 to 20 grs in any of the military full size cartridges. My start load is 17.5 grs and try up to about 20 grs.

 

[MuthaFunk]

2400 is my go to powder for cast rifle loads. I am a little surprised that 17 grs blew your group as usually I don’t get good accuracy until 18 to 20 grs in any of the military full size cartridges. My start load is 17.5 grs and try up to about 20 grs.

There's so much at play there, I'm not surprised of the difference. Not only bore size but there's also the hardness of the alloy and the lube vs copper plating. I personally had my best 2400 cast groups out of my mosin with 185gr Lee bullets sized .1 over the bore cast with WW water quenched right out of the mold over 18.5 gr. BHN was around 24.

 

[Bassmaster]

2400 is my go to for cast 170 gr pc in my 30-30 load as well, I don't recall at the moment how much, but it's very accurate.

 

[B]

I mostly use 4198 but that has a lot to do with the trouble I have had finding a reliable source of Alliant powder.

 

[JBD]

Spend your money and components however you like, however large rifle primers are as scarce as hens teeth and people are selling their stock for something like 500$ a brick. You might have paid 10$ a brick but they are worth a ton of money now. I am paying for lapua small rifle match brass for 308 and 6.5 creedmore because it ends up being cheaper than using regular large rifle primer brass.

 

[B]

Plenty of people seem to think that since they haven't got lots of primers nobody else does either. Those of us with forethought aren't worried about burning a primer for cast loads... Not to mention anyone still paying $500/brick is a fool.

 

[JBD]

If you have lots then you could sell them to someone else for 500$ a brick. So whether you have a lot that you paid little for they are still a quite valuable component. I had some forethought and I recently sold a case of 5000.

 

[vagrantviking]

Almost all of my shooting is cast bullet plinking and some black powder club matches.

Not a commodity trader. Bought my reloading supplies to use.
If I'm feeling cheap I shoot flintlock!

 

[yomomma]

Life is short, do what makes you happy.

I have more than enough to last a few more years

 

[Ganderite]

2400 is my go to powder for cast rifle loads. I am a little surprised that 17 grs blew your group as usually I don’t get good accuracy until 18 to 20 grs in any of the military full size cartridges. My start load is 17.5 grs and try up to about 20 grs.

Me too. The 16 gr load is only around 1450 fps. I thought a plated bullet would do more than that. That is why I bought them. But I knew from my 30-30 experiment, they would not shoot very fast,

In both these rifles you can see that 16 was good and 17 was terrible. A very dramatic failure.

 

[Al Bear]

I’m always experimenting. And here’s my latest (for 30/30): start with a 98 grain .312 dia. cast and sized to .309. Shoots so-so over a pinch (4 grains) of Herco. But - if yer cuckoo (like me) - and you stick them bullets in a drill an file the back end enough to accept a gas check ... accuracy improves. So now I’ve loaded a batch of these gas checked casts with 8 grains of Herco ... and waiting for my next sortie!