Made up some .303 B with my new NOE mold

JR86

JR86

Regular
Rating - 97.8%
45   1   0
Location
SW Ontario
I got my new 314299 NOE mold last week and wow this thing is nice. Leagues above a lee mold. It's been freezing cold here in SW Ontario so I've been holding out on casting, but finally got too impatient so I went out and did it anyways. First night I cast for an hour and a half and gut zero good bullets. Went back out the next night and figured out what was wrong. The -20 temp was keeping the mold blocks from getting up to temp so to get good bullets I had to cast really fast! I got out 50 prestine projectiles and that was enough to get me started.

I loaded up some test batches now with 800x which I managed to get a keg of. It's a very bulky powder so it fills the case nicely. I loaded 5 rounds of 16gr-19gr to test out. We ll see how they work Saturday. My lee dies have a .310 expander so for now I used my press to push the back end of a .314 carbide drill bit into the neck to expand it. The bullets are sized to .314 with GC and seat smoothly with just the weight of the press handle. They are tumble lubed with lee liquid alox but damn they look beautiful.



I used defense industries 1944 brass


Compared to lee .312-160 and lee .314-90


I will update after range day
Jeremy
 
None of these rounds grouped worth a damn. Some of the loads were on 2 sheets of paper lol. I'm going to try lowering the load and see if that helps. A fellow netizen said he gets 1500fps from 12.7gr of 800x in .30-06 with 200gr pill. I'm gonna try 11-14gr and see if that helps clean groups up. My .312-160s were grouping better yesterday at about 3" 10+ shot group.
 
Bore slugged out at .314

I d be happy to try 2400 if you can find some for me?

I bought 8lbs of 800x because it was either that... Or nothing. Lol
 
kjohn said:
16-19gr of 800X sounds like a lot of powder to me. I would go back to maybe 10 grains.
Click to expand...


This is what I'm saying lol I don't need a new mold ppl! Hahaha. It's faster burning that 2400 so I'm thinking I just used too much. My 160gr .312 with 16grs of 2400 grouped better
 
buckbrush said:
throat dia is more important than bore dia. Most of my .303's need .316 dia. My Lee Speed needs .318
Click to expand...

There are a lot of 303 rifles that need .318 to .321 diameter bullets to shoot well. Especially those with Metford style rifling. I had a lovely Lithgow No1 with a pristine bore that measured out to .315. It loved .323 bullets sized down to .320 with .318 gas checks. My Lee Speed has Metford rifling and it shoots cast .323 gas checked bullets better than I can hold it with these aging eyes. I wouldn't try it with jacketed bullets of that diameter. I have shot jacketed full metal patch .318 with exposed lead bases and tips through that rifle with very good results also.

My .318 mold is a 175 grain round nose that I picked up at a show back in the 70s. It was intended for the lever action 32 special rifles. I like it because it throws bullets around.320 and all they need is lube and a gas check.

Powder coating bullets has really intrigued me. I have lots of pewter and not much lead so I cast very hard bullets. I am always looking out for pure lead but I only have a couple hundred pounds. Mostly scrap lead from old roofing, pipe joints etc. Wheel weights are OK but can be very hit and miss, especially the late ones.

How many here have used powder coating for cast rifle bullets, say 30cal and similar types? I have seriously been contemplating opening up a mold to .333 to cast bullets for my M95 straight pull.

I suspect that the bullets will still require a good gas check.
 
Right so I have a lee .312-160 mold. I get 3" groups at 100 with that (16gr 2400). My rifle is zeroed for it. I just got the new NOE mold. The loads I shot in Saturday gave me one 4" group, 2 6" groups and 1 like 10" group. All of which impacted a piece of paper higher than my rifle's zero. I am low on 2400 but have 8lbs of 800x hence the change to that. If I can get 3" groups with a .312 then there's no reason to assume my groups would open up when I switch to a projectile that matches the bore diameter better. I have obviously run too high of a powder charge with them. I understand throat diameter is important... But I just bought a new mold for $150 and doubt that I am going to run out and purchase another one until I have fully tested what this one is capable of. So a pound cast is unnecessary at this point. I have a .314-90gr lee mold and I load those as cast. When chambering a round the front driving band on the projectile is swagged. I can't be too far off. Thanks for all the input. Expect updates Friday after I try 13 and 14gr loads.
 
kjohn said:
16-19gr of 800X sounds like a lot of powder to me. I would go back to maybe 10 grains.
Click to expand...

I have that same mold, and I'd put the max for that bullet with 800X at about 16.0 grs - you'd see about 1700 fps. With 2400 you could go to 20.0 grs.

Have you tried shooting that bullet unsized?
 
I have that mold, too. Nice bullets. NOE does good work for the most part. Their alignment pins are prone to developing issues over time.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom