Overheard in a gun shop....

How do you drive cast bullets to those velocities without leading the barrel? Do you all just use gas checks, or is it the composition of the lead itself?

The harder the lead, the less is coats the bore... Or one can undersize the bullet, and wrap it twice with paper and drive that bullet at jacketed speeds with no leading problem, and the gun is self cleaning...
 
The harder the lead, the less is coats the bore... Or one can undersize the bullet, and wrap it twice with paper and drive that bullet at jacketed speeds with no leading problem, and the gun is self cleaning...

Up to a point, you can go to hard and get leading.
 
Well I bought into the worry. I ordered 4 boxes of bullets tonight..... and I got 'grouseriver'd' again. In stock out of stock...
 
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Douglas, I tried to fire form 30-06 to 06/8mm, by firing full load 30-06, hoping the necks would swell to 8mm. They didn't.
I was surprised at the recoil, which was about what you would expect from a 30-06. The bullets were stabalizing at about 30 yards.
There was a solid piece of fir wood about 5 inches thick. I shot at it and it blew a hole through it, just as one would expect from a 30-06, not a 30-06 going through an 8mm barrel.


I fired a couple factory 270Win loads in a 35whelen

Poof.... but the necks were almost full size
 
Well I bought into the worry. I ordered 4 boxes of bullets tonight..... and I got 'grouseriver'd' again. In stock out of stock...

They are always pulling that crap, if they had half of what their site claims they have, they would be the best stocked store in Canada.
 
Personally, mine are all gas checked, and I'm able to get great velocites out of them with no bad leading problems.

I actually have a few full boxes of Hornady projectiles for the .303b, but I haven't loaded any since I found the nice cast ones - it was just based on price. Glad I have them tucked away somewhere I guess.
 
Last time I bought Hornady .312's for SKS + LE they were $35/100...$.35/bullet...but if you buy a case of 7.62 x 39 it's 1440 for $275 locally...I don't like the steel casings or primers...but I do like that when I pull the bullets its $.19/bullet...plus powder :)
 
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Same here. Any store bought bullets are designated for hunting except for the 223 but I'll soon be casting for that as well.

I'm currently casting for 8x57, 303b, 7.62x54r, 43 Mauser, 577 snider and a couple muzzle loaders. All I need is a 6.5 mould and that will pretty much cover my bullet needs.

As to the question about cast bullets vs speed vs leading. Also if you cast an undersized bullet that is too hard you will also get leading. 1 thousand over bore diameter is usually a good place to start.

Too soft = leading, too hard = leading.

The key is to cast a bullet that's soft enough to obturate and fill the bore but hard enough to resist the pressure of the hot gas from the powder. Gas checks are a must at moderate speeds in rifles like my lee Enfields and mosin. But for black powder rifles like my snider soft pure lead bullets are perfect.

Casting is very fun but is a very involved thing to learn. It takes practice and lots of experimenting.
 
I'm currently casting for 8x57, 303b, 7.62x54r, 43 Mauser, 577 snider and a couple muzzle loaders. All I need is a 6.5 mould and that will pretty much cover my bullet needs.

As to the question about cast bullets vs speed vs leading. Also if you cast an undersized bullet that is too hard you will also get leading. 1 thousand over bore diameter is usually a good place to start.

Too soft = leading, too hard = leading.

The key is to cast a bullet that's soft enough to obturate and fill the bore but hard enough to resist the pressure of the hot gas from the powder. Gas checks are a must at moderate speeds in rifles like my lee Enfields and mosin. But for black powder rifles like my snider soft pure lead bullets are perfect.

Casting is very fun but is a very involved thing to learn. It takes practice and lots of experimenting.

Just began casting myself. Made 300 this weekend, waiting on the gas checks to arrive. Cant wait to get a few of them down range.
 
Have yet to experience any leading in any my firearms using WW alloy and gas checks even when going .002 under bore diameter. I'm usually using bullets at least .001 over bore diameter except in my TT33 where I'll go undersize to insure proper chambering.
 
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