Spent a cold Day in Alberta Casting bullets with my Accurate 314200 mould.

What mould number/manufacturer is that Tigrr?



Buck brush:

I am going to try H4831 and IMR4831, H4350, IMR4350 as well. My 308 win loves the IMR4831 with 311299's! I can push them up to 2425fps before the accuracy fails at 3+" at 100 yards. At 2350fps,its magic with that rifle! 1-1/2" or better at that velocity! That load has put cast bullets onto 10" gongs out to 800 yards!
 
Hey icehunter what part of AB are you in? The Grande Prairie WSS has lots of casting stuff, including Hornady gas checks. I picked up 1000 30 cal for 50 bucks and there was more on the shelf. They have lots of casting stuff too, I'm wondering if your local WSS is getting away from casting stuff by choice, or if suppliers aren't directing much product there? Maybe low sales caused a reduction in stock? At any rate if you're up around GP or have friends/family up here you can get gas checks from our WSS.

WSS doesn't carry gas checks any more. Sounds like they are getting out of a lot of the casting stuff. I already looked at Dragon lube site for GC. None in 303 cal. Hornady probably still makes them,but trying to find them in Canada seems impossible.
 
What mould number/manufacturer is that Tigrr?



Buck brush:

I am going to try H4831 and IMR4831, H4350, IMR4350 as well. My 308 win loves the IMR4831 with 311299's! I can push them up to 2425fps before the accuracy fails at 3+" at 100 yards. At 2350fps,its magic with that rifle! 1-1/2" or better at that velocity! That load has put cast bullets onto 10" gongs out to 800 yards!

That's pretty impressive velocity for cast bullets! I'd love to get mine that high in velocity. Don't you have any issues with leading and therefore accuracy? What do you use to lube those bullets? What's the alloy? So interesting...
 
that is correct ice hunter.

The outside diameter of an unsized 30 caliber Hornady/Gator gas check is 0.320". Lots of room for sizing and adequate grip on the bullet shank.

The cast bullets rebated base diameter, that the gas check is seated on, tends to be the same size (relatively speaking) wether a .310", .311" or a .314", cast bullet is formed/cast.

The lube sizing stage just swedges the bullet and gas check down to the die diameter that is in the lube sizer. This locks the gas checks in place as well.

Ahh good to know about the GC"s. That solves one problem. I have been casting pistol slugs for over 30 years now. Never did much with rifle cept for my .458. An then proper size gas checks are easy to find. So that solves one problem!!
 
Hey icehunter what part of AB are you in? The Grande Prairie WSS has lots of casting stuff, including Hornady gas checks. I picked up 1000 30 cal for 50 bucks and there was more on the shelf. They have lots of casting stuff too, I'm wondering if your local WSS is getting away from casting stuff by choice, or if suppliers aren't directing much product there? Maybe low sales caused a reduction in stock? At any rate if you're up around GP or have friends/family up here you can get gas checks from our WSS.

I am 1.5 hours east of Edmonton,so a little far to GP for a day drive. I think the city stores are just getting out of it because of low demand. Who knows? Its not like any of the idiots behind the counter really know anything. A year ago they had all sorts of casting stuff there.Even online they really don't list anything. The guy told me that they were getting out of BP stuff also including inline.I noticed from 2 years ago till a month ago a drastic drop in BP supplies...just another reason why I got out of it. I will either have to keep looking online for molds or maybe a call to Higginson for the lee molds I want. Or check out the cost on the mold the OP has. Its no big panic,just was gonna play with it this summer on gophers.
 
That's pretty impressive velocity for cast bullets! I'd love to get mine that high in velocity. Don't you have any issues with leading and therefore accuracy? What do you use to lube those bullets? What's the alloy? So interesting...

I went through quite a learning curve with my 308 win shooting cast!

The lead bullet is limited by its alloy strength, as to what kinds/levels of pressures that can be applied to it before a structural failure.



My bore is a .300" and .308" grooves, as to be expected. The bullets are sized at .310"

My alloy (18 lbs wheel weight lead + 4 feet of lead free solder) Air cooled.

I use Lymans Super moly bullet lube.

I use Hornady,Gator, or my home made brass gas checks for the higher velocity loads.

The lyman 311299 bore riding bullet I cast is seated out to firmly engauge into the lands when the bolt is closed.

I make sure to lube the bullet noses with lee Liquid allox after seating the bullet on the charged cartridge case. I personally lube the noses because I feel that the liquid allox serves as hydraulic support for the nose/bore alignment.

The powder that my rifle shoots this combo the best is IMR4831. This powder seems to burn as the slowest possible rate to produce the results I am targeting. It leaves a little soot/fouling, but produces the velocity and standard deviation required for my purposes. Having the bullet firmly engaged into the lands definitely helps the powder burn more completely! I feel that the slower burn rate applies the pressure and acceleration to the lead bullet over a slower/longer period of time and thus reduces the tendency of the lead bullet surface to strip off, and contribute to the leading of the bore surface. In conjunction with the slower twist rate of the 1:12" twist, it works out fine at these velocity/pressure levels.

If I push the velocity north of 2400, the bore starts to foul over 5-6 shots, then accuracy starts to degrade. For those 5-6 shots, it is more than sufficient for hunting accuracy.

When I keep the velocity around 2350 fps, I can get 40+ rounds through the tube before I feel I need to clean the bore.


This is a system that has worked very well for me so far. I took a mule deer doe at around 275 yards a few years ago with this load and the bullet hit absolutely at point of aim! It was a very rewarding experience after all that load development and trajectory work! My buddy filmed the whole event of me stalking, ranging, and me dialling in the scope solution for the shot!






The barrels 1:12" twist rate is one of the things that seems to help get the lead bullet up to those speeds before imparting too much torque on the alloy and stripping metal from the bullet/ bore interface.

I have tried this technique with a few 1:10 twist barrels, and I just cannot get the cast bullet to those velocities before accuracy starts to become compromised. That is just my experience though.

I hope this information will help someone! This is my personal approach, and may not be for everyone.
 
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dt hunter very interesting post. How much damage did your boolit do to the doe at that range.?

The bullet impacted with a VERY distinct and audible thud! The bullet penetrated out the other side of her chest, leaving a hole the size between a nickel and a quarter.

Both lungs were heavily damaged about 2" all around the wound channel. There was no real evidence for or against any expansion of the bullet. but the bullet did more than enough damage to be considered adequate.

The doe did run for about 20 yards after the impact.
 
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WSS doesn't carry gas checks any more. Sounds like they are getting out of a lot of the casting stuff. I already looked at Dragon lube site for GC. None in 303 cal. Hornady probably still makes them,but trying to find them in Canada seems impossible.

WSS does carry gas checks. I saw a couple boxes of 30 cal Hornady gas checks on the shelves in the Calgary store 2 weeks ago.
 
Thankyou for the compliments gentlemen! I love casting bullets, and am very particular about my proceedure. I donot cast very fast, but it is a steady pace.

I casted about 1500 of those bullets and now I am inspecting them with a manifying lens to cull the poorly formed ones from the herd.
It will be interesting how many I wind up with as shootable.

So far, about 8 of 10 bullets are what I view as "perfects", and 1 as "seconds" quality.

The bullets that have any flaw in the base at all, are remelts for sure.

I am planning to shoot some of these out to longer ranges with my P14.
My load with "Unique" shoots very well, but it lacks a little velocity to allow my scope to make the adjustments out past 350yds.

My goal is to work out a dependable/accurate load around the 2000 fps range. This should allow me a fair bit of scope adjustment to reach 500 yards. Any more than that is just a bonus.


Flaws in the base shouldn't be any issue at all unless its a large obvious flaw that will affect balance. If the bases are rounded a bit it makes zero difference as its going to be gas checked.
 
I havent gotten into casting my own but have ben shooting cast 180 grain .313 dia from bullet barn. They look very similar to the ones the OP has shown in the photos in the pics on page 1 of this thread. Same profile and flat nose but 4 bands with 3 grooves for lube.
My loads are quite light. Using 18 grains of H4198. Accuracy is stellar in my Ross MKIII and R10 factory sporter.
 
Flaws in the base shouldn't be any issue at all unless its a large obvious flaw that will affect balance. If the bases are rounded a bit it makes zero difference as its going to be gas checked.

I see your point, but any time the base has a chance to collapse "at all" its a bad thing. I am shooting high pressures and high velocities with cast. It definitely has shown up on my targets in the past. I have even tested it. Or should I say, compared it.

The biggest issue I have with the flaws on a base, is not a slight rounding of the base edge, but a air void that occasionally pops up when pouring too aggressively. It creates an actual section of the edge that has an air pocket flaw, and is insufficiently supported to maintain structural integrity during the brutal forces of ignition and initial acceleration.

The gascheck will simply slump into the unsupported base flaw, and now you have a bullet that doesnt have a square even release from the muzzle.

For low pressure, casual shooting under 100 yards, it does make a minimal impact.

All that coupled with the fact that I have the time to kill at this moment, I might as well satisfy my OCD and produce the best possible product I can. That way there are less need for any excuses on the targets.
 
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