Thread: Cast bullet Varminting / Medium game Project

Originally Posted by S.E.G

I have done a lot of work shooting cast in pistols as well as rifles both sub and supersonic.

I found over size bullets work best, generally 2 to 3 thousandth over bore diameter, and that had more effect on performance and reducing leading than alloy and hardness of the lead.

I never bothered with Dacron or other fillers even when using fast pistol and shotgun powders in rifle calibres that only filled the case to 20 to 30 percent of its capacity.

I have made up a gas check punch to make gas checks from copper sheet, and found that the aluminium deodorant cans are the right gauge for gas checks and perform well and not cost to me other than time.

good on ya . . what rifles and calibers, what kind of work were you doing with them ?

The smallest was a single shot rifle in 32 S&W, which was great on rabbits and possums, along with rifles in 30/30, 303, 308 and most of your common pistol calibres.

Originally Posted by S.E.G

The smallest was a single shot rifle in 32 S&W, which was great on rabbits and possums, along with rifles in 30/30, 303, 308 and most of your common pistol calibres.

ok . . by all means add to this thread with cast bullets you have used in 30 caliber, hunting experience with 30 cal, always happy to see a thread drift.
any longer range experience ?

next 2 molds to try
150 & 160 grain Lyman
then i will look at which show the most promise for subs and fine tune them before moving up to in speed

short n fast update . . i have Lead heating up

interesting day on the farm . . some good, some not so good, some challenges.

same weather as last range session, drizzle n windy, similar results at 50yrds. . . all going well untill i got a couple of bangs instead of the wosh of subsonic, called it a day.



getting down to the range was easy enough on the wet grassy track, a few rear end slides . . getting back up was more challenging.

it might be called a Scrambler but its really a Bonnie with bling and knobby tyres . .

got to compare my new RF against my Leica 1200 before it goes to my nephew . . i should start a thread on that subject . . i would call it something like ' how to do everything wrong and ignore all advice when learning LR shooting '



its a good upgrade, the 1200 struggled sometimes where the 2400 gets a result 1st time

ran out of time to do more casting but enough to be able to pick out a few good bullets later to shoot some groups.

160grn. Lyman left . . 150grn. Lyman right



bit of a rough plan going forward is to drop the next powder charges down to 6.00grns and see what happens but thats as low as i am prepared to go with this powder/rifle . . if that doesnt work and i still get the odd BANG i might call it a day with the subs and move onto higher speed loads, something in the 15-1600fps range, maybe more.
the annoying part is this powder and cast bullets are a great combo in my Brno .308 & Marlin .30/30 at Sub speeds . . no fcking around just load up 7.00grns add any of the boolits i have already tried and its good to go.
Turns out i have been spoilt in the past and might have to work at this project . . dont know if i can keep up the love if its going to play hard to get . . we shall see.

looking at the bore riding nose of this bullet with deep engraving and making up a dummy round i know it will be fully supported in the chamber and lined up straight ready for its trip down the barrell . . like it !

short update . . i will try 2 seating depths, lightly crimped.

also loading up some more 150grn sst . . thinking i better show my nephew how to shoot out to 5-600 yards, telling him has'nt worked.

next up once i have a combo that works i will look at hollow pointing some bullets with the Forster attachment.

great little machine . . a bit slow if you do it by hand but being able to play with the size and depth of the hollowpoint is a biggy.
i have tried shallow to very deep, soft alloy to harder looking for the perfect mushroom/penetrating bullet.







probably going to let this thread sleep for awhile, for at least the holidays.

if someone wants to throw some of their experiences with lead into this thread it wouldnt be a bad thing . . i was thinking of looking back to where i started casting with an old pot and kero burner i got for $20 at a garage sale, real basic gear but i was turning out decent bullets that i could hunt with and enjoyed many hours at the Range with.
Anyhoo . . take it easy and i will see you on the other side

R.

Don't go too hard with lead about 50/50 lead to wheel weights and add a little tin to help it flow
makes very good bullets for HP' and solid; velocity needs to be 1200fps for solids to expand,
Hollow points should taper generally at sub velocity the bullet expands to the base of the HP
if it is flat bottomed the nose will get wiped off rather than expand https://noebulletmolds.com/site/wp-c..._J2_Sketch.jpg
Cheers
Robert.

Hollow points should taper generally at sub velocity the bullet expands to the base of the HP
if it is flat bottomed the nose will get wiped off rather than expand . . .

at first glance you would think the nose getting wiped off as you put it @shooternz is a bad thing . . but is it all bad ?

Some questions . . what happens and why, does it have a terminal effect on the animal, can we fix it or do we even want to fix it, are shooters to busy looking for the perfect mushroom.
any thoughts out there . . i have my opinion.

here is an example of a 197grn RCBS 197grn. 50/50 alloy, holowpointed, fired thru my .30/30 Marlin at 1050fps

My 151HP recovered from a goat velocity 1040fps ATTACH]186468[/ATTACH] All the recovered bullets look like this most heart/lung shots exit

Do you blokes find that the actual driving bands make a difference to terminal performance, creating more of a lateral shockwave than a smooth bullet ?

Originally Posted by Moa Hunter

Do you blokes find that the actual driving bands make a difference to terminal performance, creating more of a lateral shockwave than a smooth bullet ?

that is a very interesting question @Moa Hunter . . i have been going over the question the last couple of days, which invariabley gets me side tracked onto different aspects of bullet/mold/performance/feeding, all the parts that make a bullet work . . and the why do i like one bullet over another.
if a man was to get 2 molds of the same bullet shape, weight etc but one was paperpatched with smooth sides and the other had aggressive driving bands, both were filmed with high speed cameras going thru something like gelatin and 100s of animals shot you would have a better idea . . i would say Yes it will make a difference but a very small one, much more important factors at play . . ask me again in the future i might have changed my mind . . whats your thoughts ?

my favourite boolit of all time is the 405grn RCBS i have for the .45/70
saw the mold on TradeMe years before i even had a .45/70 or thought i might get one, it just looked like the perfect design to me, still does, so i grabbed it . . which means of course at some stage i am going to get a .45/70 just to use it.



my favourite mold for .30 calibers is the 197grn. RCBS . . accuracy, terminal performance between it and the 170grn. Lyman is hard to tell them apart . . but i just like the 197 more . . go figure.