My First shots with cast boolits. Pretty gol darn happy.

[toddx]

Hello fellow Cast-ers.
I made it to the range today and shot some groups with my .308 Rem.
I casted .312 185 grain Lee #90371. Actual boolits weighed 176-ish.
I knew I would not be breaking any records with some difficulty with my boolit bases. thanks to great advice on this forum I am ready for better casting but loaded these anyways.
I had a few REALLY wild flyers that showed themselves in one particular group but was able to shoot some groups in the realm of on the paper. My best group was 26 yards, 3 shots, .311 sizing at 1/2 inch ctc. Still 2 inches at a 100 but I am happy. Another group was 12 shots at 26 yards .309 sizing, 2 3/4 ctc. 11 of 12 were 3/4 ctc but was unable to post a pic of this?
I have a looong way to go but was pleased to hit the paper.

I was a bit afraid to shoot the .311's so I only made up 3. My next loading will have a controlled group of .309 and .311 with same powder at 50 yards.
I used Trail Boss and Accurate 5744. The groups you see came in at 1350-ish fps and were fired with 12gr Trail Boss.
When I write up the info for groups, it kind of threw me when it came to writing the bullet maker/name. Realization? Hey I can write Todd/Lee where the bullet name goes! Too Cool.
Thanks ALL
Todd
PS- I don't think I had leading but don't really know. I had the tiniest speckles of what looked like lead whilst cleaning but no greenish stuff came out. My bore looks very clean but am told you can not sometimes see leading in a barrel?

[Catshooter]

Welcome to the forum.

toddx, in my experience unless the barrel is pretty rough and dark I could always see leading, if present. It's espically easy to see in a shiny bore. It won't be green, it'll be the same color as your boolits.

Wrap a few strands of your "Chore Boy" pot scrubbing pad around your bore brush and stroke that puppy back and forth a couple of times.

Do you see little shiny silver flakes? That's lead, and the lead you saw in the bore will now be less or gone.

Good luck and don't stop now, you're on a roll.


Cat

[white eagle]

nice shootin pilgrim

[462]

Fun stuff, shooting your home-cast boolits, isn't it?

We know that those few shots aren't enough to give you a definative answer as to which boolit size will always shoot the smallest group, but I'd be surprised if the fatter boolit doesn't prove to be the better performer.

As to powders, if you have them, try Unique and 2400. There's a reason why they've been around so long, and other powders try to copy them. Besides, comparing the ounce to ounce cost, Trail Boss is almost double the others, and aren't casters, by nature, extremely frugal?

Keep at it and post the next session's results.

[Doc Highwall]

My favorite powder for the 308 is AA5744. I would open your .309" sizer die closer to .310" and don't forget to use something like a Lyman M-Die for best accuracy along with pistol primers.

[toddx]

My favorite powder for the 308 is AA5744. I would open your .309" sizer die closer to .310" and don't forget to use something like a Lyman M-Die for best accuracy along with pistol primers.

Doc, 5744 has done well in my .308 for lighter loads. never actually tried it at high power.
Can you explain what a Lyman M-Die is and why the pistol primers?
I have not the skill to open my .309 to .310. I was super close to buying one of Buckshots .310 sizers but just went with one order from Midway. I will pursue .310 if I can not get accuracy with what I got although poor accuracy could be a myriad of things. I have had a decent 1st round but can see WW's being a wild card with not knowing what is in them really.
Thanks for the tips.

[quilbilly]

Don't get too cocky about your fine experience. My 7mm, 30, and 338 loads are all shooting at sub 1-1/2" groups at 100 yds with CB's but my 35 loads have me so frustrated I am talking to myself [smilie=b:. Sooner or later you will run into that. Sooner or later I will figure that one out too. It's all part of this fine misery:-P.

[Fire_stick]

Welcome aboard. I remember the first cast bullets I shot only a couple of years ago. What a blast. No pun intended.

[Bret4207]

Well, you're off to a good start. What kind of sizer are you using? If it's the Lee system you can easily open them up with abrasive paper on a steel rod rolled across your thigh until you get the size you want. As far as size, measure the inside diameter of a case fire in that gun, with that bras with a full power load. That will give you a ball park for max diameter you can go to. Many tine it will also be the size you end up shooting.

Keep at it, record your observations and thoughts and it'll come around for you.

[x101airborne]

Cast or jackted, sometime things come together and that is good. Sometimes it is like you will never win the battle. I have a rifle that it took around 2 years of trying and putting it in a closet somewhere so I didnt cut it in half out of frustration. When you REALLY want a challenge, try to get a soft boolit load that will function a gas rifle and still retain sub MOA accuracy at 100 yds. The loads and proccedures that work on M1A's and M1G's did not work on the AR-10.

[Doc Highwall]

toddx, this is what a Lyman M-die looks like and what it does. The smaller diameter should be only .001" to .002" smaller then your sized bullet diameter. I shoot .310" diameter bullets and my sizer is .309".