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Lead melter
09-27-2007, 09:19 AM
As of yet I have not tried using my own cast boolits for any hunting application, as I have been afraid the boolit would have no expansion since it is fairly hard. But, after some experimenting and reading several posts here, I am tempted to give it a try. First, some background.

1] 22 caliber rimfire boolits are almost always soft lead, expand like mad, and leave no leading in barrels to speak of.

2] I cast a few boolits in my Lee 170 grain flat nose mold. These were of a gas check design and were cast of pure lead. Accuracy was up to par with my others cast from a harder alloy. Expansion was drammatic when fired into dry poplar wood, but penetration was only about 2" when shot with a muzzle velocity of 1500fps. Leading was not apparent, and accuracy was not affected when shooting normal alloy slugs, even though the barrel was not cleaned after the pure lead boolits were fired. Lube was Lee Liquid Alox, slug sized to .308"

3] My usual alloy is 2 parts lead with 1 part linotype, by volume, plus 2% tin extra. This results in a fairly hard boolit and gives good accuracy.

4] I recently purchased an RCBS 45-405-FN mold for my 45/70 Handi-Rifle. This also is a gas check design. When loaded with my usual load {27 grains AA-5744} accuracy was increased a good bit.

The normal assuption would be that the design of the boolit has a lot to do with the accuracy increase, but I also feel the gas check seemed to make a difference, since the base of the boolit was not affected by hot gas. Since a gas check [U]seems[U] to scrape leading from the barrel as well as helping to prevent it, does it not follow that a softer boolit could be made to work with good accuracy, good expansion, and without severe leading problems? I'm thinking of trying pure lead, or with just a touch of tin to help fill out the mold.
Has anyone gone down this path before? Helpful hints are always welcome.

pdawg_shooter
09-27-2007, 10:36 AM
If you paper patch you dont need gas checks, and you can take pure lead bullets up to about 2200fps with good accuracy.

waksupi
09-27-2007, 08:58 PM
I've used the Lee 170 on deer and elk, but my velocity started at around 2450 fps. Worked fine. Going after bear this weekend, with the .358 Win, and 277 gr. bullets, at 2080 fps. I ain't worried about the performance.

454PB
09-27-2007, 10:30 PM
Using gas checks cures a lot of other short comings.

Have you slugged this .30 barrel and/or measured the throat?

All my .30 calibers (8) shoot better when the boolits are sized .310" to .311".

Lead melter
09-28-2007, 06:57 AM
Using gas checks cures a lot of other short comings.

Have you slugged this .30 barrel and/or measured the throat?

All my .30 calibers (8) shoot better when the boolits are sized .310" to .311".

No, actually I have not slugged the barrel. These cast boolits shoot 5 shot 1 1/2" groups at 50 yards from a Marlin 336 with micro groove barrel and a Williams peep sight. I thought maybe I had a magic gun, so I tried them in others...a Vanguard bolt action in .308 with ancient Weaver 3-9X, and another Marlin 30-30 with a 4X TC scope. Both others gave the same results. 5 shots more or less touching at 50 yards. I simply full length resize, expand the case neck about 1/4" with an RCBS .310" plug, seat the boolit and crimp with a Lee Factory Crimp die, which is worth its weight in gold to me.