Looking for cast mold

[SevenOTwo]

Hey all,

I am looking for a mold so I can make cast bullet like the M118LR style bullet.

30 cal
Weight needs to be approx 168-175 gr
FMJBT w/ GC

Does anyone know of a manufactured mold?? Preferably not aluminum.

[bhn22]

There are no gascheck bullets in boattail configuration. For what you are looking for, I'd suggest you visit the bullet swaging board, that may be closer to what you're asking for. Also remember that cast bullets have lube grooves in them which will greatly affect your ballistic coefficient. For steel molds, consider Ballisticast or Magma Engineering.

[MtGun44]

Cast boattail is not a thing that exists. The closest is beveled base, but this is intended
for easing the boolit into the case on reloading. If you are expecting to go directly to
full power .30-06 or .308 long range target ammo, I'm afraid you are biting off a pretty
big chew if you are a new caster. This is probably possible. . . . . . but surely not achieved
with less than a lot of learning and experimenting. Most of the easy to load rifle ammo
is 1600-1800 fps (or lower) and with RN or FP boolits with flat bases. Spitzer can be
done, but it is reported to be quite difficult to get them up to speed compared to RN or
FP, although I have had good success with a Spitzer design 311413 at moderate velocities.

Good luck.

It would help to explain what application you have in mind, it would be easier to advise.


Bill

[Larry Gibson]

Are you wanting to attempt M118LR velocities of 2650 - 2700 fps?

Larry Gibson

[btroj]

Hey all,

I am looking for a mold so I can make cast bullet like the M118LR style bullet.

30 cal
Weight needs to be approx 168-175 gr
FMJBT w/ GC

Does anyone know of a manufactured mold?? Preferably not aluminum.

Really?

You don't want cast bullets, you want jacketed. Call Sierra.

[cbrick]

Hey all,

I am looking for a mold so I can make cast bullet like the M118LR style bullet.

30 cal
Weight needs to be approx 168-175 gr
FMJBT w/ GC

Does anyone know of a manufactured mold?? Preferably not aluminum.

Welcome to CastBoolits SevenOTwo,

I'm a bit confused. Your looking for a full metal jacket boat tail gas check design?

Hhmmm . . . Tough thing to picture in my mind, must need a better camera though it's true that I often refer to jacketed bullets as full length gas checks.

I'm sure your question was asked in all honesty looking for a solution to a goal, perhaps we have a misunderstanding with the correct usage of terms/names. Explain with more detail what it is you would like to do and we can start at the beginning and possibly offer some help.

Rick

[ShooterAZ]

Take a look at the RCBS 165 SIL. As others have stated, this will be a gas checked design and NOT a boat tail. It is an awesome boolit though. Also not an aluminum mold.

[Kraschenbirn]

+1 on the RCBS 30-165-SIL. This boolit easily matches the accuracy of M118s in my Garand and will stay under 1 1/2 MOA from my heavy-barrel .308...at CB velocities, of course.

Bill

[runfiverun]

the rcbs while a very, very accurate boolit at 1900 fps is not accurate over 2,000 fps.
and it's just more of the same only worse with a long 8-9 ogive pointed boolit.
the smk/118 [whatever] could be reproduced in cast with no problems but I doubt you really wanna shoot your 308 at 900 fps.

[SevenOTwo]

Ok, obviously I am new to this entire process, and I am wanting to learn what to do, and how to do it. I am gearing up to make certain bullets that I use, and don't want to waste the money if it can be avoided. I shoot .223/.308 and 45ACP, my goal is to get as close as possible to what I am used to shooting through casting to save money and understand more about reloading.

I usually shoot the following;

.223 M855 62gr
.308 Sierra OTM 175gr
.45 Federal HST 230gr

Obviously, there are limitations to the velocity and accuracy of cast bullets, but close is a good start, and I have been reading some real interesting things about people here powder coating their cast bullets and having very good success with higher velocities.

If I am missing anything, please enlighten me. I am eager to learn..

Thanks

[MtGun44]

Accuracy is not a limit. Velocity is somewhat of a limit, but you may possibly
reach the full velocity of factory loads - BUT it is extremely difficult to get the
both accy and vel in the two rifles, pretty much the PhD level of cast shooting.
Not impossible but not a realistic short term expectation for a beginner.

The .45 ACP is easy. 200 gr H&G 68 or clone over 4.8 of Titegroup. Seat to 1.250 to
1.260 LOA, taper crimp as a separate operation to .468 or so at the mouth. Size boolits
to .452, lube with NRA 50-50. The Lyman 452460 is another superb 200 SWC, and
452374 is a good 225 gr RN.

For the .308 start with about 16 gr of 2400 under whatever you like, or 10-12 gr of Unique
and work your way up once you have the accy working. There are a wide range of boolits
to try.

Good luck with .223, I have recently cast up a few 55gr RN from a Lyman mold and not
yet even tried to load them. These TINY little beasts are a bit intimidating and I have
been quite busy and out of town a lot lately.

STRONGLY recommend you start with the .45 ACP and leave the rifles alone initially. Once
you have the .45 going well (follow the above recipe for the shortest route to success) you
will have a huge handle on the whole process and will be better able to tackle the .308.
Leave the .223 for last.

Bill

[williamwaco]

Accuracy is not a limit. Velocity is somewhat of a limit, but you may possibly
reach the full velocity of factory loads - BUT it is extremely difficult to get the
both accy and vel in the two rifles, pretty much the PhD level of cast shooting.
Not impossible but not a realistic short term expectation for a beginner.

The .45 ACP is easy. 200 gr H&G 68 or clone over 4.8 of Titegroup. Seat to 1.250 to
1.260 LOA, taper crimp as a separate operation to .468 or so at the mouth. Size boolits
to .452, lube with NRA 50-50. The Lyman 452460 is another superb 200 SWC, and
452374 is a good 225 gr RN.

For the .308 start with about 16 gr of 2400 under whatever you like, or 10-12 gr of Unique
and work your way up once you have the accy working. There are a wide range of boolits
to try.

Good luck with .223, I have recently cast up a few 55gr RN from a Lyman mold and not
yet even tried to load them. These TINY little beasts are a bit intimidating and I have
been quite busy and out of town a lot lately.

STRONGLY recommend you start with the .45 ACP and leave the rifles alone initially. Once
you have the .45 going well (follow the above recipe for the shortest route to success) you
will have a huge handle on the whole process and will be better able to tackle the .308.
Leave the .223 for last.

Bill


DITTO on every word.

[Larry Gibson]

45 ACP is relative easy and you can easily duplicate original ballistics with cast bullets. The state of the art with cast bullets in rifles such as the 223/5.56 and .308W/7.62 NATO is not quite there (at service level velocity), especially if we are talking ARs in either. Fill us in on what rifles you are shooting, including barrel length and twist, and we can better help or point you in the right direction.

Larry Gibson

[SevenOTwo]

Thank you for all the responses! lots of info.

The .45 are all 1911's
The .223 Rifle is a IWI Tavor
The .308 Rifle is a Kel-Tec RFB 20" with Custom Suppressor (so lower velocities may be a plus)

I know this is asking a lot from powder, but is there a powder that will reliably work with these 3 rounds? Or at least one for pistol and one for rifle? I have seen some decent prices of surplus pull down, but haven't heard how well it works. I live in Vegas, so temp is generally hot. Any suggestions of what would be the best powder to use??

Thanks

[MtGun44]

Unique will work well with all three. Try about 10 to start in the .308, not sure in the .223
what a starting load would be, away from home - Lyman Cast manual will have something,
probably. For the .45 ACP, use about 5 gr to start, max is around 6 gr with a 230, a touch
more with a 200 gr boolit. Check your loading manuals, or buy more. A Lyman Cast Bullet
manual should be required reading before you go much farther.

Understand that Unique will give full power in .45 ACP, but in the .308 expect max of about
1800-2000 fps with Unique, depending on boolit. Not sure what Unique will give in a .223,
but probably similar velocities to the .308. Unique is very fast for a rifle powder, so cannot
reach max velocity, but produces great groups in many guns.

Is your .308 can able to be disassembled for thorough cleaning? You may find that cast
boolits gunk up the can pretty fast. I have no experience with cans and cast, so others
here will have to comment on that.

Bill

[SevenOTwo]

Bill,

Thank you for the great info! I just purchased the latest Lyman casting manual last week, lots of reading in there. My can is made by Liberty Suppressors, and can be fully disassembled for cleaning.

[Love Life]

For full snort loads in the 308 and 223/5.56 BLC-2, IMR 4895, and quite a few others will work.

[SevenOTwo]

Another question, I have seen some nice molds online for 7.62x39 cast bullets, can I use this mold for 7.62/308 cast bullets after being resized??

[Larry Gibson]

Yes. Many times even w/o "resizing" as .311 is pretty standard cast bullet size for .308 barrels.

Larry Gibson