OK be honest guys.how does cast shoot?

[jeff223]

i was at the range yesterday shooting my Contender and there was a guy there also shooting his Contender.i havnt seen him since the early spring but i know he had gotten into shooting cast back then.i asked him about the cast and he told me he gave up on them.he shoots a factory chambered 357max and a 44mag TC Contender 14inchers.he had molds for both and was shooting cast in both.hes back to jacketed boolits in both.you see he is a silly wet shooter and needs accuracy out of his guns.he told me he had leading in the 357max and no accuracy out of both the 357max and 44mag with cast.im not baseing this cast shooting problems on just him and i but maybe it is just a Michigan based thing?what you think?jacketed shooters only in Michiganhttp://castboolits.gunloads.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

how they really shoot for you at 100yds?

[Junior1942]

Jeff, look in the back of the Fouling Shot, the Castbullet Association magazine, at the match results from all over the US, and you'll see bunches of guys getting great results with cast bullets in T-C pistols with T-C barrels. The match data include loads used.

[David R]

My TC 32-20 shoots cast great. I don't know about the rest of em.

David

[44man]

I think you will find it is due to the individual TC barrel. Some are great and some really SUCK. I have never seen more then a few really good ones.

[waksupi]

Jeff, what you have there, is another shooter trying to use undersized, most likely over hard, bullets. Cast shoot fine at a hundred.

[BCB]

I agree with 44man. My dismal failures have been a 44 Magnum—that I later had rechambered to 445SM—and a 223. The 223 barrel simply would not shoot better than 3”-4” at 100 yards. It was proportionally as bad or worse at 50 yards. I tried dozens of different bullets given to my by people on this board—no go. The 44 Magnum would stay at 2” at 100 yards some of the time, but it was most undependable. The rechamber to 445SM may have improved accuracy a bit with the barrel, but it still was no M.O.A. shooter. Interesting is the fact that after the rechamber job, it shot 44 Magnum jacketed bullets better then it did as a 44 Magnum barrel.
Now to the success stories—the 30-30 barrel with the Lee 309-150F would stay right around 1.5” with pretty good consistency. With the Lyman 311041 it would stay at 1.25” or a bit less from time to time. The powders of choice are WC-852 and IMR-7383. And finally the all time winner is the 7-30 Waters barrel. It will shoot honest M.O.A. at 100 yards. At 150 yards, 16 ounce beverage containers are dead, and at 200 yards to 250 yards, a life-sized steel silhouette of a groundhog gets rattled the vast majority of the time. This shooting is all done from a very solid bench, of course! I am shooting the Lyman 287346 with either H-335 or WC-844. Also, both of these barrels use Redfield 3-ring systems and Burris 3x-12x ‘scopes. So, yes some will shoot cast, and some won’t shoot cast. Good-luck…BCB

[jeff223]

BCB what bootils you shooting out of your 445sm?i just got done rechambering my TC 14inch 44mag barrel to 445sm.havnt shoot it yet as i have no brass yet.what powder are you using.ive been thinking of using w296 and aa 1680.what do you think?

[9.3X62AL]

How Does Cast Shoot?

In my handguns of all calibers.......revolvers almost without fail shoot better with cast boolits than with jacketed or swaged. One exception--38 Special swaged hollow-based wadcutters outdo their cast flat-based counterparts just a bit, but both go galley-west past 65 yards or so.

In rifles.......some rifles do better with cast boolits than with jacketed--the 30-30 and 45-70 come to mind first. Most are a mixed lot. 22 caliber centerfires have provided no love whatsoever with cast boolits. Those get jacketed bullets exclusively.

[BCB]

jeff223,

Rather than clutter the board with info on the 445SM, I sent you a PM...BCB

[Leftoverdj]

Jeff, I figger that 2moa is acceptable with cast bullets in hunting grade guns. I've had some that would do better and might tolerate a little worse in lever guns with tube magazines, but I'm pretty confident of getting 2moa or better without going to extremes when I start a new project.

That did not happen overnight. Cast bullets are a different world from jacketed, and it took me years to learn how to make cast work. I was working pretty much alone with only a few articles for guidance and some of those articles were flat wrong.

You have hundreds of years of combined experience to draw on. There are twenty guys on this board with more knowlege of cast bullets than any (w/the exception of Marshall) of the writers I had to learn from and you can get a sound answer to any question within hours.

I would not blame you if you decided to stay with jacketed. You have to be interested in cast bullets for their own sake to make them worthwhile. They can be very frustrating for someone in the learning stages. I find them well worth the effort, but I don't expect everyone else to do so.

[buck1]

In my 44 mags cast do out shoot jacketed, both in group sizes and killing power of game. Im my 444 BFR at 1900 FPS there is no contest at all as the cast wins again.
If you want moa from long guns you can get it with cast but theres work involved. If I needed sub MOA at my level of learning I would have to get the Sierras out again.

Its a learning thing Alloy,Lube.gun,Size, pressure,fit,,,,It all matters a lot.
I wanted to learn what it takes to make good CBs. So I set a goal for myself that was very high. I didnt quit untill I got there ,It took a year to get my load. But once I did, I had learned a lot!
Its easy to get discouraged as theres so many factors ,but if you hang in there you will be rewarded with great bullets for life!! And it gets easier.
I once thought of CBs as 2nd rate, their not! Think of it like, jacketed bullets are training wheels. You learn on them before you go to cast, but you will be a little unsteady for a wile at first. But if you dont give up you will get it and be at the next level of loading knowlage.
If you stay with it you will prove him wrong when you out shoot his best jacketed loads with your cast ones. .... IMHO..........Buck

[35remington]

I will second the comments that TC barrels can be complete dogs with lead bullets. If you saw the way the throats are cut you'd understand why. If the TC shooters in the CBA are getting good results they've either modified the barrels themselves or got uncommonly lucky, or the barrels were not made by TC. I doubt there's anything they have done that I haven't tried already, so "lucky" or "not stock" would apply to their results.

My heavy barrelled .22-250 Savage is more accurate with cast bullets than the rest of my sporter weight centerfires are with jacketed. That's pretty damn accurate.

[David R]

A little more info.

My 22-250 shoots 55 grain cast into about an inch @ 100 yards. This is a Remington 700 VL. It shoots jacketed better. It took a while to find that load. Some trial and error and a bunch of advice from this board made it happen.

Today I took my 1917 enfield that shoots some loads into 3 or 4 inches @ 100 yards, tried some different boolits loaded pretty hot for cast and two loads never hit the paper. I have a military type match coming up next month, 60 rounds @ 200 yards. I would like to find something that works in this gun.

I also shot a 2 3/4" X 1 1/2" group with my 308 today at 100.

All groups are 10 shots

Its not the goal, but the trip along the way that is fun for me.

[9.3X62AL]

You have to be interested in cast bullets for their own sake to make them worthwhile. They can be very frustrating for someone in the learning stages. I find them well worth the effort, but I don't expect everyone else to do so.

That is pretty succinct info right there, DJ.

One of my most accurate cast boolit rifles was almost a total accident--my ratty Rem 788 x 243. Carpetman The Cat Lover sent me some RCBS 95 SP castings all lubed and ready to go, and the downrange results were both surprising and satisfying. I bought my own mold in that pattern, and the accuracy continued. The rifle will do ~3/4" at 100 yards with the FLGC designs, and will shade 1" with the RCBS castings. If a rifle can do 1" at 50 yards, I'm a very happy customer--so the 243 is a fun ride, for sure!

[jeff223]

boy thanks for all the input here guys.i am just a green horn at this cast boolit thing but i think i will hang in there for a spell.read some and maybe learn some.i think it would be great to cast my own boolits that would shoot with the jacketed.

im going to stick with my TC barrels for now but down the road i might end up sellin them so i can get a custom OTT,SSK or Bullberry barrel made for shooting cast boolits.time will tell about that.

[Junior1942]

Jeff, here's a 10 shot, 3 7/8", 100 yard group from my factory 7mm TCU 14" barrel with a 4x scope. The bullets were the RCBS 145-SIL cast about 20 years ago before I really knew what I was doing. All of the noses were different diameters due to being bumped up in the Lyman 450 sizing process. I need to cast a new batch and see if I can cut this group in half. I bet I can.

http://www.castbullet.com/shooting/photos/7tcu09.jpg

[BruceB]

How well do cast bullets shoot?

After considerable messing-about, I've developed what I believe to be a useable dual-hardness cast bullet, with pure-lead softpoint and a wheelweight shank. This success leads me to take the load hunting this fall, and that in turn led me to the range today to zero the .416 Rigby (Ruger #1) with the cast-bullet hunting load.

The first two rounds from 100 yards cut into the same hole, which was only about 0.60" across. One sight change to place the bullets two inches high, and
the next four rounds grouped in 1.75" at the same distance.

These 365-grain bullets are leaving at 2165 fps average, so they aren't really creampuffs. Depending on what I find out about the trajectory at longer range, I MIGHT push the envelope for a shot to 200 yards, but I'd be happy with a zero at 150 yards.

Cast bullets shoot just fine.

[waksupi]

Too hot to cast here today, so I've been doing some shooting with my .358 Winchester. I'm working with the Bator Lites, 237 gr. Best load was 48.5 gr or WC852 at 2226 fps, going into 5/8" for the first three shots, then opened up a bit when the barrel got hot. Second interesting load, was 50 gr. WC852 at 2259 fps., staying in two inches. This is a slightly compressed load. I'm going to work between these loads, and see where the sweet spot is. I noticed velocity per grain falling off at the higher end, so this is too much. Still getting a little smoke on the necks, but it's shooting pretty clean.

[Johnch]

I have a Turk 8 MM Mauser that shoots 12- 16" patterens and I also have a H&R 45/70 and a Enfeild #4 Mk1 303 that both shoot less than 1 1/2" at 100 with me behind the trigger .
Both produce MOA sometimes if my eyes are working .

Johnch

[Char-Gar]

I know nothing about TC barrels and how they shoot anything. Cast bullets are not like condom bullets that you just open a box and bang away. There is a craft and understanding of the rifled tube required to get first rate accuracy out of cast bullets. Many people are not willing to invest time in the learning curve to shoot cast bullets. Cast bullets also require better barrels and a proper twist.

However, for the shooter who is willing to learn the craft and finds joy in knowledge and understanding, cast bullets will deliver accuracy fully equal and sometimes better than condom bullets.

Those of us who are dedicated to cast bullets will always be a minority group, because only a minority of shooters are willing to invest the time, and mental energy to master the cast bullet. Cast bullets shooters are independent, tenacious and not looking for the easy way or the shortest distance between two point.

Many shooters try cast bullets and go back to condom. IMHO they are a lazy bunch of woosies. There now, I said it! Is that straight enough?

[35remington]

With regard to laziness and cast bullets, trying to make TC barrels shoot lead probably would qualify me as the least lazy guy on the planet. Stubborn and masochistic would also qualify. The only positive thing I can say about shooting lead through unmodified TC barrels is that it feels so good when you stop trying.

For awhile, anyway. Then another harebrained idea raises its ugly head and you try again, with renewed hope, and get stymied again. Never again will I buy a barrel from the TC Custom shop for a lead bullet shooter.

[Magnum Mike]

The 41 and 44 targets are from TC barrels. The 475 is a iron sighted BFR...


http://specialtypistols.infopop.cc/mike/41magGroups112504.JPG

http://specialtypistols.infopop.cc/mike/41maggroup_011104.JPG
http://specialtypistols.infopop.cc/mike/44maggroups_011104.JPG
http://specialtypistols.infopop.cc/mike/Target_475_050805.JPG

[Scrounger]

Great groups, Mike. Even StarMetal would be proud!

[9.3X62AL]

That IS some good shooting for sure.

[JohnH]

Jeff, Was at the range today with a couple guys from another board. I cast up some bullets Friday night from WW just to try what softer would do. I loaded up several loadings, but one was 24.5 grains of WC680 with the Lee 180 groups buy from bullets that Leftoverdj had sent me. I figure these are wate dropped, pretty hard stuff. Also were loaded some RCBS 35-200's over 20.4 grians of WC680 that were cast Friday night. Still had to be pretty soft, they would leave a gray wash in the barrel, the ones I water dropped earlier in the week didn't do this. At 100, the Lee 180 shot lousy. 6" at best. No group form whatsoever. The RCBS bullet on the other hand put 30 shots into a string 3" wide and 6" tall. When I buckled down and did my part (the benches were really lousy) I had no trouble making 2" groups with the load. My plinking load with that bullet shot well too

I have determined that what could be called a throat in my rifle is .379" in diameter, might as well not be a throat. Another member here, Bass Ackward, had suggested to me to try a softer alloy as my first results with the bullet were very nice and with fresh air dropped WW. Disscussing the rifle and my problems with another fellow at the range who was obviously an experienced caster, he said I need a softer alloy. None of our disscussion up to that point included any thing about someone else saying I needed something softer.

Yeah, DJ is right on. Most of what we learned 25 years ago from the gun rags was dead wrong, a lot of what was generally available then was dead wrong, and I'm having a hell of a time unlearning what has been gospel my whole shooting life.

DJ is also right that cast is a love affair of it's own. What I've seen today may not be the whole solution, but it is certainly a step toward learning what does work. Edison said he didn't fail, he knew a thousand ways that wouldn't work. Casting can be like that. Nice thing was to see my 38-55 shoot well with everything I fed it, 2" 5 shot groups at 100 were easy with it today, from my plinking load to my hunting load. So when you get that 445 done, do some casting with it, success with the one will aid success with the other.

[Bret4207]

This may well be a candidate for a sticky, purely for the attitude and theory opinion noted thus far. No doubt cast is different. I'll go off on a slightly different line and point out that for me cast is 95% of what I shoot on CF rifles and handguns. I find crafting something of my own hand and using it to be more enjoyable than just buying jacketed and shooting them. I'm also cheap and while I can buy a mould and use it for years making boolits from free WW, I can't see buying jacketed if I don't HAVE to. Yes, it takes work and sometimes dismal failure is the end result. Some guns just don't like anything cast, at least that I've found. But I find most of those guns only like 1 jacketed load combination and are overall finicky. It's always a barrel issue when that happens. There isn't a cartridge around that isn't cast friendly in the right platform. As has been noted, if TC doesn't cut the throat in a cast friendly manner then some serious experimentation is due. None the less, many guys find "the load" for the gun and are quite happy. Just remember it takes a different attitiude to work with cast. It's not just buy the right rifle or barrel and the factory rounds and make noise. It's more in depth, but the results are far, far more rewarding.

[David R]

Alot of the guys here are using old surplus rifles, surplus powder and scrap to make good shooting irons.

Its a little like poor mans bench rest. Not all the $s involved, but more expermantation. And when you do find the holy grail, its truly rewarding like the targets above. Its much more rewarding to shoot game or win a match with boolits you made.

David

[Buckshot]

............The entire subject of cast lead boolits is a very broad and wide thing that encompasses lots of non-liniear thinking. For me I just enjoy shooting. I've spent quite a few hours in pure accuracy work scaling boolits, cases, and powder charges and I know the benefit you can get from doing that. I most certainly DO NOT do that for the vast majority of my shooting.

At the range I belong to there used to be a monthly schuetzen match and guys like Barry Darr and Jesse Smiley (Javalina Bullet lube) were competitors. There is still the rare guy practicing the art, and art it is too. These guys had all the variables eliminated and pure perfection was the name of the game. Their boolits were cast of the purest alloy of lead and tin (usually), scaled and inspected to a fare thee well.

Of a similar bent are the benchrest shooters, but thay have to fire fixed ammo, yet the care and feeding of their rifles is no less exacting. I recall an article by Henry Beverage where he bought 5 Lyman 311284 moulds to find ONE that dropped a slug of the correct dimensions for the alloy he liked. I'm sure most these guys have gone through several brand name and custom moulds looking for that one that's 'just right'.

Any of us could expend the time, effort and money to persue this level of cast shooting. Probably several here have. I'm afraid I'm too undisciplined to have just one rifle and maybe 2 boolit moulds to do my shooting. In addition to just enjoying the shooting, I like the guns too much too. I'd just shrivel up with just one. The problem with having a bunch is that sometimes you forget the little weirdnesses that some of them have.

It's like the post I made last week about shooting the 7.35 Carcano. Heck, I hadn't even handled the thing in a long time and just decided it was time to shoot it again. Using some slugs I'd never tried in it before, and using loads to be found nowhere at all, I threw together 50 rounds. The accuracy wasn't something you'd take an add out in a magazine about, but here's the thing. It DID group, and it did it without any big hoopla or fanfare.

But ya know the most important thing that happened was that I enjoyed myself :D. For sure if I had to hit little steel animals out there in competition, I'd have sure spent more then 10 minutes thinking about loads and there would have been weeks of developement along with it.

The main thing with accuracy is that which the platform is ultimately capable of. The other main thing, and having to do with cast lead boolits directly, is that the cast lead boolit is a much more fragile projectile then the FLGC versions. Like a flighty woman, if it's not treated right it's not gonna do right. There are levels of performance that a cast projectile cannot meet, just like the differences between piston engine planes and jets.

Yet for the vast majority of the shooting I do, the cast lead boolit can do it all. And shooting within the capabilities of the cast boolit, if it does wrong I know whose to blame for it. I can spend as much time as necessary or as little time as possible, the choice and outcome is mine.

...............Buckshot

[BABore]

I'm pretty green to casting and have had a bit of a learning curve getting my cast to shoot properly. My latest venture has been with my S&W 686 8 3/8". It shoots jacketed great, 3" at 100 yards. My plinking load has always been 5.0 grs of WW231, CCI 500 primer, and Hornady's 158 gr Swaged SWC. This load would shoot on e ragged hole at 25 yards.

Well I recently acquired a Lyman #358156 SWCGC mold and gave it a whirl with WW alloy air cooled. My stock plinker load gave dismal results, so it was time to work up from scratch. I kind of figured that I needed to drive the harder alloy a bit faster and it was a good guess. Here's some data from yesterday;

WW 231
5.0 grs 1.92"
5.5 grs 1.22"
6.0 grs 0.61"
6.3 grs 0.72" with 1 called flyer, 0.47" w/o

Uninversal Clays
5.0 grs 0.98"
5.5 grs 1.14"
6.0 grs 0.77"

AA #5
7.0 grs 1.37" with 1 called flyer, 0.39" w/o
7.5 grs 1.60" with 1 called flyer. 0.66" w/o
8.0 grs 0.93"

Hercules 2400 (CCI 550 Primers)
10.0 grs 1.34"
11.0 grs 0.47"
12.0 grs 1.13"
13.0 grs 0.66"
13.5 grs 0.94"
14.0 grs 0.90"
14.5 grs 0.55"

All groups were 5 shots at 25 yards. Bullets had 2 light coats of Alox lube and a MM dusting. So far all of my rifle loads for the 30'06, 338 WM, and 450 Marlin have been 3" or less at 100 yards. I'm still tweaking loads and lube, but most loads are running in the 1" to 1 1/2" range now. Everytime I run into some accuracy problems I step back and check my bore and bullet size (I've learned to do this first now), and weigh my bullets to +/- 0.2 grains. With that out of the picture, I work up loads from scratch ignoring any past jacketed bullet experiences. So far its all seemed to work, but hey, I've only been at this for a few months.

[MOA Shooter]

"most loads are running in the 1" to 1 1/2" range now"


Your off to an excellent start. What kind of guns.. custom tubes?

Load data please.

MOA.

[Char-Gar]

Attitude? You want attitude? I got your attitude!

All kidding aside, I realize that not all barrels are cast bullet friendly. Not all barrels are bullet of any kind friendly. HOWEVER the post was about honesty about cast bullets in general and THEREFORE I will stand by my post.

Yea..my wife tells me I am a snob about several things.

[Possum]

I had some lead 44 loads loaded for this weekend's shoot. After shooting the jacketed 14" TC 44 for a while I switched to my el cheapy 10" hotshot barrel with open sights. I shot freehand at 25yds and was doing about an honest 2 1/2" group with the lead (never said I was a great shot). This was about normal for this plinker load, I figured.

Then my cousin comes over and picks the TC up for the first time. Proceeds to shoot 5 shots freehand -all touching- that you could cover with a quarter. Then I say to him, "try this one - it is a little more stout". He then proceeds to do the same thing with my heavier load. All he says is "that's a pretty good group, I need to get me one of those"

Hmmmm, let me take notes.

My lesson learned is before I can judge my load manufacturing capability, I better learn how to shoot! :Fire: :shock:

[jeff223]

no more cast boolits for me until i get some aa1680 powder or some of that surplus powder.i have been thinking about shooting these cast boolits some and this is what i came up with.all my shooting has been with w296 and if you ever used this powder you know you cant down load any,its like using H110.very little margin from the start load to the max load.with the 1680 there is much more room to play.i know this is why Johnh tried to put me on this powder awhile back.i have been just to mule headed to get some to try.i was bound to make the w296 work.with this 1680 i can start off with some lower fps and then work my way back up till i find the right spot(I THINK)?

is my thinking better now about these cast boolits?

[44man]

I shoot mostly handguns and BPCR anymore. I have an 1894 Marlin in .44 mag that shoots fantastic with several cast boolits.
In my bullet box are boxes and boxes of condom bullets that are going to corrode away before I ever shoot them. Might have them buried with me. Maybe if I ever run out of lead I will load them.
Once bitten, cast will become a way of life and will be the most satisfying kind of shooting you will ever do. Just never give up!

[JohnH]

no more cast boolits for me until i get some aa1680 powder or some of that surplus powder.i have been thinking about shooting these cast boolits some and this is what i came up with.all my shooting has been with w296 and if you ever used this powder you know you cant down load any,its like using H110.very little margin from the start load to the max load.with the 1680 there is much more room to play.i know this is why Johnh tried to put me on this powder awhile back.i have been just to mule headed to get some to try.i was bound to make the w296 work.with this 1680 i can start off with some lower fps and then work my way back up till i find the right spot(I THINK)?

is my thinking better now about these cast boolits?

Get some WC820 or AA#9 if you are wanting to work up something slower, 1680 is a pretty hot powder, even at starting loads. That may be what you want, not sure... If you are looking for something slower than what might be called normal starting loads 820/#9, 2400, even Blue Dot will down load much better than the fine ball powders of the speed you are presently working with. You can download 5744 till the bullets stick in your barrel, an interesting powder, but no longer available as surplus. You can go the other way, from time to time I will shoot some WC846 though mine, a BL-C2 clone, but I do gain form the rifle length barrel, that would probably be too slow for your purposes, a full case only yeilds about 1400 fpos from my tube, but the fireball is impressive :) Reloader 7 which is the next step slower from 1680 Holds good promise in this, and lots of data using it in the Max is available. Many get good cast results from powders considered slower than normal for the cartridge.

If I remember, your goal was to have a good deer load. (that may have changed) The Lee 180 you have will kill deer as well at 1400 as it will at 1600. When hunting with cast, it is all about bullet placement.

The 1680/680 will give you a bit lower starting point, but a few other powders may give you a better chance at lower velocities yet till you get your teeth cut well.

[nighthunter]

a good cast bullets shoot just fine. a crappy cast bullet shoots ... well ..... crappy.Some degree of success will come with most cast bullets. Most of us here in this forum have paid some sort of dues while learning to cast better bullets. Then more dues are paid while learning how to cull our less than perfect bullets and how to proberly size and lube them. Then there are a few things to learn about loading them into rounds. It sounds like a lot and a person gets as much out of the process as he puts into it. To me it is a very enjoyable hobby that I have persued for almost 35 years. I have bullets for plinking,target shooting and for hunting. The basic knowledge for casting in general can be learned in a relatively short amount of time and with good bullets produced. The refining of the process is a continuous process where I feel that no one individual will ever have all the answers. Thats why I like this forum so much. We get several opioions on issues that may effect any of us at one time or another and we can then see how we might improve. Most of us are always trying different molds and different load data looking for improvement. Its a hobby that goes with shooting and hunting.
Nighthunter

[Newtire]

Hi Jeff,
I'm like alot of the other guys here & shoot mostly cast these days. Went thru a thing shooting jacketed bullets out of various .30-06's until I just got tired of them. You get a good gun & it shoots most jacketed pretty well with the right powder. I've had some bad luck with some combinations but the cast thing gets real interesting when you find loads that shoot real good & you made them all yourself. I think it's most important to have the bullet fit the bore and be a little oversized, to have the thing just engraving the rifling, and you have to get all that copper out before you can start shooting lead without leaving any lead in the bore. I haven't dealt with leading in any of my cast bullet guns in ages and my .30-30's definitely shoot cast better than any of the jacketed variety along with my micro-grooved .444. Just listen up around here & someone will have a solution. This "new" little M-1 carbine I'm shooting lately loves cast & shoots it much better than any jacketed stuff without really any effort at all. Working on an H & R .32 mag. & one of these days I'll get something that will shoot real good out of it I'm sure. Have learned not to go much by what some of the more popular gun writers say as they get their perks from one component manufacturer or the other & tend to be pretty slanted in their declarations without having given things a real try. I think you found the right place to learn how to make cast bullets work. People at work that shoot kind of hush up when I start talking about shooting wheelweights. One thing for sure is that when I go up to the range & go downrange to collect my targets, they are almost always alot tighter grouping than most of the "patterns" I see from similar guns. It's just alot of fun!

[swheeler]

somedays real good, somedays not so good, everyday acceptable accuracy can be had from a proven load

[David R]

Swheeler, I couldn't read the print on the sheet except it was a 30'06, and no filler. What was the load? Were those 311291 boolits?

I am trying to get my enfield to shoot 200 yards for a DCM match in 2 weeks, I am running out of time.

Thanks
David

[swheeler]

David R: 23.0 5744, FC210M, WW brass, LEE C309-R-7ww/3lt AC, tammarack lube. That was fired from a mechanical rest, .660 @ 100. FWIW that is right around where the powder starts to clean up(1650fps), plus 1 gr in the Rem 700, but not quite as accurate in that rifle. Should give you a starting point, good Luck!

[David R]

Thank you :)

I think what I need is the mechanical Rest.