whelenshooter
01-23-2014, 11:25 AM
I bought this mold for a 7.65x53 bullet. I was shooting it in a 1891 sans the gas check because I didn't have a sizer in .311/.312. In the sloppy mauser bore and without gc the results are what you'd think they'd be. Recently I purchased a Ruger American 308. I ran this bullet lubed with LLA through a .309 sizer and gave it a gc. The bullet ends up at .310 and weighs about 167 grains.
My first time out with the gun I shot this 5 shot group (and others very similar) at 100 yards. This was with IMR3031, Lake City brass, WLR primers. The Lyman cast bullet manual says this should be good for about 1800 fps ( I didn't get the chrony out.)
94334
I had also loaded 5 with AA#9 and received a 3 shot group that was about 1.75". I used the other two cartridges to get on paper (those were actually my first two shots with cast bullets in the rifle). I started with 17.5 grains but think it will tighten up as I increase the load judiciously. This looks like a good load too but considerably slower I think than the 3031 load.
Finally I loaded 20 with 11.0 grains of unique and was rewarded with a cloverleaf 3 shot group. Hard to beat that but by that time I was frozen as it was a very cold day for this Bama boy.
I also shot the rifle with jacketed bullets that produced an inch 5 shot group.
All that being said I think I have lucked into a good cast bullet/rifle combo. I look forward to tinkering with her to see what she'll do.
David
My first time out with the gun I shot this 5 shot group (and others very similar) at 100 yards. This was with IMR3031, Lake City brass, WLR primers. The Lyman cast bullet manual says this should be good for about 1800 fps ( I didn't get the chrony out.)
94334
I had also loaded 5 with AA#9 and received a 3 shot group that was about 1.75". I used the other two cartridges to get on paper (those were actually my first two shots with cast bullets in the rifle). I started with 17.5 grains but think it will tighten up as I increase the load judiciously. This looks like a good load too but considerably slower I think than the 3031 load.
Finally I loaded 20 with 11.0 grains of unique and was rewarded with a cloverleaf 3 shot group. Hard to beat that but by that time I was frozen as it was a very cold day for this Bama boy.
I also shot the rifle with jacketed bullets that produced an inch 5 shot group.
All that being said I think I have lucked into a good cast bullet/rifle combo. I look forward to tinkering with her to see what she'll do.
David