Fabulous advice-- you just need to follow it

[Hick]

I learned a great lesson today. I've been reading all the expert advice here on how to correctly slug the barrel, choose just the right diameter CB, just the right COL, just the right load and just the right powder. Finally, it got warm enough last night to melt some snow and I was able to get out to the range with my chronograph and test the setups I made by following all the good advice on this forum.

Both my Model 94's shooting the loads recommended as starting loads in Lyman's Cast handbook edition 3, CB diameter 0.001 over the bore, COL as close as I could get to the rifling, CB not too deep in the neck, just a touch with the M die to let them slide into the neck nicely with no shavings, nice easy loads with fast powders (Herco and 700X).

Beautiful results. With the 30-30 I measured 1328 fps with Herco (Lyman said 1358) and 1114 with 700X (Lyman said 1101). With the 32 WS 1205 with 700X (lyman said 1233) and 1404 with Herco (Lyman said 1318). All four had variability barely over 20 fps-- and I haven't even started doing a charge ladder to find out what works best for each rifle.

No leading, nice comfortable recoil, nice pretty little lube star at the muzzle and no unburned powder.

It took me a little while to figure this out-- but all you have to do is be very methodical and careful and follow the advice of the experts as carefully and completely as you can.

[geargnasher]

Excellent! Glad you got it going, it's a great feeling when a plan comes together and things work like they're supposed to.

Now I'm going to throw a monkey wrench in your gears: Next time, forget slugging the bore, search up how to do a "pound cast" or "impact impression" of your rifle's chamber and throat area, and size your bullets to fit the throat. The procedure may sound a little intimidating at first, but the results are worth it because it gets you a "negative" of the shape and size of the throat, the diameter of the chamber neck, and lets you see what bullet shape will fit best. Any throat wear will be evident, as will poor cuts and sharp steps left by the chamber/throat reamer. Another trick instead of a pound cast is to measure the inside of the neck of a case fired in each rifle with full-power loads and make your cast bullets that size. Only caveat with that is if the chamber neck is especially oversized compared to throat entrance, the bullets can rake off a little lead on the end of the chamber and cause some lumpy, streaky buildup in the first few inches of the bore.

Gear

[chutesnreloads]

Amazing what just a little "homework" will get for you.....Nice going Hick

[Blackwater]

Don't think you're alone in this. Even us guys who'd been casting and reloading for seeming millenea have learned things here that have proven very helpful, and improved our casting and shooting. As a wise old sage once said, "Two heads are better than one, even if one IS a goat head!" And with all the guys here who have specialized knowledge in fields that affect our wonderful little hobby, and all the guys who've done their due diligence and experimented a lot, and who are generous enough to share their results with the rest of us, it's impossible to NOT learn a lot here. Even the best of us, I think, have refined our knowledge and processes in such a way as to become better casters, reloaders and shooters.

The only way to not benefit from this board is to look for hard and fast "rules" to apply overall. Our hobby is a very specialied one, and ALL the elements and components can come together in many varied ways, so attention to detail is a must. Reloading, after all, is full of details that are all important, and simply learning how to evaluate our proceedures and choices, and refine our execution thereof, is what gives truly outstanding performance, and some here have taken the pursuit to levels I'd never anticipated when getting into this field. If that's not a huge benefit, I don't know what could be. Lots of very knowledgeable and experienced folks here, and to a man, they're all very generous with their findings and knowledge, and very patient with the newcomers who need help. How could it get any better than that?

[Scharfschuetze]

Great results Hick.

Well, you're hooked now. There's no turning back.

[Frank46]

I got interested in shooting cast boolits after reading Harris's article on shooting cast boolits in military rifles. Since I had traded a #4 enfield for a Finn model 27 in 7.62x54r the decision was an easy one. But boxer primed brass at the time was extremely limited. At a local gun show I managed to find 15 boxes of Hansen Cartridge Co boxer primed ammo. Lyman's #314299 has just come out and got one of their molds. I got luckey and the nose cast .303.304 and the body cast at .314. Cast a bunch then slugged the barrel .3115. When I went to size them in a .313 die i quickly found out that the die was poorly machined chewed up the boolits badly. Dug through my reamer collection and found a .313 chucking reamer. Stuck the die in the lathe reamed and polished it out. Came out at .3135 sized the boolits at that diameter. Used IMR 4759 and 20.0 grains accuracy was excellent. Took a few fired cases and measured the neck diameters then made a shorty neck die out of some threaded rod 7/8x14tpi so as to get some neck tension and not oversize the necks. Made up a expander for a lyman "M" die that just belled the case necks. Been doing it that way ever since. I seat the boolit out so long the loaded cartridge won't fit the magazine. So just stick the rear of the case in the mag as the extractor will pick up and load the case into the chamber. The guy who I did the horse trading with said the rifle sometimes pierced primers. So did some measuring of the firing pin protrusion and reset the firing pin. No pierced primers in the many times I've shot this rifle with cast boolits. That old rifle has a bright shiney bore and to this date has not seen a jacketed bullet. So that is my story regarding one particular Finn model 27 and the #314299. Frank

[Markbo]

Hick now you just have to write another "how to" for revolvers and.post it up so I have all the important stuff in one easy to access post. ;)