Does anyone make a .50 caliber 500 grain gas check Spitzer mould?

[Linstrum]

For Christmas I just bought myself a new L.A.R. Grizzly Big Boar .50 BMG rifle, and it should be arriving shortly at my local mom & pop gun shop.

I've been a .50 BMG shooter for a few years already, I built a .50 BMG falling block carriage-mounted rifle in 2007 using a new 30-inch Lilja match grade barrel chambered in .50 BMG. It is a heavy son of a gun, and instead of lightening it up I decided to go ahead and get a purpose-built bipod rifle with a much longer 36-inch barrel. I'm still going to use my 30-inch BMG, though, it is also a lot of fun to shoot like a miniature field gun on its carriage.

I have been shooting the Lee 0.515" 500 grain boolit sized to 0.514", but this boolit is meant for the .50-70 Gov and does not have a gas check or a very good ballistic coefficient because of a large flat meplat. What I would like to find out is who currently makes a .50 caliber 500 grain gas check boolit that I can use for light load plinkers? I would prefer a Spitzer so I could get some long distance range. I've been making my own moulds since 1964, but the Spitzer shaped cavity is quite difficult to machine so that it has a high Ballistic Coefficient of 0.7 or higher, which is one thing I'm after.

Thanks!


rl893

[Nobade]

NEI #365. And check out #368 for a big boy.

neihandtools.com, catalog page #13.

[Linstrum]

Hey, thanks, nobade, I checked them out and the other designs listed as well and I'm thinking of going with one of them, probably #365 like you suggested.


rl895

[Screwbolts]

PM RockRat he shoots cast in his BMG and did have some NOE made molds avalable.

[midnight]

I've been shooting the CBE 512975 cast from linotype and getting around 2100fps with < 1.50 accuracy at 100yds. Google Jim Allison at Cast Bullet Engineering in Australia. Mine weigh 833gr. cast from linotype and 965gr cast from wheelweights. Wheelweights shoot very poorly at 2100 but will probably do much better when I slow them down. Been using H50BMG & WC872

Bob

[Linstrum]

Thanks for all the info, I'll probably go with the NEI #365 for starters.

I have IMR5010, WC860, and WC872 for powder, so I'm pretty much set for the moment. I'd like to get more WC872 but haven't seen any for a long, long time.

rl898

[Nobade]

Jeff Bartlett has some.

http://www.gibrass.com/gunpowder.html

$48 for 8lbs.

[Linstrum]

Hey, thanks! I checked GI Brass a few days ago but for some reason I didn't get to Jeff Bartlett's site. Wideners has WC867 right now for the same price, I was thinking of getting some of that, too. I have to be careful about getting too much powder on hand because of storage problems even though I live out in the boondocks. Eight years ago when I lived at a ranch in California we had a massive wildfire and I had one end of the house burning with 90 pounds of powder in the other end and no place to throw it outside without it igniting from the firestorm. Fortunately I got the fire out before it did major damage, but it was pretty scary for an hour.


rl900