First timer

[BigDaddie]

Hi all,

Yesterday was the first opportunity I had to shoot my cast boolits (308win) at the range......and I was pleasantly surprised.

The boolits are Lee 150gn 309's GC'd 155gn weighed). They were H20 quenched antimonied Pb and came out pretty hard. I dont have a hardness tester so i estimated they could handle 18000psi. I used Quickload to come up with suitable loads.

Powder was AR 2208 (Varget). I had 4 loads however the 2nd and 3rd showed the best groups of 3/4" elevation at 100m!!!! These were the middle loads of 32.8 and 33gns. The others had 2" dispersion. They shot 10" lower than my standard hunting load behind a 150gn sierra. No windage adjustments were needed.

I shot these groups quite fast as I was in a hurry and there was a small amount of leading present....I think this is due to too little lube. This is something I can live with as it is a hunting rifle and I will only take 5-10 shots before cleaning anyway.

I'm real happy with this and i cant wait to use them chasing deer in a few weeks!

Cheers,

BD

[44man]

You are HOOKED and we are glad to have you here. Please keep us posted. Fun, isn't it?

[Bass Ackward]

Hi all,

Yesterday was the first opportunity I had to shoot my cast boolits (308win) at the range......and I was pleasantly surprised.

The boolits are Lee 150gn 309's GC'd 155gn weighed). They were H20 quenched antimonied Pb and came out pretty hard. I dont have a hardness tester so i estimated they could handle 18000psi. I used Quickload to come up with suitable loads.

Powder was AR 2208 (Varget). I had 4 loads however the 2nd and 3rd showed the best groups of 3/4" elevation at 100m!!!! These were the middle loads of 32.8 and 33gns. The others had 2" dispersion. They shot 10" lower than my standard hunting load behind a 150gn sierra. No windage adjustments were needed.

I shot these groups quite fast as I was in a hurry and there was a small amount of leading present....I think this is due to too little lube. This is something I can live with as it is a hunting rifle and I will only take 5-10 shots before cleaning anyway.

I'm real happy with this and i cant wait to use them chasing deer in a few weeks!

Cheers,

BD

BD,

With a good lube, ACWW (air cooled) at 12 BHN can handle 34,000 psi in 30 caliber at your weight if you use slower powders. Just so you know.

[cbrick]

5 - 10 shots? yea, right. BigDaddie, you are now a boolit caster and will probably now start to doing a lot more shooting because . . . well, because you made em yourself, because now the bug will bite to make em better, make em different, make more of em. May the Shiny Goddess always be with you.

Bass Ackward is right, I shoot clip-on weights @ 11 BHN in both 160 gr and 180 gr in my 308 with no HT or quenching from my 308 from 1800 to 1900 fps with zero leading.

Rick

[BigDaddie]

Hah! As i said this is a hunting rifle that only comes out to play when the fallow deer are a problem on my brother in law's property. That being said, I'm there 4 times a year on average.....hence the 10 shot maxes per day.

What sort of powder do u suggest then? I have the ADI powders and u can see their equivalents here http://www.adi-limited.com/handloade...quivalents.asp

I do plenty of shooting and have been handloading for a 7yrs but csating has only been a recent string in the bow...I cant believe those bullets performed that well! I had one of the countries best target rifle shooter with me when i was testing them & he nearly fell off his chair when he saw how they shot.

I guess their terminal performance at hunting ranges of 50-150m is the unknown for me. I also have an 8mm mauser on the way which I have already cast some boolits for! So yes, hook, line & sinker when it comes to casting!

[Bass Ackward]

What sort of powder do u suggest then?

BD,

Hard to say for sure. What you will be trying to do is get a certain hardness at a certain velocity point that your rifle has a harmonic vibration range to produce accuracy with. And different (slower) pressure ramp up curves can give you this 34,000 which is my ACWW figure.

The more gently you can start a cast bullet off, and the faster it can be going when your maximum pressure occurs, the higher pressure levels it can withstand and produce accuracy. So thus the higher the velocity potential occurs with slower powders.

[cbrick]

BigDaddie,

Its fair to say that if your happy with the grouping and velocity of your Varget load that you found it. While I haven't yet tested Varget in the 308 my approach has always been the same as Bass Ackward, as slow of a powder that you can can get enough of into the case and still get the velocity your after. I've had pretty good luck with this approach and the Shiny Goddess seems pleased.

Now you can see what I meant, tweek this, change that, make it faster, slower, try this bullet or that powder or a new alloy. Just admit and accept it . . . Your a Boolit Caster. From this time on there is no escape.

Rick

[BigDaddie]

OK I admit it!

Thanks fellas...I will have a play around with some slower powders.