AR-15 500 Round Cast Bullet Test

[Case Stuffer]

Mold RCB 505796 55gr. ,.224, Spire point mold(22-55-SP), Lee .225 sizer and Lee Universal Expanderto flare case mouth .Casting alloy approx. Bhn 15 ,powder coat, seat Hornady gas checks . Using 18 grains. of H 335 powder and CCI SRMP in misc. military brass., 2.115" AOL . Only 50 rounds to date with this combo but 100% reliable , bolt locks back after last round,...

[Case Stuffer]

Competetion Electronics Pro Chrono

Temp. 95F

All same as post above other than these have 0.011 Alum. gas checks made with Freechex III and AOL 2.110"

Avg. 2,128 FPS
ES 82
Sd 34

[doctorggg]

Case Stuffer, what kind of accuracy are you getting with this load?Thanks,Greg

[3006mv]

How are you getting the flare back down after seating? I can still feel a slight bell on my case mouths after seating with regular lee bullet seating die ) ;

[Moonie]

I use the Lee FCD on the rifle cartridges. For pistol cartridges I use a separate seating and crimping die (not the pistol FCD)

[Jupiter7]

I use the Lee FCD on the rifle cartridges. For pistol cartridges I use a separate seating and crimping die (not the pistol FCD)

Same here. The real trick is adjusting mouth expansion to minimal dimension to seat bullets.

[Case Stuffer]

Case Stuffer, what kind of accuracy are you getting with this load?Thanks,Gre

g

Bushnell THrophy red dot with 3 MOA Dot and at 100 feet using tree as a brace 10 rounds into a 1-1/2" sq.. I believe load is a lot more accurate than I am. It groups as well as H 335 24gr. loads under 55 gr Hornady FMJ or Soft Points.

How are you getting the flare back down after seating?

Lee Factory Crimp Die .

My goal was to be able to able to reduce per round cost and these Boolits with Alu. gas checks are less than $0.02 ea compared to $0.10 plus each for factory jacketed ones. Less cost per round mean being able to afford to shoot more and practice tends to make one better. I am retired so have a plenty of free time and enjoy reloading.I see my AR15 as a run and gun and it just needs to be able to keep them in a diner plate at 100 yards .

Just over $200 for mold ,handles and Free Chex III . Savings are $80 per thousand and I have already cast over 8,000 and ,6,000 of them are wearing gas checks. I can spend the savings on powder and primersand brass should last a lot longer at these lower pressure levels.

[Case Stuffer]

Now that my gas checked reduced power econo load works well enough I want to work on a 1,000 to 1,100 load. I have seen Unique oads listed but no FPS on really light ones.

Found a very old post where 4gr. of Blue Dot was giving 1,150 in a 24" bolt action and was extremly accurate with MJ HP at 200 yards plus.

Hogdon list Trail Boss , Titegroup and Clays reduced loads in thier on-line data base. Guess I need to go powder shopping. I have about 1/2 pounds of Unique which is between 30 and 40 years old and it still looks and smells fine but not sure it is the base to use for load development. One nice thing is that these loads should not need gas checks so amount of time required goes way down along with powder cost and cases should last forever.


Old post / Unique reduced loads

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...=1#post1892606

[cmdrted]

I've been using the noe 22 mold that is a seaco 60 gr clone. nice round noses cast of linotype and sized 225. seated at the crimp goove and lightly crimped to remove the flare. whats happened so far in a franken ar 20" bbl @ 1x9 twist. any powders around imr 4198 and slower to aa2520 and cfe 223, has a magic sweet spot of 17-18 grains, in my rifle. this functions 100%, blows the bolt back to lock, feeds close to 100%. accuracy off a bench at 100yds is average 1.5 moa despite powders. it may go up or down a smidge but i'll take that 1.5 out of cast any day. velocity with an old chrony goes @ 1950 fps to @ 2100. the fastest load i messed with was 20.0 grains of cfe 223 and gave @ 2225 or so. anything faster opened things up to 3 moa. the long winded point is it was fun and enjoyable trying these combos and getting the thing to function pretty well. if i had" the big one" a coroner couldn't pry the grin on my face when i got the above results. this is for the most part a hobby and should be fun.

[Jupiter7]

Now that my gas checked reduced power econo load works well enough I want to work on a 1,000 to 1,100 load. I have seen Unique oads listed but no FPS on really light ones.

Found a very old post where 4gr. of Blue Dot was giving 1,150 in a 24" bolt action and was extremly accurate with MJ HP at 200 yards plus.

Hogdon list Trail Boss , Titegroup and Clays reduced loads in thier on-line data base. Guess I need to go powder shopping. I have about 1/2 pounds of Unique which is between 30 and 40 years old and it still looks and smells fine but not sure it is the base to use for load development. One nice thing is that these loads should not need gas checks so amount of time required goes way down along with powder cost and cases should last forever.

I chrono'd a subsonic load in an 16" AR the other day, 61grn HM2 NATO mold, sized .225, no gas check, powdercoated over 2.5grs 700x netted avg 1070fps. This will of course not operate the action. 700x is the bulkiest fast powder I have on hand.

[doctorggg]

Thank you Case Stuffer for your info. It is much appreciated since I have to drive 52 miles one way to shoot. Oh how I wished I still lived in the country. Maybe in a year when my wife retires??

[Case Stuffer]

Thank you Case Stuffer for your info.

You are very welcome. I really wanted a cast load which cycled and had decent accuracy using powder and primers that are my standards . I use CCI SRMP in all my 9 mm and .223 / 5.56 loads ,may not be necessary but it works for me and sure cuts down on inventory problems. H 335 for 223/5.56 , HS 6 and WW 231 for 9mm and .45 . Lucky for me I have a rather large ammo re-manufacture not o far from me and they manage to keep these in stock most of the time.

Good luck on getting back to the sticks. I would go nuts living in the city. I moved out of Atlanta in 1961 to Paulding County and then 15 years or so ago it grew to much to suit me so moved out here 8 years ago. I have half a dozen or more shooting neighbors within hearing range . Many of us have 5 acres or more and hearing gun shots is common as lawnmowers,chain saws etc..

[arunninghorsegoeswild]

Well after two years now of doing this I can homestly say I will NEVER by factory BOOLITS for my AR loads again.
Im getting very accurate results with my casts and homemade gas checks.
I too pocked up a free chex has check maker and have had very good results with it.
I feed to boolits through a .225 sizing die and I feed them base first. This prevents any bulging at the base.
Using the .225 die insures a better seal will boolit travels down the bore.
Using regular loads I.E.standard listed loads from places like Lee's book, older Winchester load data and a few I habe worked up on my own.
I have worked out good loads with.
H4198, H 4895, IMR 4895, varget, reloader 15, H 355 to name a few
I dropped all powders to 2/3 loads and worked up from there.
In the end I brought them to full loads and was abled to get very good groups at typical 100 to 110 yard ranges.
Meaning fifty cent piece groups.
I use an RCBS die and am planning on paying a local machine shop to make me a die that will mold 8-10 for more mass producing.
Currently my RCBS does on two boolits very slow.
The gas checks I experemented with. First I used copper shim stock then I used printing plate aluminum as it is extruded aluminum not sheet like roofing. Then I used brass shim stock.
I found all three to work extremely well and neither effected accuracy.
The brass shim was the hardest rated material and took a bit more to ounch them out.
I made and sold about fifty thousand on Ebay and got good feedback from shooters all over the US so I recomend brass.
I sold also about that much aluminum and three times that copper.
No neg feedback.
Don't know if this helps I hope so...

[NavyVet1959]

I am blessed that I own land here in Maine and testing literally takes walking out the back door.

OK... I think I understand the reason for your attitude in your previous post. You live up in the Frozen North. I suspect having snow up to your 'nads for that many months out of the year could make one a bit irritable.

[Case Stuffer]

Thanks for dropping in. Your
Post here
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...=1#post2982992

and #41

along with comments from others such as Larry Gibson gave me the ambition to go forward with this project. It is nice when others have already proven an idea and it takes little effort to get to a suitable working point.

In the end I brought them to full loads and was abled to get very good groups at typical 100 to 110 yard ranges.
Meaning fifty cent piece groups.

I have not tried going past 2,100 due to concerns of rotational speeds , plus with a 3MOA Red Dot or open sights and my not so great 70 year old vision I would not be very likely to see any accuracy difference unless it was really major. Even my 55 gr. FMJ loads were down around 2,800. I feel that with a double powder coated and alu, gas checked Boolit which weights 58 grains my reduced loads are not really giving up that much but I have been wrong before.


Added: My 55 gr. FMJ load is 24 gr. H 335 / 2.220 CAOL / 2,805 Avg.
55 gr. cast ( really 58 gr) 18 gr. H 335 / 2.110 / 2,128 Avg. Reduced COAL to keep Boolit from engaging rifling which resulted in Boolits being pulled forward in case if manually cycled.

[arunninghorsegoeswild]

Hahahaha well I never said I was a petunia....
But pretty much shoot year round.
Nice thing about snow banks is they make the best boolit catches going.
I recovered almost all of the five thousand rounds sent downrange to recast later!!
The snow banks stop em dead and they are totally intact unless they strike sometbing solid....
Ill post FPS etc later.

[NavyVet1959]

Nice thing about snow banks is they make the best boolit catches going.
I recovered almost all of the five thousand rounds sent downrange to recast later!!
The snow banks stop em dead and they are totally intact unless they strike sometbing solid....

I've heard of people up in the Frozen North putting down one of those blue poly tarps on the ground and then making a snow bank bullet stop on that. Supposedly, when the snow melts, all the bullets are just sitting on the tarp. Personally, I don't think it is worth suffering in the cold like that just to ease my lead recovery.

[arunninghorsegoeswild]

It truely does.
It is amazing
Spring time is like gold fevor for cold lead!!!

[arunninghorsegoeswild]

Don't know that one needs to be up heeeyaaah
I suppose anywhere u can build a snow bank and shoot into it.
It stops my 9mm .45 and 10mm at close range and all my rifle loads up to .308!!

[NavyVet1959]

A friend of mine has a swimming pool and since his kids have moved away, it just sits there and does not get used. He keeps it maintained so that it doesn't end up as a green bio-hazard, but it's just a waste. I suggested that it would make a good bullet stop if he fired at a certain angle towards the deep end. At that angle, the bullets would not ricochet and they would be stopped well before they hit the bottom / far side. Then, all he would need to do is dive in a do a bit of underwater sweeping to pick up the lead periodically.