AR-15 500 Round Cast Bullet Test

[arunninghorsegoeswild]

You know the immortal Mr Lee wrote about shooting into his pool with his son.
He did it to test load results before he had access to all the powder producers labs.
You must live in a warmer climate
Not sure how you could make a good stop other than the usual two pieces of platd steel angled toward each other to a trap.
Maybe sand dunes???
But then you would have to dig for em....

[NavyVet1959]

You know the immortal Mr Lee wrote about shooting into his pool with his son.
He did it to test load results before he had access to all the powder producers labs.

Nope... Didn't know that... I guess great minds think alike...

You must live in a warmer climate
Not sure how you could make a good stop other than the usual two pieces of platd steel angled toward each other to a trap.
Maybe sand dunes???
But then you would have to dig for em....

Yep... Texas... Definitely WARMER... And HUMID... With all the rain that we've had since April, the ground is soggy which with the heat just makes for MORE HUMIDITY. The water on the surface evaporates, forms clouds which build up and later in the afternoon, we get more rain. Having a large warm moist air source (i.e. the Gulf of Mexico) right south of here helps keep the humidity up even more.

Digging in berms (sand or dirt) is WORK. There needs to be a high concentration of lead in there before I'll consider doing that. There's plenty of steel bullet trap designs out there. You can find a few threads on this site about them.

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...recycling-lead

A 5g bucket filled with shredded tire rubber landscaping mulch will work for most handgun bullets and many rifle bullets from what I've read.

I'm thinking a 55g barrel filled with "slack wax" would make a good bullet trap, but I have not found a place that sells it in that small of quantities at a reasonable price.

[timtheartist]

I heard somewhere else on castboolits that Lee re-introduced the .225 mold.

http://leeprecision.com/mold-dc-c225-55-rf.html

Has anybody used it and had acceptable AR15 results?

I also noticed Lee has a beautiful mold coming soon for the .270

[3006mv]

< wow thanks for posting! why didnt they come out with that a few years ago?!
looks like a good one to drill the. gas check shank out and powder coat those little pills

[timtheartist]

I had to peck thru the long list on the Lee website to find the bullet molds of interest. Neither above mentioned mold is on the page that shows "all" the molds. There may be other new or "coming soon" molds I didn't notice.

[3006mv]

Well my powder coated rcbs bullets of same weight ran fine out of an AR but the groups were nothing to write home about

[NavyVet1959]

Well my powder coated rcbs bullets of same weight ran fine put of an AR but the groups were nothing to write home about

Well, there's something to be said for "suppressive fire"...

[arunninghorsegoeswild]

My Rcbs casts for the AR are VERY accurate.
At first they were not but I sized them to .225 instead of .224
And the better seal worked on cycling better and accuracy.
At this point I will NEVER by factory 5.56/.223 ever again and haven't in three years.
Im at around the 5000 round down range mark with these casts and growing....

[timtheartist]

Thanks 3006mv for idea of removing gas check shank. Lee molds are so cheap it would be a reasonable experiment.

Thanks Running Horse for the 225 info. What kind of lube are you using and what are your thoughts on powder coating? Gas checks or not?

[Garyshome]

Casting for the Ar will have to wait....I just picked up a few [6000] .224 55 gr FMJ-BT with cannelure for a great price.


Quite a bit of work prepping boolits sizing/checks/pc ing

[detroitcharlie]

I have the same mold but have been sitting on it with trepidation. I have a S&W AR15 M&P Sport and was worried about fouling up the gas system with lead. Sounds like you got the alloy down just right. I might give this a try now that I've seen someone else pull it off with the same mold.

[3006guns]

Followed this entire thread and REALLY found that Lee mold interesting! Just curious if that slightly flat point will make for any feeding problems......so someone please post your results!

Regarding the difficulty of seating GC's on these little guys......would the nose first Lee design sizing setup be any easier? I have a Lachmiller (predecessor to the RCBS) sizer and a lot of money tied up in sizing dies.

Oh, and I vote for an AR subforum too.

[GabbyM]

I've never had any difficulty seating gas checks on 22 boolits. Have three molds.
I just dump some checks out on the Formica bench top. pick up a bullet and push it onto a check that's setting cup side up.
Then use the Lyman gas check seat tool in my 4500 sizer to set them on tight.

[oldsgm]

It is interesting to come back over here and find this thread I started so long ago still alive.
I joined AR15.com and got into 80% receivers and milling and so on. Last December I was invited by Green Mountain Rifle Barrels to test a variety of barrel twists (1:6, 1:5 and so on) with nothing particularly applicable to cast bullets. That changed when they sent a 1: 14 barrel. They are 18" barrels with a rifle length gas action. I will re-running the cast bullet tests in the new barrel to see what they do. I have some bater bullets as well as the RCBS bullets and will see how they do. I will post results here as well as over there. I also donated funds to help keep this site going.

[Harter66]

I had to peck thru the long list on the Lee website to find the bullet molds of interest. Neither above mentioned mold is on the page that shows "all" the molds. There may be other new or "coming soon" molds I didn't notice.

It's under new for 2015 . 277-130
http://leeprecision.com/product.php?...t=19039&page=1

It looks like it is to long shanked and short nosed to be any better for the 6.8 in an AR than the 27-130, certainly less costly . I wish there were a 1 with less shank and more nose about 150 gr my 27-130 RF tips in at 137 gas checked and lubed. There's a 1/10 or so for boolit length for the 1-11 twist and that much in the mags as well.

Nowhere near the round counts of the other gentlemen I'm under 100 on the rifles each .
The 225-55 RF feeds fine in the ATI OMNI HYBRID M4 styled AR . My alloy is pretty soft being 1-19 lino-WW ,gas checked . I'm up to 2200 fps with Darrs lube +4 of wax and + 1 tsb STP. Sized 225 with Hornady checks and H4198 with #41.
I've seen no bbl leading or significant flash on the A2 style birdcage. 16" 1-8 bbl the NOE copy drops and checks very close to 65 gr for me. I don't see any indication lead in the gas tube . FFE have been good but it doesn't hit the hold open every time . The accuracy has been about the same as the 55g fmj from PMC ,I think there is room to improve that with a Weaver K4 replacing the elcheapo 5 MOA dot sight and a more rigid mount . The above runs 2.5-3 inches at 75 yd off the hot bed rail of the truck . My focus is function at this point over how fast and how close each being important of course but less so at this point it all goes over the Chrony and if it doesn't go into the cluster by a bunch it is noted . I'll probably break down and try some 70-80 gr boolits after I get a better feel for the rifle.

[454 shooter]

I am glad to have found this thread. I just purchased my first AR in 308 cal.
This winter I should get some time to work with cast boolits and load development.
I don't imagine I will ever fire a jacketed bullet in it.
Thank you for the post and updates.

[3006mv]

I powder coated the Lee boolits ,no gas checks, about the same accuracy as my rcbs mold with slightly longer less flat shape. The Lee does better in my 22 hornet though.

[Moonie]

I wonder if the new 270 mold will cause them to stock push through sizers for 270 caliber...

[popper]

454 shooter - you will like it. ESPC, correct alloy and pretty close to top end jacket fps. No gas sysem problems at all.

[leadman]

I use heat treated linotype Lee Bator or Lyman RN boolits with copper gas checks, coated with HI-Tek coating. I exceeded loading manual data with H4895 and got 3,619 fps with no leading out of my 23" Contender rifle barrel. Accuracy was about 2 1/2" at 100 yards.
Slower loads around 3,000 fps out of my Stag LH AR15 were more accurate and no issues with leading. The BHN was about 35.
Loads around 2,700 fps to 3,000 fps out of my Contender barrel group around 1" to 1 1/2" at 100 yards.

The Contender groups Hornady bulk 55gr SPs into 1" or less and most into 1/2" at 100 yards. The Stag AR will shoot the same bullet around 1" most of the time.

If you use heat treated linotype install the GC before heat treating. The alloy is hard enough it causes the GC to be extruded up the side of the boolit!