223 Cast Bullet Loads

[Taylor]

Attachment 131857 100 yards 70 gr noe with lyman #2,17.5 varget and 1-9 twist.any faster and they scatter.

[NC_JEFF]

Nice target Taylor, how fast is your boolits with 17.5 gr varget? What barrel length are you using?

JD

[kbstenberg]

Josh82 If you go to the post with the link in it. you will find lots of inf. on alloys and bullet design.

[Taylor]

Nice target Taylor, how fast is your boolits with 17.5 gr varget? What barrel length are you using?

JD

I have never chrono'd them and the barrel is 24".H&R with bull barrel. Weaver T-36 for sights.

[runfiverun]

Welcome to the forum Josh.
I'd tell you the secret but then I'd err,,, wrong forum.

Alloy is not the answer, it is part of the equation, you have to put together an entire system that works together.
The alloy, boolit shape, pressure rise of the powder, and boolit alignment in the throat all have to work together.
If I were going to work with an off the shelf mold I would look at the rcbs 22-055s or the Sacco 60gr rn.
my alloy ended up being 4%tin and 6%antimony I also lapped my mold on the nose right in front of the drive bands to achieve .219 diameter right there.
it's also the diameter I specified when I drew up the HM-2 5.56 mold.
The trick was finding the powder that would push the boolit forward gently enough to let that boolit align by using the nose as a guide while it was moving forward then get the body in the barrel before accelerating it.
I also had to weight sort my boolits and ruthlessly cull visual defects.

It's a lot of work.

[Kos1966]

Does powder coating help?

[runfiverun]

I guess it could if you can get it on evenly.

[RogerDat]

I have a fast twist mini-14 in 223 with a 1:7 twist. I have found Lyman #2 with gas check and powder coat over a 70 grain bullet is accurate pushed by 24.5 grains of Varget. Have no idea of velocity but getting pretty close to a compressed load of powder. Doesn't lead, doesn't clog gas port. My reading toward developing that round I found that twist rate and bullet weight being a good match was an important factor to getting accuracy. My fast twist is marginal with 55 grain bullet that slower twist barrels really like. Weight, profile, spin, velocity all appear to impact what alloy will support what velocity.

Also everything I have seen on gas check design without gas check say performance is poor to epic fail. Certainly generally in the why bother spectrum of endeavors.

[Kos1966]

What mold for the 70 gr? The only one I have seen is Noe

[RogerDat]

What mold for the 70 gr? The only one I have seen is Noe

Yes I use the NOE 70 grain, 4 cavity. Lee handles for a 6 cavity fit it. Like the mold makes nice bullets. I powder coat with shake and bake method. gas check and size with Lee push through before PC.
http://noebulletmolds.com/NV/product...products_id=87

Huge improvement over 55 grain surplus or standard ammo. Standing at 50 and 75 meters went from putting a 20 round magazine someplace on a 12 inch target to 18 of the 20 I could cover with my hand, so call it a 6 inch circle. I do have the older model with a 1:7 twist, as I understand it there was also a 1:9 twist made in some years/serial numbers. 70 grain should still be good in that but it might also like molds in the 60's. There is one of those a 65 grain Mihek in S&S forum right now.
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...grain-versions

[MaryB]

I gave up on cast in my AR, to finicky to get it to cycle right. I do use the Bator in my Savage Axis loaded down to 1200fps for small game. Lot more accurate than my 10/22 at 100 yards!

[Bzcraig]

I'm shooting the NOE 225-55 PC & GC using 11.5gr of RL7 with good results so far. Finally got a chrono but haven't checked this load yet.

[longbow]

Not an AR or .223 but high velocity with .222:

http://archive.is/EqRY0

Hopefully that link works. The article is now in an archive. If it doesn't he is claiming 58 grain cast bullet launched at 2690 ft./sec from a charge of 23 grains of BLC-2 powder in a bolt action Remington 700 in .222.

I have not done this myself so leave it to you guys. Just ran across the article and often see people trying for high velocity in bottleneck .22's.

Also related is this:

https://www.standeyo.com/News_Files/...g.bullets.html

and the formula shows up often if you haven't seen it before. I will argue though that the calculated number is not the yield strength of the lead alloy as no lead alloy has a yield strength beyond about 12,500 PSI. It is the maximum chamber pressure that can be used with the alloy.

Anyway, maybe useful, maybe not.

Longbow

[Nrut]

I gave up on cast in my AR, to finicky to get it to cycle right. I do use the Bator in my Savage Axis loaded down to 1200fps for small game. Lot more accurate than my 10/22 at 100 yards!

Hi Mary,
What powder are you using for your 1200fps Axis load?
How does the noise level compared to .22 std vel.?
Thanks

[MaryB]

Just a lighter load of CFE223... forget which manual covers it

[Kos1966]

Thanks all I'm testing my loads Friday

[trixter]

I have been shooting and liking Lee C225-55 RF, with Unique. I have not settled the powder grains so I won't post it yet. I have the Lee 2 cavity mold and find casting this boolit is quick and easy. I use the Lyman Mag 25 and have it set at 755°, I heat the mold up on a hot plate and within 3 casts, I get perfect boolits. I water drop them. I usually age them for at least 2 weeks or longer. I install gas checks and run them through my Star Lube sizer a they are ready to go. I know, this sounds like a lot of work, but I am a 71 year old widower, who hates TV and don't like bars, so this keeps me occupied, when I am not watching my grandson play baseball.
So when I get the powder thing figired out, then I will go into full production.

[MaryB]

Yeah I haven't hit the magic powder load yet either... been getting some borderline over pressure signs with reduced load CFE223... nothing that would stop me but it is my life I am not going to hurt someone else!

[LeadPoisonTX]

Bzcraig

I'm shooting the NOE 225-55 PC & GC using 11.5gr of RL7 with good results so far. Finally got a chrono but haven't checked this load yet.

Do you have targets you could share with us? Which PC did you use?
I found good results with PC/no GC, with 311041 in 30-30 & 5.1 grains Red Dot (reduced at 1018 fps); and with PC/no GC with Cramer #56 90 grains boolit in 25-06 & 7.3 grains Unique (reduced load at 1370 fps). Hi Tek and shake & bake powders worked equally well. I know these are not "fast velocities" but they are accurate plinking loads - High Velocity with accuracy will be my next search.

[FordNLNR]

I've done a lot of testing with the MP 65gr NATO boolit, GC'd, PC'd, sized to .225" in my old 1:7 twist Mini14. I've tried a broad range of powders, but am finding best accuracy with the very fast end of the powder range: IMR4198, IMR4227, AA5744, even SR4759