newbie needs help with loading CB's in 8mm Mauser

[scottb]

I am new to casting and will need advise about alot of things but my question for the present is this. I just cast 60 or so boolits for my Yugo M24 8mm mauser. I neck sized a shell casing, used lyman M die to flare case mouth, seated the boolit, and made up a dummy round. I did not crimp it. Chambered it in rifle and when I extracted it the boolit stuck in the chamber. I punched the bullet out carefully with cleaning rod and made up another round this time crimped. same result stuck another bullet in the barrel. At this point wisely decided to humbly join the ranks of CAST BOOLITS so I could get help. Boolits were cast with Lyman mold 323470 COL was 2.730 Are my boolits to big? Do I need to resize them smaller. I don't have a re sizer yet.

[Der Gebirgsjager]

Hello, and welcome to the Forum. You didn't have to wait until you had a problem to join us! Your question will probably need some trial and error to solve. First, just because a mold has a number like 323470 doesn't mean that it drops .323 boolits. You should measure a sampling with a micrometer or caliper to see what they measure. You may have to size them. Next, it's possible that you are seating the boolits too far out in the case and jamming the nose into the rifling, which will grip it and pull it on extraction. One way to go about finding the right length (and there's others) is to seat the boolit in the case neck, gently feed it into the chamber, and gently close the bolt, then gently open it and ease it back out. The point at which the nose of the boolit contacts the rifling should push the boolit back into the case and give you the approximate seating depth, then seat it .01" deeper. You'll get a difference in opinions of whether or not you need to crimp the boolit. If you're going to sit at a bench and load and fire them off one at a time, then probably not. But, if you're going to load five in the magazine and cycle them into the chamber then you'll probably be wise to crimp due to the boolit being moved by the recoil of the preceeding rounds and the feeding cycle. Even more important is to slug your bore and find out it's measurement, then fit the boolits to the bore. If you decide that you need to size the boolits, Lee makes relatively inexpensive sizing kits. You might also take a look at their Factory Crimp Die for 8mm Mauser. Don't despair! It gets easier as you experiment and learn, and getting there is half the fun.

[Der Gebirgsjager]

Oh.. of course, when attempting to determine the seating length for your boolit, you won't want to seat it in a case that's had the neck resized which is your problem now, because it will stick in the rifling before pushing back into the case to give you the length. Instead, you'd be best served to use a case that has been fired in your rifle, then don't size the neck and put the boolit in the neck by hand (fingers). The slightly loose fit will allow the boolit to be pushed backward into the neck. Like I said above, proceed gently to preserve the measurement.

[country gent]

Some moulds are "nose riding" desighns. The nose has a section at .001-.002 under bore dia, sometimes this dia is .001-.004 bigger than bore and can bind. ( not all bad if you dont have to unchamber alot of ammo) another is the bullet itself can be throat size or slightly over giving issues like this. Slugging the bore with a soft lead slug will give the dimensions you need to check fit of bullet. A simple chamber cast will give throat dia also. On the bullets that stuck where where the bright spots at? A little thing some do is to sacrifice a case to set up. Take a sized case and with a dremil tool or very fine jewelers saw cut a slot in the neck to the shoulder, and deburr inside and out. This helps the neck to act as a collet allowing bullet to seat deeper when it hits the rifling with out being pushed into rifling and binding up. Another way of acomplishing this is with a clean straight cleaning rod. close bolt and apply a piece of tape at the muzzle around rod 1-2 wraps. Open bolt and insert bullet holding in place with a rod or pencil. Apply second piece of tape. Measure lower edges of tape strips for maximum overal length of cartridge, subtract .005-.010 from this to start.

[Taterhead]

Welcome. I'm new here too. New to casting, but experienced with reloading. Der Gebirgsjager has you on the right track. Hornady's overall length gage makes this chore a snap if willing to spend a few bucks.

You can always do as advised above too. I've done it both ways.

[scottb]

Thanks a lot for the good info. Im gonna try the suggestions now. Ill reply back to let yall know how it works. Thanks again. This is gonna be great.

[243winxb]

I see .318" and .323" as bullet diameter??

[slim1836]

You can also take a sharpie and paint your boolit, this will tell you when it's engaging the rifling.

Slim

[R. Dupraz]

A cast bullet needs to be fitted to the throat and not the bore. Except in the case of a bore rider. Then the nose needs to fit the bore as well. Need to find the throat size. That will tell you what size your bullet needs to be. Either the same or .001" over the throat diameter will work.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

scottb,
Welcome to the forum.

I edited your title and moved your thread to a appropriate forum.

[runfiverun]

the nose is too big.
I'd bet they shoot well.

[HangFireW8]

Instead of resizing them smaller, just seat them deeper. It might look odd, but my 323470's are deep seated and shoot just fine.

[jimb16]

I see .318" and .323" as bullet diameter??

All of the early 8mm mausers were .318 bore size. Your mauser is much later and would take the .323 bullet. Technically yours is a 7,9mm JS mauser.

[Shiloh]

8mm.
My next project with cast. Gonna have to make brass from aught-six brass.

SHiloh