AR 556 cast loads WIP

[autopilotmp]

It's an Anderson 556 NATO carbine barrel. I'm finding that some of my boolits have grown a little and when sized the step down to the nose on the NOE boolit is erased. If I try to put the nose into the business end of the barrel they won't drop in where as some of my other boolits from same mold cast from the same alloy (mixed 20# in a pot and poured off into bigots) will drop in to the barrel all the way to the driving band.

Will add that some have been water dropped from mold, heat treated, or powder coated. Rather frustrating and I'm on the verge of going back to the Lee c225-55-fn boolit and enjoying the decent accuracy I've reached there.

[sledgehammer001]

That would be frustrating. Haven't dealt with that in my .225" cast, so I'm of absolutely no help there. Will be following the thread to see what our gurus chime in with.

[Springfield0612]

This is why I run PID controllers on both of my pots. If I am making bullets for a consistent load group I will only keep dropped bullets from the same pot temp and the same mold temp. Using this strict method casting for .308 I dropped about 400 bullets and 80% of them were +/- .8 grn. I came to this realization sizing cast .45 bullets. Some were easy to resize some took more effort. The next casting session I separated the bullets by progression while casting them. The hotter the mold and hotter the alloy the more resizing effort it took. But once the alloy temp and mold temp were cooler the less effort it took. I also found the on a multi-cavity mold (5-6 cavity) that the end cavities don't regulate heat as well as the center cavities. Learning all this I came to the realization that if I wanted good consistent bullets for rifle casting I had to be on my A game while casting. Which is why I run 2 pots now. Both have PID controllers. I can fill both with the same alloy and cast consistent temps to get consistent bullets and have wayyyyyy less down temp for remelting sprues or adding an ingot. The biggest frustration I have RN casting for .223 is my lee sizer that is marked .225 sizes to .2235/.224 gotta send it back to get them to open it up.

I'm on the cast in AR journey myself using Elvis Ammo design 62 grn plain base from Arsenal Molds. So far no success using IMR 4895, CFE223, and W748. 8" groups at 20 yards. I'm on the fence about getting a PB gas check die and seeing if that'll tighten things up.

It's an Anderson 556 NATO carbine barrel. I'm finding that some of my boolits have grown a little and when sized the step down to the nose on the NOE boolit is erased. If I try to put the nose into the business end of the barrel they won't drop in where as some of my other boolits from same mold cast from the same alloy (mixed 20# in a pot and poured off into bigots) will drop in to the barrel all the way to the driving band.

Will add that some have been water dropped from mold, heat treated, or powder coated. Rather frustrating and I'm on the verge of going back to the Lee c225-55-fn boolit and enjoying the decent accuracy I've reached there.

[GunFun]

Several of the Lee sizers I bought were undersized. To me that's a plus, because then I can hone them up to what I want. I finish with 2K grit automotive sand paper wrapped around a mandril with tape, and a bit of light oil. Just tight enough that a drill will turn it. Gets a mirror finish and palpably smoother operation.

[autopilotmp]

Well made it out to the range to try out some of the NOE 225 70rn boolits. This was a ladder test to find a load that functions and groups fairly well. I don't really have a specific MOA goal per say but good enough I can count on consistent hits on approx 8" plates.

Mold: Noe 225-72-rn-gc
Alloy: Copper enriched pure lead mixed 1/1 with COWW (used penny/CuSO4 method)
Cooling Method: Water dropped from mold
Lube: carnuba blue
GC: PM checkmaker amerimax flashing
Size: 225
Distance: 100 yards

These were not weight sorted, only test done was to make sure the nose fit my barrel up to the driving bands so that it would go fully into battery. The following groups were shot from a bench with bag using a 5x scope. Circles on target are 1.5" in diameter. I shot 6 groups starting with 19.5gn h4895 because that is where I started with this boolit a while back (earlier in this thread). I shot an "example" group with the current load I have been using for rifle shoots currently. The main reason I wanted to switch to this boolit is that I am under the impression I could get better accuracy from the heavier boolit as well as increased pressure for rifle function. Also was having issues with the lee boolit's nose hitting the rifling and keeping the rifle from going fully into battery, really couldn't go much shorter without crimping past the driving band.


This is the example group of the lee 55gn, COWW, WD, Alum GC, carnuba Blue, 19.5gn h4895. Not super but if I were to weight sort the boolits they shoot under to 2.5 MOA.


This is 19.5gn h4895 and is better than the lee boolit for sure.


This is 20gn h4895 still not bad some horizontal stringing.


This is 20.5gn h4895 not a bad group at all, remember these are not weight sorted.


this is 21gn h4895 and things are starting to open up.


Lastly this is 21.5gn h4895. I really thought about just saving the components here but wanted to see how bad it would get. Yeah pretty bad here 8/10 on the paper.

I have a couple things I want to try for next outing:
1. Some out of the COWW WD alloy to see if the copper is doing me a solid or just wasting my time.
2. Have some thinner aluminum flashing for the GCs
3. May weight sort some after narrowing the window a little more on the powder charge just to see how much accuracy I can wring out.

I was away from the load development for a while but I've put about 1k of the lee 55gn boolits through my rifle with no leading (some pc but vast majority were conventional lube). Had some serious carbon build up on the bolt that needed a some elbow grease to remove. Think that carbon and the nose of the lee boolit were causing the bolt to lock up just out of battery. I was shooting a local paper fun shoot for rifles engaging from 7-150 yards. Had very little confidence in the bulk load out at 150 (weight sorted is a different story), but had no problems with the 100 yard shots on the head/upper torso steel target. Anyways there will be more of that type of shooting in my future so I am trying to nail down a boolit load combo that works well for these types of engagements. Thanks for following along.

Again please feel free add comments or questions.

[autopilotmp]

Another trip to the range today, touching on the use of a thinner alum GC that I mentioned in the last post. This time shooting 5 shot groups to get a general since if it was going to make a difference. NOE 225-70 rn, H4895 powder as usual this time 19.5 and 20.5 loads were used, no weight sort, carnuba blue lube, sized 225, oal 2.247. Full function, no leading, no stoppages. Checks were made using patmarlins 22 checkmaker with amerimax .014 and some really old rolled alum that measures .010.

100yds with my AR and a 5x scope


19.5 grains H4895, .014 alum check


19.5 grains H4895, .010 alum check


20.5 grains H4895, .014 alum check


20.5 grains H4895, .010 alum check

I would say the results are pretty clear that the thinner check works better and I need to switch over.

1. Get better scope (possibly I really only wanted this for gun games but progress makes me want to see how deep this rabbit hole goes)
2. Ladder from 19.5 to 20.5 to find that sweet spot
3. stretch the legs a bit more (have range to 300yds but this will require the above better scope)


really happy with these results, am interested in running these over a chrono someday. the lee 55 at 19.5 was running @2100fps so these should be in the ballpark. Thanks again for looking, feel free to chime in with questions, comments, concerns, all are welcome here.

[parkerhale1200]

stop dracon filling and use lovex d060 start with 15.8 grain
0.5 grain increments
weigh your bullets after gs them and before lube or pc
the on;y difference there is, is between 100 and 300 yards.
don't do 25 or 50 yards.
no need to use the j word stuff at 300
you will be fine at 300, BUT:
at 300 make sure to have ALL your boolits at the same hardness and at the same weight.
make sure that your powder is also at the same weight...0.01 grain level.
those boolits are just to light.
get rcbs casts if you get the chance...it change my world for shooting

thanks to oldgsm i know this regarding my ar