What Rifle Caliber

[Four Fingers of Death]

I wouldn't get too hung up about the cost of brass and availability (within reason). Once you have 100 cases, it is going to take you a lot of shooting before you wear the brass out with cast boolits.

My choice, 30/30 or 308, but anything 30 cal or over will do the trick. The 303 and 8mm are very cast boolit friendly, but there are more moulds available in 30cal.

Your ultimate choice will no doubt be dictated by what rifle you end up with and /or can afford.

If you are financially challenged, the Mosin Nagents make a cheap, boolit friendly choice,as do a lot of bubba'd milsup rifles. They ain't pretty, but if they have good bores, and are cheap and you are squatting in fine cotton as one of the guys here says.

[Artful]

Hey Fellas I am new here. Been lurking a bit prior to this first post.

I have some experience casting for handgun but with rifle zero. I was wanting advice for a good rifle caliber for boolits. I know some seem to do a little better than others.

The only criteria is brass needs to be readily available & relatively cheap.

What are some thoughts on the 30-06?

What kind of velocity with a 180 grain cast?

Open to all other options.....Thanks!

Well, your getting good advise so I'll say the .30'06 is a good cartridge, as well as 30-30 and 308. I guess my questions are -
- what calibers are you casting for now?

- what do you want the rifle caliber to do that your handguns caliber can't do?

- What kind of rifle are you favoring? (Lever, Bolt, Single Shot, Semi-Auto)

You can generally get most any rifle to shoot a cast boolit. I'd suggest 30 cal and larger to make the casting easier. Pick a traditional mold design and keep velocities within reason and your usually good to go.

I'll throw out an example - let's say you cast for a 9mm or 357 handgun.
You can get the same calibers in a carbine or rifle. But say you want to throw more lead faster than your 9mm/357 cartridge will do it in the carbine/rifle.

Keeping the same caliber you can look at cartridges like 357 Maximum, 35 Remington, 358 Winchester, 35 Whelen. You can then use your existing mold for plinking boolits and buy a heavier mold for more power in the rifle. In 35 caliber I use 358 in a Savage 99 with reformed 7.62x51 NATO (aka 308 WCF) brass and boolits from little plinkers like

105 grain LEE SWC


up to NOE copy of Lyman 358009 at 280+ grains


I cast a lot of 135-200 grain for dual use in both handguns and rifle.

You can do this with other handgun Calibers as well
44 spl/44mag - 444 Marlin (180 grn up to 315 grn)
45 ACP/45 Colt - 450 Bushmaster - 45-70 (185 grn and up) you might need to paperpatch .452 up to .460's

Lets you get dual use out of molds...

As far as velocity you can push cast up there but for starting out in rifle's I'd suggest you don't try and break a speed record, keep it 1200-1900 fps and you should find some measure of success.

[Four Fingers of Death]

That's good advice Artful, I neglected to mention what he was already loading and casting.

[45-70.gov]

my 357 handi rifle is the rifle i shoot the most
like said before the brass is almost if not the MOST COMMON if you count 38s
and 38s IS what i shoot most
357 mag is almost a 30-30 in power...[but not quite]


the the next best thing to ADD to this guns versatility
i reamed it to 357 MAX took 7 months to get the brass tho
but it stills shoots 38s and 357mags just fine

357mag is my daily carry gun.....so ammo is ALWAYS handi
my kids carry 38s in 842 smiths so ammo is always handi
they also have handi rifles in 357mag/max so ammo is always available

[Swampman]

I love the .30-06 but a .357 or .44 is probably better for cast boolits and pistol powdwers. .38 Special brass is free sometimes.

[Lloyd Smale]

my favorite cast bullet guns are the 35 rem and the 356. Biggest reason is i can not only use heavy bullets 200-250 grain for hunting but have the option of using 38 pistol bullets both cast and jacketed. Either are capable of taking anything from a big black bear to loading down so that a 8 year old kid can roll beer cans.

[popper]

I have a marlin MG 30-30 and a DPMS 308 carbine. I cast for both, accuracy is about the same for both. Both are rapid repeating guns, I don't like bolt guns. The 32 or 357, 44 would be inexpensive and about the same performance as the 30-30, for CAST. Advantage of 308 is the vast improvement in performance if you want to shoot jacketed. If you go 30-30, buy only new brass or ammo for brass. As you are getting a new (to you) gun, think about it's intended use to determine what you get.

[rintinglen]

Way back when, I started loading with a Lee loader for a 30-30. There are more powerful guns, more accurate guns, bigger guns, smaller guns, but none more cast friendly.

As far as brass goes, every year about this time the deer hunters pull out ol' Betsy and head to the range. I usually get one to five boxes of once fired brass for the asking, or for at most the cost of a half dozen reloads at the range I frequent. I see 308's and 30-06 s a plenty as well, but said guns are more likely to have owners who keep their brass.