RCBS 22-55-SP in my bolt action

[newton]

Couldn't pass it up. I have been debating when I might try cast in my 223 M700, been researching, looking at different molds, then I saw Amazon had this mold for $59+free shipping and I get to use the $10 mail in rebate with it. So I figured why not for $50.

I've been doing some digging, and I see that a lot of people have tried and are using this boolit. I keep seeing that the fast pistol powders are not to good for some, but wondering why?

My goal for this is ~1" @ 100 yards. I honestly don't care about the speed and would love to hear if some of you guys have found a good load that I could skip the gas checks with.

Is it possible to use Unique and get decent accuracy as long as I don't try top end loads? I will also try 4227, but I would rather use Unique. I read a lot of good things about H4895, but I would rather stay with the pistol powders if it is possible to achieve my goal. However, I'll listen if someone has thoroughly tried them and honestly cannot get them to work. I have to wonder if powder coating would make the difference. Most of the threads I've been reading don't mention its use.

It will be a few weeks before I can report back with some tests. But in the meantime I would thoroughly love some input. I'll keep digging up old threads and reading them also. Most of the ones I come across deal with the use of the boolit in an AR, and they focus on function mostly.

[FLHTC]

I use the same mold with 18 grains of AA1680 in my 556. It cycles the action and groups nicely at 100 yards.

[toallmy]

Me to ,watching. How bout a bolt gun.

[FLHTC]

Me to ,watching. How bout a bolt gun.

Well in a T/C, it shoots in 1 1/4" without being too particular about how the bullets look. I use a Lee FCD, open the necks to .224 and size to .225.
I lube with this..... http://www.jakesproducts.com/xcart/p...0&bestseller=Y

[toallmy]

I figured you can cast ,gc , prime and load a 223 for the cost of a 22 mag .I don't pay myself for production time . So it seams like a fun shooter. I see the rcbs 22 mold come up in round nose and flat nose right often as well as their 30 cal molds. I'm going to have to explain again to my little darling about the saving thing .

[newton]

My hope is to find a low enough load to not have to use gas checks, even if it has a rainbow trajectory. The gun shoots great with jacketed stuff, and I don't doubt that I'll try gas checks(did get some ordered), but I just want a solid plinking round that I can load low.

I read through a bunch of stuff last night, including the three PDF articles by beagle. I sure hope that this gun will stabilize the RCBS boolit. I guess its just going to amount to playing around with it to see what it likes.

I'm just hoping to hear of guys being able to shoot this slow with decent accuracy I guess. I'll be powder coating them. That's one thing that the three articles don't mention being tried. I did run the numbers across online stability calculators and it seems doable. I know my gun does fine with bullets that are .1" longer than this one, of course I am running them around 1500 fps faster than I'm thinking I'll run this boolit at.

It may come down to having to always use gas checks, and that's fine if I can find a powder that will push them good with a small charge. I know the 223 is not expensive to load compared to most cartridges, but the reasons I want to try cast are to - reduce my cost even more, get even longer brass life, and reduce throat wear.

I'm sure there is a fine line here between the above and getting good accuracy. I figure it might take a little more work than it did finding a good load for jacketed stuff, plus I do like the idea of making my own boolits from the ground up - that is one of the most alluring thing about casting.

[newton]

I figured you can cast ,gc , prime and load a 223 for the cost of a 22 mag .I don't pay myself for production time . So it seams like a fun shooter. I see the rcbs 22 mold come up in round nose and flat nose right often as well as their 30 cal molds. I'm going to have to explain again to my little darling about the saving thing .

lol Yea, my wife knows I have a soft/weak spot when it comes to shooting. I have always wanted a 22 hornet, for the things you mentioned, but figured I can get about the same kind of results with this gun and cast boolits.

[FLHTC]

My hope is to find a low enough load to not have to use gas checks, even if it has a rainbow trajectory. The gun shoots great with jacketed stuff, and I don't doubt that I'll try gas checks(did get some ordered), but I just want a solid plinking round that I can load low.

I read through a bunch of stuff last night, including the three PDF articles by beagle. I sure hope that this gun will stabilize the RCBS boolit. I guess its just going to amount to playing around with it to see what it likes.

I'm just hoping to hear of guys being able to shoot this slow with decent accuracy I guess. I'll be powder coating them. That's one thing that the three articles don't mention being tried. I did run the numbers across online stability calculators and it seems doable. I know my gun does fine with bullets that are .1" longer than this one, of course I am running them around 1500 fps faster than I'm thinking I'll run this boolit at.

It may come down to having to always use gas checks, and that's fine if I can find a powder that will push them good with a small charge. I know the 223 is not expensive to load compared to most cartridges, but the reasons I want to try cast are to - reduce my cost even more, get even longer brass life, and reduce throat wear.

I'm sure there is a fine line here between the above and getting good accuracy. I figure it might take a little more work than it did finding a good load for jacketed stuff, plus I do like the idea of making my own boolits from the ground up - that is one of the most alluring thing about casting.

Try 2 to 3 grains of Bullseye without a gas check. I use a 225438 without a gas check and lubed with Alox in my Hornet over 2 grains of Bullseye for a 22 mag substitute. That's less than one third the cost of Mag ammo per round.

[newton]

Try 2 to 3 grains of Bullseye without a gas check. I use a 225438 without a gas check and lubed with Alox in my Hornet over 2 grains of Bullseye for a 22 mag substitute. That's less than one third the cost of Mag ammo per round.

I bet a shorter/lighter boolit would shoot better in my gun. But I'll try that bullseye load. I do have some of that on hand.

I know that you cannot expect to get the very best shooting gun, in many different calibers, just using one powder. But I do like to try and stay with just a few. The powders I use the most are Bullseye, Unique, H4895, IMR4320, and I think I will be keeping IMR4227 on hand because I found that my boys 308 shoots VERY well with cast boolits in it.

Looking at the Lyman Cast manual, they show the 4227 as the "accuracy" load for the Saeco 60 grain bullet. I've heard that the RCBS will be dropping close to that, so I might luck out with that powder. Sure would be nice.

My plan is to try some different loads starting out with Bullseye, Unique, and 4227. I think those powders will give the best bang for the buck if I can find a load that does well with them. I might wind up having to always use gas checks, which is fine if I can find them when they are on sale. I picked up some aluminum ones for little less than $14 - 1000. Besides my accuracy goal, the secondary goal is to keep total round cost to ~10 cents. I'll be happy with 1 1/2" groups at 100, tickled with 1".

[35remington]

One inch groups will probably require more luck than is your due. I would take most of my attempts with 4227, were I you.

Not trying to rhyme this! Just turned out that way.

Almost everything revolves around how suitable the rifle's throat is for cast. If it's unfavorable you can beat your head endlessly against the accuracy wall and still shoot craps.

[newton]

One inch groups will probably require more luck than is your due. I would take most of my attempts with 4227, were I you.

Not trying to rhyme this! Just turned out that way.

Almost everything revolves around how suitable the rifle's throat is for cast. If it's unfavorable you can beat your head endlessly against the accuracy wall and still shoot craps.

With my other rifles I have not concerned myself much with the throat. Except with my nephews 243, which has an extremely long throat. But, once I started seating the boolit out to make contact I got good accuracy.

This 223 might be the other way around. It has a very short throat, which I am guessing might be good and bad. Shoots the jacketed stuff good, but only did so consistently once I backed out of it. I have no doubts I'll be able to load up to it with cast, but then becomes the issue of just how much of the boolit is going to be stuck inside the case. Might not make a difference using powder coating over conventional lube though.

[35remington]

What will stymie your every effort is a poor throat and seating out or in will make no difference. Pray you don't have one of those. If you can't get it to shoot with 4227 you likely won't have much luck with any other powder. Sometimes a lot of jacketed shooting first can ease an unfavorable throat if you don't want to ream it to something more favorable.

[newton]

For curiosities sake, what is a poor throat in the 223? What constitutes a good one? Easy way to tell them apart?

[newton]

I just thought of something. I might have to wait till I actually get the mold and use a boolit to see for sure, but I am wondering if I'll be able to use the same hornady seating die for .225 diameter boolits? It has that floating stem that keeps the bullets aligned.

[HiVelocity]

6.4gr of Unique; works great. ~1700 fps.

HV

[runfiverun]

if you don't want to use gas checks you probably should have bought a non gas check mold.
a thousand checks is like 30 [20 from gator] bucks.
yep I know it doubles the cost to about 7 cents a round,, and 22 lr costs 9 cents.

I'd cut out the gas check shank and use 3 grs of red-dot with a pistol primer.

[toallmy]

3 gr red dot and plane base, with pistol primer , sounds easy enough.

[leadman]

You should have no problems with stability in your gun with that boolit. If it does not want to group you can run a few fire-lapping boolits thru it. This will smooth out the throat and remove some of the machine marks in the bore. If you have to fire-lap I would run 2 or 3 shots thru it with 600 grit lapping compound then clean the bore and see if there is an improvement. Go slow and clean and check. You can also use JB Bore Paste on a boolit but it is much slower cutting than lapping compound but does leave a smoother finish.

With the 22 caliber cast boolits they should be fairly hard, at least 18BHN and sorted so you are only shooting perfect appearing boolits. I weight sort to a quarter of a grain plus or minus. Powder coating or use of Hi-Tek coating allows you to cheat some on the hardness in my testing.

[newton]

Thanks for the replies. I'm itching for the stuff to get here. I should have everything mid-week, so I'll be making the loads next weekend. I'm going to get the brass prepped and ready, but figure I should let the boolits sit a day or two after casting for the loads I plan to push hard enough for gas checks. I do have some checks coming, they are less than a cent and a half, which is worth it to me. Not sure 3 cents is worth it, except for the times I cannot find jacketed bullets.

My plan is to follow the recipie for making #2 (almost) by mixing 5lbs WW and 2lb Lino. Definitely will powder coat. I'll be meticulous with sorting, and I'll weight sort them too. For some it's just the time it takes with cast 22, I hear, that doesn't seem worth it. For me time is not an issue.

Should be interrseting. I'm excited to try. Never thought I would. The gun shoots great with jacketed stuff, but I'm a boolit man at heart. I can see myself trying to push the envelope with them in the future.

[sisterjim]

Interesting thread I am just about to embark on loading for a break action single shot .223. I just purchased that mold here on S+S. What is the twist rate of your barrel on which you have made stability predictions? Will follow your progress if you keep posting. Thanks JIM