Josh Smith
03-29-2011, 12:05 PM
Hello,
I have another Mosin-Nagant. I did not grow up with rifles, just shotguns, pistols an rimfires as I live in Indiana and firearms are largely dictated by what we can use to kill deer.
Regardless, I do like rifles now and again to play with, and I wanted something cheap in the .30-06 class, so I bought an $80 Mosin-Nagant, put one of my modified adjustable front sights on it (something I sort of do on the side) with a target post, and proceeded to turn out an 80 yard 0.6 MOA group with the danged thing.
I have a few accuracy tricks I applied to it, but it still looks like a MN.
Now, I went to buy more ammunition for it. Nobody in town has any -- at least, not that I'm willing to buy. The MN takes a .311" or so bullet, and domestic manufacturers use .308 bullets. Not good accuracy and more than a dollar a shot.
Big R has a few, but they made me not want to come back, so I didn't buy anything from them.
The gunstore is closed until Thursday.
So.... I've decided I need to cast and reload for this round. I was forever running out of .45acp; now I make it faster than I burn it!
Now, I get the whole reloading thing. It's fairly simple and straightforward, and I'd be weighing each charge as opposed to turning them out as fast as possible.
I figure I could buy some powder, have the scale, can prime off the press, need a shell holder, I'll need a case trimmer but can use a file in the meantime. Pretty much I just need components and dies.
However, bullet are another matter.
I do not know what I need to do to cast bullets for rifles, and this is a problem. Gas checks -- do I need them? How badly would a properly lubed hardcast bullet lead up a bore? I'm thinking about driving a 125grn boolit to around 3000fps -- that's actually a somewhat light load for that weight as the 148grn surplus ammo run 2800fps +.
Or should I look at 180grn boolits and run them around 2400 to 2500?
I have yet to slug my bore; I'll do that before I start ordering.
Right now I just need to get an idea of what I need to do, and one of my main concerns is melting the lead in the barrel or eroding the throat with improper techniques.
I suppose it would be easiest to act like I am new to casting and reloading, though I have lots of experience with pistol rounds.
I appreciate it, folks. Thanks in advance!
Josh
I have another Mosin-Nagant. I did not grow up with rifles, just shotguns, pistols an rimfires as I live in Indiana and firearms are largely dictated by what we can use to kill deer.
Regardless, I do like rifles now and again to play with, and I wanted something cheap in the .30-06 class, so I bought an $80 Mosin-Nagant, put one of my modified adjustable front sights on it (something I sort of do on the side) with a target post, and proceeded to turn out an 80 yard 0.6 MOA group with the danged thing.
I have a few accuracy tricks I applied to it, but it still looks like a MN.
Now, I went to buy more ammunition for it. Nobody in town has any -- at least, not that I'm willing to buy. The MN takes a .311" or so bullet, and domestic manufacturers use .308 bullets. Not good accuracy and more than a dollar a shot.
Big R has a few, but they made me not want to come back, so I didn't buy anything from them.
The gunstore is closed until Thursday.
So.... I've decided I need to cast and reload for this round. I was forever running out of .45acp; now I make it faster than I burn it!
Now, I get the whole reloading thing. It's fairly simple and straightforward, and I'd be weighing each charge as opposed to turning them out as fast as possible.
I figure I could buy some powder, have the scale, can prime off the press, need a shell holder, I'll need a case trimmer but can use a file in the meantime. Pretty much I just need components and dies.
However, bullet are another matter.
I do not know what I need to do to cast bullets for rifles, and this is a problem. Gas checks -- do I need them? How badly would a properly lubed hardcast bullet lead up a bore? I'm thinking about driving a 125grn boolit to around 3000fps -- that's actually a somewhat light load for that weight as the 148grn surplus ammo run 2800fps +.
Or should I look at 180grn boolits and run them around 2400 to 2500?
I have yet to slug my bore; I'll do that before I start ordering.
Right now I just need to get an idea of what I need to do, and one of my main concerns is melting the lead in the barrel or eroding the throat with improper techniques.
I suppose it would be easiest to act like I am new to casting and reloading, though I have lots of experience with pistol rounds.
I appreciate it, folks. Thanks in advance!
Josh