Shot my first cast RIFLE boolits today!

[Jim Flinchbaugh]

Been shooting handgun cast for years, today, shot my first cast rifle booilts.
It was a grand day at the range, blue skies and sunshine.
My .308 shooting one holers, .223 shooting one hole groups and best of all,
I shot m 7.65x53 Argentine with cast boolits I made all by myself! :mrgreen:
Borrowed mold, Lyman 311291, 170 grain round nose, with a gas check.
Came out of the mold at .310". My barrel slugs at .3123 so I wasn't expecting much for accuracy.
Boy was I surprised. Laid 3 shots at 50 yards, walked to the target and giggled like a school girl

first 3 boolits. 7/16" - 2 in the same hole!
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v313/James64/P1218968.jpg

Played with the sights, moved a target to 100 yards
torched off 3 more, walk to the target, HOLY ****!

3 more in 1 3/16"
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v313/James64/P1218967.jpg

This is a bone stock Argie, the trigger hasn't even been touched yet and is atrocious.
The bore is beautiful as is the rest of the rifle. I really don't think it had ever been shot since importation,
as it was still solidly packed with cosmoline, when the guy GAVE it to me, thats right, a cherry for free!

Big thanks goes to Recluse for the 45-45-10 lube recipe, these boolits where shot as cast with the
exception of adding the gas check and one coating of his tumble lube.
Perfect amount of lube shows on the crown "lube ring"
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v313/James64/lube-ring.jpg

And the best part, absolutely NO LEADING, zip, zilch, nada NONE!

First patch after 40 rounds down range
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v313/James64/patch.jpg

I am officially hooked and cant wait for my NOE mold to arrive so I can get after it!
Thanks to everyone who contributes here, y'all definitely speeding up the learning curve. Looking forward to learning all I can about this stuff!

[reloader28]

Pretty stinking addictive aint it?
I have so much fun that I shoot on average 4 nights a week. 100% pistol and 95% of my rifles is home cast boolits.
Any idiot can make a store bought factory bullet shoot less than 1" at 100yds (or something is badly wrong), but to get good satisfactory performance with a homemade boolit to me is worth every dime I've sunk into equipment.[smilie=w:
I've been trying cast boolits in every rifle I've got. Some are great, some I'm still working on. But its all fun.

[geargnasher]

:drinks: Congrats! I know it's a great feeling. Unfortunately, it's like crystal meth, one hit and you're addicted for life! Soon you'll be hanging out at the range after hours, lurking in junkyards at night, trolling parking lots with wheel-weight pliers in hand, digging in berms, buying moulds for guns you don't own yet.......

Gear

[sten668]

The 311291 has always been a favorite of mine in my 30s, I have not used 5744 in them, but I think I will give it a try. Good shooting, my eyes won't even work that good with open sites, enjoy.

[Jim Flinchbaugh]

Very addictive indeed.
I wanna squish some of these boolits and try them in the 308

[legend]

Jim,Jim,Jim.....

You are doing this all wrong...you need to buy at least four different molds,try 11 powders,several different primers,make five lubes,buy a different trigger,glassbed the stock,put it away for three years,try again with different bbl....

then give the stupid thing away in disgust.

my address is gillette wyoming..i will pay for the shipping.

[mroliver77]

Very addictive indeed.
I wanna squish some of these boolits and try them in the 308

Jim,
I have not yet found a .308 that .310" is too large. My .308 and 30-06's all will chamber .311 just fine.
Jay

[Mk42gunner]

Jim,
I have not yet found a .308 that .310" is too large. My .308 and 30-06's all will chamber .311 just fine.
Jay

And if your .308 is a Milsurp, you may be able to safely chamber up to .313" boolits, my 2A1 Enfield will.

Since you are tumble lubing, I would at least try the boolits you have in the .308.

Robert

[Char-Gar]

I truly am happen when a guy has cast bullet success out of the stating gate. He will be hooked for life. Kudos to you!

[plainsman456]

While you are at it you might need to replace that barrel cuz it's no good.
Happy to see someone else get the bug,it never will end now.
I think you know about that now just wanting to try that boolit in another rifle,Yep it's over now.

[Jim Flinchbaugh]

My 308 is a Rem 700, at least the current one is. The one being built for me is a 99 Savage :D

& I am already think of cast in the 280 and maybe 223 [smilie=p:

[HdCast 300Blk]

I have been shooting 223 cast in my AR for about 6 months. I use a custom LEE 6 cavity mold. It cycles great and is accurate out to 100 yards. I don't bench shoot but enjoy tactical courses and this is great for when you have to put 1000's of round down range. I also use the same in my 308. The PSB CLEANS THE BARREL AFTER EACH SHOT!! I have no leading in barrel at 2500 fps. This is great!

[HdCast 300Blk]

A little more detail on the load for 223. The brass can be any trim length. I found that BL-C(2) at 19 grains, plus 5.5 grains of PSB on top of it is a great load. I then seat to 1.929. The cast bullet I use is sized to .225 and is .516 long. Bullet weight is 50.0 grains +-1 grain. I use no gas check. The PSB is the gas check. I use a AR-15 16" barrel, carbine gas length. I will prep my cases and size them using a SB 223 RCBS die on a RCBS rock chucker. I then load them up in a progressive loader in 2 steps. First run I will prime, add powder and PSB using 2 case activated powder drops, then finish off with widening the case mouth. I put these in a case holder and place the bullets on In the case. The second run I will seat the bullet, crimp using a lee factory crimp, and then size using a normal 223 die with no decapping needle. The sizing die dosent go all the way down, I leave .150 space from the die bottom to the top base holding the case. This seams to have solved all my feeding problems. I loaded these on a Hornady L-N-L progressive loader.
I can shoot 90+ rounds with no build up of lead and little build up on the bolt carrier. This is great for tactical shooting under 100 yards. I haven't tried shooting any thing longer than that.
http://tapatalk.com/mu/aefdf421-f580-9505.jpg
Here is a picture of finished product. Thanks for looking!
P.S. Costs me about .10 cents per bullet.

[Tedly]

Interesting that the powder is 20.0gr.AA5744. My general go to cast loads in 30/40 Krag and 8x57 Mauser are both 20.5 gr.AA5744.The Krag gets #311284 and the Mausers get #323481.

[1Shirt]

Ditto Chargers statement! Good luck in the future!
1Shirt!:coffeecom