High Power rifle casting

[DunRanull]

I'm called Dun., live in a smallish Colorado town south of the Springs. Been shooting for nearly 50 years and reloaded some of that until the advent of the mil-surps. Have cast for muzzleloaders, both round ball and lead pistol bullets for .38 and .45 ACP.
Im new to casting for smokeless rifles, and to this site as well. If this is the wrong spot, mods plop me in the correct fora :)
Im sure there is info available on this topic.. which I will be researching.
Is it possible (or useful) to cast lead spire-point boat tail for say, .303, .30-30, .308 8mm Mauser, 7.62X54 or what have you... The ablility to cast useful boat-tail spire-points for these calibers is what I have in mind. Sometime, maybe I'll get lucky and snag a .45-70 or some such. Thanks from the noob! Dun

[RU shooter]

Spire points yes there are several moulds available now that do that ,Boattailed bullets no! There's no need to

[largom]

I see no need or use for a boat-tail cast boolit. Why do you specify boat-tail? Are you shooting "High Power" competition?

Larry

[waksupi]

Yep, you are looking in entirely the wrong direction for cast boolit happiness. Look at Loverin design molds. They aren't pretty, they aren't sleek, but they put a lot of power a long way down range accurately.

[Char-Gar]

You are trying to transfer jacketed bullet notions to cast bullets. There are some spire pointed cast bullet out there, but they are not the most sucessful designs. There are no boat tail cast bullets for good reason. They would be a disaster, exposing the sides of the boat tail to the hot gases.

You would do well to heed the counsel of Waksupi/Rick. Reprogram your head, if you are going to delve into cast bullet shooting in rifles.

[Larry Gibson]

Dun

Oh sure, it is quite possible to cast spire poitn boat tail bulleets. You just won't get good results is all as mentioned. As also mentioned the regular old GC'd flat based Lovern or RN bore rider styles will get about as good as it gets with regular cast bullets in the cartridges mentioned. The 30-30 if in a tube magazine rifle will need a flat or round nose cast bullet.

The 311041 or 311291 is great in the 30-30.
the 311466, 30-165-SIL or 311299 are great in the .308W.

Hard to beat the C312-185-RN or the 314299 in the .303, 7.62x54R or other nominal .31s.

The 325470 and if you can find a 325471 are superb in the 8x57.

All the milsurps will give best accuracy in the 1800 - 1950 fps range because of their faster twists. The 30-30 and .308W, if they have 12" twists can be pushed with very good accuracy to 2200 fps. If long range is the game then the 311299, 314299 and 325471 are the bullets to use for 500, maybe 600 yard shooting.

Perhaps you should indulge in PPing if higher velocity is wanted to meet your needs?

Larry Gibson

[303Guy]

Hi Dun. First off, welcome aboard. :drinks:

So you want J-word performance from a cast boolit? I betcha it's possible! (I know it's possible). A bit challenging maybe. Do have a look over at 'Smokeless paper Patching'. That will get you there. Plain cast with high ballistic coefficient? I don't know. I've though about that a lot. Spire points might get you there and still keep the unsupported boolit nose short. Heavy for calibre is one way of getting your boolits a long way down range. The boat tail is a little tricky. It has been done but with a wax 'cup' or 'gas check' on the boolit. Apparently, that preserved the boat tail from squishing.

Now in the discipline of cast boolit shooting, there is a whole field of stretching the envelope to play around with. Usually learning to walk before you run is good advise but what the hell, if you want to start running straight off then get to it. You'll fall more often but there sooner.

Remember one important thing. Having fun is the prime objective!:drinks: