Shot [U]MY[/U] first cast boolits yesterday!

[Lance Boyle]

Shot MY first cast boolits yesterday!

I cast some 311291 with wheel weights. My bullets weren't perfect but I shot them anyhow. They looked good on the surface (I culled the wrinkles/poor fillouts). After I cast I measured a few and the nose was .301ish and the driving bands were not round, .3105ish by the seam and .3095 face to face. Funny thing is the next day, they seemed to shrink. Most were about .3085ish with a few running as narrow as .3076 inch. Not sure what the heck that's all about. But my temps did dip to around 725 degrees while casting and I had to adjust the burner. I sized them through a .311 RCBS sizing die in the used lubeamatic I picked up. Only the seam got touched of course.

Not sure what I should do beyond technique, Pick up a fatter casting mold, a smaller sizer. (ETA- the Krag throat slugs at .3095 groove)

I shot the above bullets in my 110 year old Krag rifle. 3 shoot groups at 100 yards were about 4" but the groups walked up the paper as. I also observed no lube star or signs of lube(LBT blue soft) on the crown. Wondering if the lube run out on me before the end of the barrel. I still have years of old powder crud and cupronickel in the bore but I'm working on that.

Oh well, I'm hooked anyway, I really enjoyed shooting these "softballs" with 17 grains of SR 4759. I thought it was bizarre shooting 180 grain bullets with no recoil. I can have fun with that kind of bizarre though.

I look forward to trying them in the M1903 with the better bore condition.

Anyways, that's my rambling story today. Happy Easter to all.

:lovebooli

[Blammer]

Good deal! The more you cast the better you'll get.

Keep shooting. Give the bore a cursory cleaning and then shoot a bunch. :)

[GRUMPA]

Well that's a real good start, now your going to be like the rest of us cast junkies never knowing when your going to get your next fix. I've never really encountered the shrinking boolit though, but I use micrometers and not calipers. If you want the mould to drop larger pills you may want to read up on LEAMENTING and or get some valve lapping compound and open that sucker up a bit.

I've got my 06 tuned in to within 1/2" at 100yds and that is using LBT Blue lube, I just love the stuff, it works wonders in everything I use.

Ole Blammer is right, the more time you can devote to making those things the better you'll get over time.

[Lance Boyle]

Good deal! The more you cast the better you'll get.

Keep shooting. Give the bore a cursory cleaning and then shoot a bunch. :)

That ole shooting a bunch has cleaned bores for me before. My K98k was pretty loaded when I got her. I think shooting it removed more than my wasting bronze brushes did!

thanks for the support guys.

Next time I cast I want to play with the temps, cast some at 725 degrees set them aside and cast some at 800. Let them cool and check them, then check them again the next day. I'm betting it's more techinique than anything. My shrinking bullets isn't on specific bullets but random bullets sampled from the pile so the specific bullet could have been small on day 1. Next time I can be more dilligent and measure, sort and cull properly. I did the kroil thing too and wondered if that had an influence. The first ten or so were wrinkled/poor fill out so they went back into the pot anyhow. After that they looked great.

[sundog]

Wow, Grumpa. A half inch? What rifle? Sights? Boolit? Load? How many round groups? Every time?

Lance, I've shot A LOT of cast in unaltered 03/03A3 for military bolt matches. The best I see is sub 2" on good targets, 10 rds, 100 yds. That does not happen every time. Groups at sub 4" are expected and common. Scores of 290+/300 with Xs on SR21 is normal. Scores over 295 happen occasionally. I've seen a few Krags on the line, and some of them shoot extremely well.

Not too many things in this world are more rewarding than building your own ammo, shooting it in quality firearms, on good ranges, with good friends, and getting fantastic results with it.

[GRUMPA]

The rifle is a Mauser k98 re-barreled of course, I put on a Timney trigger, floated the barrel, bedded the action and lapped in the bolt and made an extra firing pin. Of course the cases are of all 1 lot that have been fire formed and weighed to within 1gr of each other.

All the time? as much as I like to pat myself on the back the short answer is "NOPE".

Every now and then I do get the proverbial flyer but not all that much, maybe 1 out of every 40-50 shots. I've written about it before, it took me years to tune that thing in with the 311291, it took me a long time to find the right powder the right hardness, seating depth and so on.

And guess where it is now? sitting in the cabinet collecting dust. Once I got it figured out it wasn't fun anymore. I just got a heavy weight in a group buy from NOE but wont be done till Oct. So that's my next project when I finally get it.

The challenge for me is the development aspect, after that it's time to move on to something else.

Oh by the way, all that is rested, I can't hold the thing that still free standing the thing, no how no way I can make that happen.

[Lance Boyle]

Sundog, I was happy to simply keep everything on a 8.5x11 sheet of paper for my first go, granted some were spread out well on the long direction but no misses (off the bench). One of the bullets was sized .310 as it was done messing around at my friend's house on his star, when I was showing him my first bullets and we examined them with his micrometer. (I was starting to doubt my micrometer, I did check my mic when I got home with the Sierra 168 boat tailed check block standard, mine also comes up at .3080, same as my buddies)

Grumpa,

I didn't realize i was doing that until a few years ago....I do the same thing with projects (aka puzzles). Once I master it I tend to move on and don't bring them back out too often. 2 years ago I dragged out my old 700V .22-250 which I had great loads for and found things were amiss with bullets scattering everywhere. Turns out my wood forend warped badly. I relieved it, shot the old loads, and in a year it started pressing again. My buddy mentioned before, is a gunsmith, bedded the forend with a big slab of bedding and the bastard still started to move and touch the barrel. I got fed up and bought a take off glass stock and fixed that issue bedding it permanently in a HS precision. Now I have to resort out the load puzzle again. Anyways yeah, I find myself working out "problems" and then they sit.

[sundog]

Grumpa, yup, I've got a 03A3 that I've done the treatment on, bedding in a Carbolite stock, floating, turned down bolt, good scope, matched the ammo to it, but still with original 2-groove barrel (very good condition to start with). It sits in the safe, too. It was fun getting it there, but now that I know it will work every time, all of the time, it just kinda sits there. It comes out to play once in awhile, just for fun. Those 311291 and 311299/314299 are just a dandy boolits, eh?

[runfiverun]

Lance.
try new cases.

[Lance Boyle]

New cases in the .30-40? .30-06? or the .22-250? you lost me with the brevity.