308403 pope bullet

[frugal]

picked up this old mould last weekend and had time to cast a few last night. The base band tapers from .311 to .315 which as I have read is correct for this design. Loaded these into some fire formed brass and tried 11.0 SR 4759 today in my Krag. At 110 yards I was able to keep them within 2.25 inches. This is with mixed old brass, mixed surplus primers, and no load development.

I used a seating die to seat them .75 up the base band. This made them tight enough to handle without coming loose. I then slathered JPW all around the exposed grooves. Im really impressed with this and cant wait to tighten up the my loads to see what these can really do. It is not only cheap, it saves loads of time. no gascheck, no sizing of brass, and no sizing of bullet.

[HARRYMPOPE]

I have had that one for a few years.I never tried it in a Krag but in the 30-06's i have used it in in shot very well.I like to use a Pope replica cap-re-cap tool and shoot from the bench with one case.its relaxing and easy.I shot it for awhile with no lube and it actually did pretty well.

[frugal]

Thats probably how Pope was able to make those claims of perfect scores because he was using one piece of brass. The rifle would probably maintain a more constant temperature while he was making up the bullet between shots. Ive also been trying to shoot with an uncleaned barrel. I used to clean after every 30 shots, but read a good fouled bore shoots more consistently. I was never interested in this design after reading C.E, Harrison's article of the problems he had getting a round to chamber because his mould would drop out at .317 on the base band. What loads have you tried that work well in the 06? I thought there was a group buy on these a while back, dont remember reading any members results though.

[HARRYMPOPE]

I use 7.0-8.0g of Bullseye or 8.0-9.5g of Unique.I also used pistol primers.I also sized the band to .312 for my Springfield and it also shot very well.

George