Barrell - How toset up for cast?

[Powderface]

Hello All,

I'm about to start a new project, I'm building a 458X2" for elk in the dark timber.

I have everything in hand except how to have the chamber and throat cut for cast boolits.

The plan is a 425gr brick at about 15-1600 fps.

yea I know its a 45-70 with a belt.

Thank you


Mike

[Bass Ackward]

The plan is a 425gr brick at about 15-1600 fps.

yea I know its a 45-70 with a belt.

Mike


Mike,

Aaaaaaaaaa.......... it's a little bit different than a 45-70. Trust me. Mostly because you will have heavier brass that has to seal a larger chamber in the front. The chambers are cut large because you may have guys that just cut off 300 win mag brass, chamfer it, and then seat a bullet. The chamber has to leave room to chamber and fire without creating increased pressure. This is the advantage to the case design .... and the negative of it too. You will need to laern how to anneal. :grin:

I have tried several throat arrangements and each performed better and worse with designs that were more appropriate for it. The standard reamer comes with about a .100 ball seat at .460 diameter with a 3 degree taper. This means a .4595 will be about as large as you can chamber. If this works well with your bore arrangement, then good, so that's where I left it for mine at .458. If yours happens to be larger, then you may need a larger ball seat to get up to .002 over the bore. Have you slugged it yet?

At 420 grains, you will have plenty of seating depth for case neck tension and good ignition for this velocity range. This should be ideal for 4198 / RL7 in the velocity range you want to run. Your dies will be the key with this cartridge. I have two sets with different sizing goals in mind.

[Powderface]

Thanks for the info


I use molten lead/wheelweights for annealing. Just a quick wipe of steelwool with a bit of ATF before the dip, keeps the lead boogers off the case after that hot bath.

Mike

[shooter93]

If I'm primarily interested in shooting cast bullets in a rifle then I pick my bullet first. Seat it in a case to the length and then send it and have the reamer ground for it. Sometime I have the neck cut .002 over ...sometimes less if it's a target rifle. I have the chamber cut for minimun sizing. I usually get a 1-1/2 degree leade. 1 degree might be better but the 1-1/2 often lets you shoot J-bullets well too. A custom made reamer runs me around 150...to me worth it and makes a big difference. All of the above requires that you start the load lower and work up to you pressure.