Hunting with my Mosin

[Redd508]

I'd like to work up some hunting loads to use on deer. Whitetails in my AO arent ginormous by any stretch. A large deer may run close to 200lbs and ranges will be inside 200 yards. I have a Lee c312-160-2r but the pointed nose gives me pause. Has anyone taken bigger critters with this type of boolit? Would i be better served with GC'd softer alloy or finding a heavier FN boolit design? My initial thoughts are to go heavy for caliber and FN. If my mold is inadequate can you make a recommendation? Any advise is appreciated, especially from the voice of experience.

[Blammer]

in my opinion that may be a bit too pointed, at least for me it would be.

I don't shoot a mosin but shot a 30-06 with the Lyman 311284, a round nose but more round than pointed. It's a good killer, I only shot it at 1850fps, so not terribly fast.

If you could blunt the nose somehow I'd say go for it.

Otherwise I would suggest something else.

Just my two cents.

[taco650]

I would suggest going a little heavier too but if that's what you have, then shoot it. Like always, bullet placement is most important. What speed are you loading them? A water dropped WW would be hard enough up to 1800fps.

[Redd508]

Thanks guys. I have alum GCs for them. Are you saying they shouldnt be necessary up to 1800 fps? I've always read to keep unchecked cast below 1200.

[runfiverun]

couple of questions.
how do they shoot in the rifle?
if you haven't even tried the boolit in the gun I would suggest you at least try them first.
second thing.
can you get the yardage down to 100 yds or so?
if not have you seen the drop from 100 to 200 yds at 1900 fps?

shooting a gas check boolit without the gas check generally requires the velocity's to be low, real low.
this would effectively turn your rifle into a 357 handgun with a medium load.
just reading between the lines a little bit here and I might be wrong.
but you can't just pick a boolit and try it in the hunting field.

anyway I can suggest that if the boolit does fit the rifle decently a load of 17 grs of 2400 [with the gas checked boolit] and taking a file to the nose of the boolit.
just a few swipes will make a big difference on how the boolit reacts in flesh.

[Redd508]

Like i said in the OP im looking for a good cast boolit to work up into a medium range hunting load for deer. Im primarily asking about boolit design and alloy. I like flat nosed boolits with soft points but i have no experience with pointed designs in soft alloys. Do softer alloys with GCs perform well or will a pointed nose tend to make small holes straight thru?

[FLORES425]

I would suggest going a little heavier too

[kungfustyle]

I just went through this with my Mosin. I bought some SR4759 powder for my rifles and according to Lyman you can load just about any rifle round with it and push it to great speeds. I loaded the Lee 185g lrn 312 gc to about 1900 fps. You can use this to help out http://handloads.com/calc/index.html. Everyone says to hunt with at least 1000 fpds of energy w/ in the accuracy of the rifle. The 160 may be to light my Lyman book starts with loads at 180g....Get one of the 185g 312 1R moulds that Lee makes along with good cast powder and you should be off and running (RL 7, 5744, Sr4759 ect). By the way I had about 2" groups with SR4759 powder at 1900 fps....That puts me at over 1000 fps at 130 yards, but the bullet drop is 13" at 200 yards..... Great debate about fn or rn....If you start punching holes in the right spot, they don't go very far...
By the way slug your barrel my slugs at 314 and I've sized my gc boolits to 314 (can't buy bigger) but the do just fine. Pan lubed with Darr Lube and no lead down the bore. You can find the recipe on this sight. Good luck and let me know how it goes....

[runfiverun]

my best advice for a hunting boolit is to take a look at something with a flat nose and use an alloy of ww's cut with soft lead.
water dropping the alloy makes it harder, however it retains it's malleability and will still do it's job on the animal.
i'm not too specific on the alloy because I cut the ww's with soft lead just enough for each mold.
I add soft and try some castings measuring the nose diameter until I get it just tight [engraving and de-chambering] in the bore when chambered or I stop at half.
I like to run a little tin in my alloy's, about .75% total is enough for me.

[Redd508]

I 'll heed the advise and look for a heavier boolit. I like the pointed one but i was hesitant trying it on deer sized game. I also have coww, soww and range lead. I've read alot about 50/50 mix to make hunting boolits but would that work with range lead or soww the same? I know theres alot of variables in range lead but by and large its a softer alloy. I'm guessing the right answer here is to enjoy the process and figure out what works and what doesnt. Point me in the right direction, start at 50/50 & work down to a harder alloy or start harder and increase the soft alloy?

Almost forgot, barrel slugs .314

[Larry Gibson]

MNs, due to comblock chamber designs, are limited on bullet size diameter that will chamber. A .314 may or may not chamber with the brass you have. You can turn necks if you need to but most often it's not necessary. You can make a chamber cast, slug the neck of use trial and error to see what will chamber with the brass you have in your rifle. I've a MN that will not chamber any bullet larger than .312 and another with the same brass that will just chamber a .314 bullet. On the other hand my Type 53 with chamber a .316 bullet with the same brass.

The Lyman 314299 or the NOE counterpart 316299 are excellent choices for your MN for hunting. I use the 314299 sized at .314 and cast of COWWs + 2% tin and then mixed 50/50 with lead. I air cool the bullets for 7 - 10 days to age them before doing anything with them. I use Hornady GCs and a good NRA 50/50 lube or Lar's 2500+. I HP them with a Forster 1/8" HP tool for hunting but simply filing a flat meplat on them after loading makes the better for hunting but they will do well as is.

I also hunt deer about the size of yours and have set 200 yards as my max range with .30/.31 cartridges using cast bullets. I push them to 2000 - 2200 fps which gives sufficient velocity retention at 200 yards for expansion of my softer alloyed cast bullets. Still, most of my deer kills have been under 100 yards even in the "wide open" areas of eastern Oregon. I suggest a powder not faster burning than 4895 if you want to realistically get hunting accuracy at 200 yards with the twist of your MN barrel. When pushing to higher velocity the accuracy you get at 50 or 100 yards may not hold to 200 yards so test at 200 yards to be sure after you've developed the load. A slower powder such as Varget, RL19, AA4350, H4831SC or RL22 would be better choices to reach 2000 fps and retain accuracy at 200 yards. If load density is less than 80% consider a Dacron filler.

A MN in good condition is quite capable of excellent hunting accuracy at 200 yards. It's up to you to select the right components, load them correctly and to shoot accurately. Then of course you've got to find the deer and put the bullet where it counts. That's the "hunting".....the fun part.......:smile:

Larry Gibson

I

[runfiverun]

thats basically the long and short of it right there.^^
I recommend a load of 4895 28-29 grs with a filler, and standard LR primer to most guy's that ask and are in a hurry to get something going.
this is a reasonable load and has good ignition characteristics, it's also has low sd's and retains it's ability to do so up or down hill or whatever because of the filler and the velocity window.
it's also quite accurate in most rifles.
your range scrap alloy can be in the 9 to 14 range so the addition of some stick on ww's to adjust the nose diameter still holds true [it depends on the mold or if you lap the mold to work with it]
if I needed something next week and was pretty sure my groove diameter was 314 i'd get a noe 316299 spend a day and work the alloy slightly for fit then water drop to get a decent bhn.
use the 4895 load to load some up with and go sight in to it...
best I got for what you have to work with inside your time frame.

[Redd508]

I havent cast the chamber yet but it will take my boolits sized to .314 without a problem.
200 yards is a long shot here. 100 or less is most likely unless i hunt the woods. Thats what the handguns are for.

I'm going to look into your molds also.

I wanted to ask about Varget since its available locally. I have alot of reading to do i reckon.

[taco650]

When using Dacron for filler, how much and how do you measure it? Weight? Length? Just enough to keep the powder on the bottom or...???? Please advise.

[runfiverun]

I eyeball it for size.
the key is to use enough but not pack it in there [a little more is better than too little in this case]
you MUST have some compression on the filler.
it MUST touch both the powder and the boolit.
most cut squares from a batting [roll] of it, I got a bunch of the loose stuff for a quarter a while back so I just sit and pick it apart into little tufts that weigh about 1 grain each.
this is usually about the size of my thumb from the knuckle out.
I poke it in the case with an allen wrench and feel it touch the powder then leave it even with the case mouth and let the boolit compress it into place.
it fluffs out on it's own and fills the air space in the case.

varget is quite similar to 4064 in burn speed, so I would use the 28-29 gr load [with filler] with it also, and work up from there.