Mold for 180-200 grain .270 Boolits?

[MDWS]

Newbie here... i have a pretty specific agenda, I will admit it. I'm looking to get 180-200 grain cast boolits made for the 6.8 and 277 Wolverine subsonic platforms. 200 grain ideally.

I have no idea where to start, other than filling out some "Contact Us" forms to various bullet manufacturers and getting charged an arm and a leg to get something produced. I'm not even sure if cast boolits are a good idea for subsonic use. My instincts tell me that they are. But, that's why I am asking the folks in the know.

If you fine folks think a cast boolit is a good idea for a subsonic rifle application, can you please let em know how to proceed or whom to contact to get a mold made?

Sorry if this is a completely simple situation to you all... again I can admit when I know nothing and I know nothing about boolit casting.

Thanks in advance for any feedback and thanks for having me.

-Mark

[frnkeore]

The heaviest 270 bullet that know of is this NOE @ 160 gr. It also has a high BC. It is on sale right now,too.

http://noebulletmolds.com/NV/index.php?cPath=28&osCsid=8aqg4hj727eouer4lglo3cnfu2

Something that you need to consider about your project is the twist rate that it will take to stabilize a 200 gr, 270.

Twist is calulated by bullet length and not weight.

Frank

[MDWS]

The heaviest 270 bullet that know of is this NOE @ 160 gr. It also has a high BC. It is on sale right now,too.

http://noebulletmolds.com/NV/index.php?cPath=28&osCsid=8aqg4hj727eouer4lglo3cnfu2

Something that you need to consider about your project is the twist rate that it will take to stabilize a 200 gr, 270.

Twist is calulated by bullet length and not weight.

Frank

Thanks Frank I will take a look. Our barrels have 1:7 twist rates for this purpose. Thank you!

[bhn22]

Man! That would be a really long bullet! Not as long as an equivalent jacketed bullet would be though. I'd try the NOE mould first, to get a feel for things, then you could probably have Accurate Molds help you design the mould of your dreams.

[MDWS]

The Woodleigh 180 grain bullet works in the 6.8 and should work in the 277 Wolverine if my guesstimate onset are correct. We will be testing them in the next week or so. That will tell me I can match their length or come close to it. I figure if the jacketed 180 grain Woodleigh works, then a cast boolit at the same length should come out to 190-200 grains. And then I'm good.

[MDWS]

To add. The 277 150 Speer hot-cor is 1.175" long and runs fine in the Wolverine subsonic. So even if that or a little more is max length, I should be able to get heavier with a coated cast. The 180 grain Woodleigh is 1.385" long... and we're not 100% sure if it will run just fine in the Wolverine but it runs fine in the 6.8. Both have a 2.26 mag length restriction but the 6.8 chamber is obviously different and the case has a longer body length before the shoulder.

We will see. I emailed Missouri bullets to try to make something happen without me having to buy molds and experiment.

[GabbyM]

Hope I don't get flamed here. But don't over rate the powder coat paint on cast bullets. Especially with a sub sonic round. You could just use Bens liquid lube and tumble lube them. There is a whole sub forum here dedicated to coatings. Lots of guys really excited about it. I'm not one of them.

Issue you will have with a really long bullet is bending the thing sizing. The 160 grain at NOE is about as long as practical. I have the RCBS 150-SP and it's a nice torpedo itself. My favorite in that bore is an old Lyman 122 grain Loverine I launch over some Unique at about 1,875 fps. Not to loud and just a nice shooting boolit. 14.0 grains in that big 270 WIN case.

[bhn22]

Good point about bending the bullet noses when sizing, Gabby. I haven't been curious enough about PC to sway me from my Star. I have bent 30 cal bullet noses in a Lyman sizer before.

[GabbyM]

Good point about bending the bullet noses when sizing, Gabby. I haven't been curious enough about PC to sway me from my Star. I have bent 30 cal bullet noses in a Lyman sizer before.

have a 150 grain 7mm Loverine. The grease groves all the way along it's body weaken the already thin bullet. Have to cast it from hard alloy or it just bends. Since it only makes proper 7mm diameter from near Linotype that's not a stretch. I tried sizing it down for my 270 but it was a flop.

[MDWS]

Hmm. So you all expect even the coated bullets to bend when seating them or?

[Jupiter7]

Hi Mark,

Funny you're here, I was just researching your cartridge yesterday. Actually read the whole thread at Arf.com. As above, it's gonna be a really long bullet and eat up a lot of case capacity. I really think it's gonna be tough unless these are in the short barrel with the pistol gas and enlarged port. That may be to detriment of running supers in the same barrel without burning up gas tubes or gas blocks and gas seepage eventually turning said gun into a single shot. I would contact Tom at accurate molds and talk to him about the bullet design. The .277 doesn't have a lot of freebore to play with. I'd also put a feeler out in your other threads and see who may cast from your current adopters. Best of luck with it. I may be building a .277WLVN soon.

[MDWS]

Thanks Jupiter. Below are the barrels we will be testing with. 10.5" 277 Wolverine, 1:7 twist, pistol gas. The WLV chamber has a .10 freebore. The 6.8SPCII has a .10 freebore. Hoping the synergies there along with testing the Woodleighs will help develop a good bullet. The 150's run like a champ. Perhaps I will look at plated bullets as well. Anything to get the weight up and still run. Like I said, even if 180 is the best I get, that is good. I think I can do that and maybe a little more with the right design. Glad I asked here... you guys are helpful.

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a226/TheHomelandSoldier/20150205_234734-1.jpg

[GabbyM]

Long skinny bullets can be and have been done successfully. However care needs to be sued. Best example I can think of off hand is the Lee custom 6.5mm “Cruse Missile”. Trick to not bend them while sizing is plain common sense. First set up the mold so you don’t have to size but a minimum amount of diameter. Second, seat gas checks and size in a nose first die. Probably need to hone a die with a taper so the long bullet would set down into the die and align up.
IMHO that NOE 160 grain looks like it would fit. Since it has a pointy nose that would help feeding and it can be seated deep. There would be greater heavy bullet selection in jacketed and cast if the round was in 7mm bore. However you’ll note Lyman only has a 160 grain 7mm currently listed. It’s also a bore ride design that wouldn’t fit in the magazine.
Another pitfall with an over 160 grain bullet is you’d need a custom size mold block.
I don’t know exactly what your goal is with this round. But If 160 grain cast isn’t heavy enough you may be best to just accept the limitations of the chambering. I see no issues with your setup that can be helped with painting or electroplating the bullet.

[MDWS]

Here's what we're looking at so far. Factory 90 grain supersonic on left, a 150 in the middle and a 180 on the right. The goal here is to engineer the loads so that one can run supers and subs through the same barrel, the 1:7 twist.

129859129859

[badbob454]

Man! That would be a really long bullet! Not as long as an equivalent jacketed bullet would be though. I'd try the NOE mould first, to get a feel for things, then you could probably have Accurate Molds help you design the mould of your dreams.

accurate molds might help with the design, but they will only make 30 cal or larger boolit molds...i would look to see what Noe has

[Harter66]

MD,
I have dabbled with a sister wildcat on the 6.8 ,the bump up to 7mm isn't all that much. That said the 1-9.5 , 7mm handles 175 easily in a jacketed RN (but only since 1898) . I did finally get a 287-150 fp subsonic at 4.0 Unique.I have a 7mm-168 RCBS to try but haven't had time yet to work out. Of course that sub load would never cycle. The 150 in wasn't heavy enough to to get clean bring with the slow powders on hand. The 168 may get there and clean up.