Cast for 7mm Mauser ?

[Eddie2002]

Just brought home a 1916 Spanish Mauser in 7x57 and am wondering if the caliber will work for cast. The only 7mm mold I've seen is a Lee 130 grain gas check mold. Haven't used gas checks with any of my other cast boolits and it looks like they are a rabbit hole which I would rather stay out of right now.
I'm resizing 30-06 brass for the Mauser and am slowly building up a supply along with loading condom bullets but down the road would like to shoot cast also.
Just curious if the rifle would work with cast and what loads and molds have given success?
Thanks

[corbinace]

There is some chance that cast is the only thing that your rifle will shoot with accuracy. If you slug your bore, you may find it oversize for jacketed bullets to be used accurately.

I shoot cast at 0.291 accurately, in rifle that will not stay on the paper at 25 yards with jacketed.

http://noebulletmolds.com/NV/images/n.o.e._bullet_moulds_291-178-fn_gc_aq2_sketch.jpg

[sharps4590]

RCBS makes a fine 7mm bullet mold. I think it's advertised at 165 grs. but mine weigh 177 grs. from 50/50, lead/lino. Gas checks are no trouble and they've never created a difficulty for me. I certainly wouldn't consider them a rabbit hole, they are so simple to use.

You can use the GC bullets without the checks and they will be fine.

[fa38]

I have three 7mm molds. The NOE 287-154-FN Hunter, RCBS 168 and the RCBS 145, all gas check bullets. All shoot fairly well but the 145 grain bullet with Win 231 shoots the best. Rifles are Chilean Mauser and an Argie 1909.
I think you will need a gas check bullet if you shoot them much faster than 1500 or 1600 fps.

[toallmy]

As suggested to me a year or so ago when I started playing with my small ring 7mm , slug your bore , and take the time to use a case fired in your rifle filled with lead and pound a chamber cast of your rifles throat . Or you can take the short cut approach and just load as fat a boolit as you can fit in the neck of your fired brass . By the way your 06 brass might be a little thick in the neck . Size matters quite a bit in older 7x57s

[screwcutter]

I 2nd NOE, A 289173 made my 1908s happy. You’ll have ream or turn 06 necks.

[Eddie2002]

Thanks, guess the first thing will be a slug of the bore then a chamber cast of the throat. I've a Arisaka 99 with a worn throat that shoots cast well but as we all know each rifle is different as to what it likes. The 7mm Mauser had good rifling visible from the throat to the muzzle which is why I brought it home and has cleaned up nicely. Still need to shoot it with condom bullets but hoping to go to cast once things get sorted out. It came with some berdan primed surplus ammo which might or might not go bang, LOL. Have enough other ammo for a trip to the range, just trying to make the time.
I'm trimming the brass on a micro lathe so turning the necks down isn't too much of an issue. So far the jacketed rounds made out of 06 brass chamber just fine which is a plus.

[sghart3578]

I shoot cast in my VZ24 South American export rifle. A NOE mold sized to .290" works great.

[dh2]

I sporterized a Spanish Mauser for my son a youth rifle it does very well with Lyman #287641 a 160gr. boolit , I am sizing .287, and also use this boolit to fire form brass for my .280 Rem. AI both rifles take to it. Do slug the barrel to get best results

[Walks]

I have a 1916 that's been turned into an Honest Scout Rifle. Trimmed to a 18"bbl, and a .285bore. Throats kinda short too. I've only use a Lyman #287405 now, sized .287 and cast of straight Linotype and gaschecked. Use 50/50 lube. It's a Loverin bullet and I seat to the base of the neck and lube just the grooves covered by the neck.
My Dad honed out a .284 Lube-Sizer Die for me.

I necked down some Israeli 8mm brass to start. Bought 200 Reminton Cases later on. Still using the first 100, a light charge of 2400 and I put the first 3rds into a dime sized at 50yrds.
Haven't changed that first load.

Did try some with the #287442 Spitzer Gas check over IMR 3031, accurate enough but more then I need for paper targets.
I neck size only, brass has lasted a long time.

[richhodg66]

I shoot cast in the 7x57 a LOT. Get the "Soup Can" mold from Midsouth, works great in mine. I shot up about a thousand of them the Summer before last before developing a deer load with a Lyman 287308 which is hollow pointed. My practice load is the soup can with ten grains of 700X and my deer load is the 287308 with 30 grains of IMR 3031.
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[Texas by God]

Love that sporter, Rich!

[nekshot]

great looking equipment! Have you ever taken any deer with the soup can boolit. Our 7mm's luv the soup can and it sure looks like it would do the job. I only take 1 deer now that the kids are on their own and that lasts us till the next season or I would shoot a few more. Archery is big in my little world! I gotta use that soup can next year if needed.

[richhodg66]

great looking equipment! Have you ever taken any deer with the soup can boolit. Our 7mm's luv the soup can and it sure looks like it would do the job. I only take 1 deer now that the kids are on their own and that lasts us till the next season or I would shoot a few more. Archery is big in my little world! I gotta use that soup can next year if needed.

Haven't used the soup can, though it would probably work fine. When I got the mold, I intended it to be a practice bullet and cast six pots of bullets with it water dropping them. I size them to .287 and that little rifle eats them like candy. I just kind of figured with a bullet that small in diameter, I wanted the heaviest thing I could shoot and figure out a way to get expansion started reliably. I recently got one of the discontinued RCBS molds that is about 170 grains and has a bigger meplat that the current one, I plan on casting some with it using the Bruceb soft point method and see how that works.

FWIW, that bullet checked and lubed weighed 166 grains. The recovered bullet after traveling almost the full length of that doe without hitting any bone weighed 77 grains if I remember right. I've been hunting with the same rifle and load this year, I hope I get a chance to test it on a better shot than that one, but Sunday is the last day of the Season and I have to work tomorrow, so it may not come together this year.

[koehn,jim]

I have had good luck with the 145 sil, from RCBS, but I am saving for the NOE.

[toallmy]

I picked up one of those lee 6 cavity soup can molds gently used from a member hear after reading some posts by richhodg66 and I found it to shoot pretty good as long as I don't try to run it to fast .
Most of the trouble I had with cast 7x57 was from the over size of the bore in my older small ring mauser , it seems I couldn't get the gas checks to stay on during sizing because I wasn't sizing the cast boolits down enough to crimp them on good , but I needed to keep the cast boolits .289 at least . So after buying 2 different size star sizing dies in a fit of frustration I picked up a midway special 7x57 pre threaded short chamber barrel & all is well .
I suppose I could have had the gas check shank removed , or ordered a mold without a gas check shank in the diameter needed but I wanted to play with barrel changing anyway .
What ever you chose to do , be patient , play with the size , because the 7x57 is a great round .

[smithnframe]

I just dug an old 285202 Ideal mould out of my collection that I plan on trying in a Venezuelan short rifle that I acquired in a trade about a year ago. It's a plain base bullet so I don't have to mess around with gas checks!

[Eddie2002]

Thanks for all the input, I'll slug the bore to start with which is pretty much a given starting point for any older military surplus rifle. Still scrubbing more crud out of the barrel, don't think the previous owner ever shot or cleaned it. Planning to get to the range this week with some jacketed reloads just because I always try to shoot my newest acquisitions when I get them.
From what everybody has said a heavier slightly oversized boolit works better than the 130 grain Lee mold I was looking at. Going to see how it shoots with condom bullets first then move over into cast for range food.

[richhodg66]

I just dug an old 285202 Ideal mould out of my collection that I plan on trying in a Venezuelan short rifle that I acquired in a trade about a year ago. It's a plain base bullet so I don't have to mess around with gas checks!

Just looked up the 287202, that's an obscure one.

I got a plain based 7mm mold a few years back, it was designed for one of the casting machines, with the sprue plate designed for it, but I got a set of handles to fit and carefully indexed that sprue plate each time and was able to get some good bullets out of it. Only cast one pot and then sized them to .285 because it was the only sizer I had at the time. Haven't shot any yet, and I don't hold much hope in this 7x57, but I'll try them in my 7mm-08. Eventually, I'll cast some more and size to .287 and try it, but for the cost of a gas check, that soup can mold being six cavity sure is nice for bulk shooting. I shot that rifle 25-30 rounds pretty much every day the first six months or so that I had it through the Summer and early Fall. My practice load isn't real fast, though, maybe a plain based bullet would work for it.

[richhodg66]

Thanks for all the input, I'll slug the bore to start with which is pretty much a given starting point for any older military surplus rifle. Still scrubbing more crud out of the barrel, don't think the previous owner ever shot or cleaned it. Planning to get to the range this week with some jacketed reloads just because I always try to shoot my newest acquisitions when I get them.
From what everybody has said a heavier slightly oversized boolit works better than the 130 grain Lee mold I was looking at. Going to see how it shoots with condom bullets first then move over into cast for range food.

For a milsurp 7x57, it may not work so well, but I found that Lee 135 grain bullet to be a very good design in other 7mms. Their molds are cheap enough that it would sure be worth trying. If you are dead set on plain based, the gas check shank on one could be removed easily enough and you could lap it easily for a bigger diameter.

[Eddie2002]

Well I slugged the bore and it doesn't seem to be too bad, actually a little pleased with the results compared to some of the other surplus rifles I've checked. The lands are .280 with the specs being .275 and the bore is .286 with the specs being .285. Still cleaning carbon out of the barrel with a brush so the bore diameter might increase a little. There isn't any noticeable pitting or rough spots either.
Rich, thanks for the tip about lighter cast being not quite right for the mauser, I heard that somewhere before.

[screwcutter]

You’ll have ream or turn 06 necks.
I have to eat crow,
I sized a R-P 30-06, seated a .289 bullet and it chambered in 1908.

[Eddie2002]

Spent some time at the range today shooting 130 grain reloads and surplus 165 grain ammo out of the Mauser. It only took five shots of each to show that it likes the heavy rounds better. The 130 grain ammo was all over the target and wouldn't group at all while the surplus gave a four inch group at 50yds. Burned up all the 130 grain ammo I brought with me just so I wouldn't have to bring it home. For a first time out I wasn't too upset with how it shot.
As said before, need to track down a heavier boolit mold for the old girl, jacketed is fun but cast is a blast. :)

[Bad Ass Wallace]

My 7mm is a ex-mil is a FN Mauser which loves RCBS 145gn cast bullet over 29gns of 3031

https://i.imgur.com/LuRm5kS.jpg

[koehn,jim]

Mine is a 1908 Brazilian likes the 145 over 25 grains of 4895.

[richhodg66]

Mine isn't exactly a tack driver, but I shot this group with that RCBS 145 grain bullet and 10.8 grains of Green Dot when I first started working with it. I don't know for sure if that bullet bests the "soup can" from Midsouth, though. I guess i need to actually do some accuracy tests of the soup can, I just did enough to make sure it was a good practice bullet and stopped shooting it off a bench after that. BTW, that's a one inch bullseye at 100 yards.

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[atr]

I have found that the heavier and longer boolits work the best in the 7x57 military rifles. I'm using a 178 gr cast.