Longest shots with cast bullets, what, and how?

[Martin Luber]

Curious here, what are the longest shots you take and still get " good " groups?

What caliber, gun, and how did you create snd prep the bullet and load?

I hear some folks shoot 30 cal at 600 yards in competition for high power. How about for 2&300 yards?

I know the 45-70 is good for that, and then some as l used to do BP Silhouette at 500 yards.

Thoughts? Thanks!

[MUSTANG]

Not me; but history would indicate for some pretty good accuracy with a cast bullet can be had. For example Billy Dixon at Adobe Walls Texas:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Dixon
http://johnbiggsoklahomawriter.com/billy-dixons-lucky-shot/

[WinchesterM1]

I shoot my Ruger Ranch rifle in 300blk to 400 very often and can hit a 4” plate about 60% of the time, my Ruger Ranch in 7.62x39 will shoot and hold a 5-6” group at 400 yards..

My TC compass in 308(with a 1/12 twist) I hunt with it out to 300yards with no hesitation. I killed a nice big 250lb doe last year at 275yards one shot and she dropped...

You have to do your home work and shoot ALOT every time to I go to the range I bring 20 rounds of 308 and my TC Compass

[unclemikeinct]

Best I could ever do was a [5 shots] match book cover at 100 yds. I've seen these steel targets hit w/ some frightening regularity by experts at 1000 yds sitting down w/ crossed sticks. I think they were using some 45-90 tuned up rifles & they know the range on a nice day. Those steel Coyotes are 26" tall261251 & weigh 42lbs. uncle mike

[M-Tecs]

BPCR at 1,000 yards with 45-70 or a 45-90

[RU shooter]

The last few years that I shot in NRA high power matches I used a 03a3 with cast bullets in reduced course matches (200 yd) with scaled down targets , actually did fairly well shot master scores a few times . Slow prone 20 rd groups were in the 3.5" range on average . Wish I could still see good enough to be able to do that now .

[Nobade]

Our range has hanging steel to 750 yards and I can do fairly well with my 30-06 and the RCBS 165 SIL bullets. 30-30 has no problem in highpower silhouette out to 500M. They blow in the wind a lot more than a jacketed 6.5mm but if I can break the shot in the right place the targets will fall.

[Martin Luber]

The last few years that I shot in NRA high power matches I used a 03a3 with cast bullets in reduced course matches (200 yd) w .

Gas checks or no, what load, bullet, and alloy? Thanks

[RU shooter]

I had two loads that shot well in that 2 groove barrel first was the Lee 155 and 14.5gr of Unique the other was the Lee 185 or rcbs 165 sil. And 17.5 gr of 2400 the 185 and the 165 both shot equally well with that same load . All were gas checked and alloy was just clip on WW

[sharps4590]

Shiloh Sharps #1 Sporter in 40-70 SS, MVA sights, Lyman 410 gr. bullet cast 25-1, 61 grs. of the old GOEX CTG., first batch, SPG lube. MOA at 600 yards when everything was right....mostly me.

03-A3, Remington 2 groove. 180 gr., Lee, gas checked bullet over a forgotten powder charge gave 3 gallon buckets a good reason to be nervous at 500 yards. Hits were not uncommon.

Shiloh Long Range Express in 45-70. MVA rear sight, factory globe front sight, 61 grs. of same GOEX as first rifle, SPG lube. RCBS 500 BP, (I think that's right), 2 MOA at 500. I think the rifle would have done better with a different front sight. That factory globe covered a lot of acreage at 500.

I've had others but those are the ones I recall from memory. I am a lightweight. If conditions aren't near perfect, as in wind and light, (intermittent cloud cover), I basically suck.

[Larry Gibson]

Back "in the day" some locals where I lived had a bunch of 5V targets left over after the switch to the decimal targets. We shot "across the coarse" High Power matches with milsurp rifles. I was using a m1903 with 311299s at 1950 fps (I had an Oehler Chronograph back then) with it over 4895 with a dacron filler and it held to 600 yards. I shot as well with that cast load as with milsurp '06 ammo. It would hold the %V "B" target at 600 yards with 40 - 60% V's.

These days I regularly shoot the 30 XCB bullet at 2900 fps out of my HV 30x60 rifle at 600 yards also. Some time back I showed how well it shot at 600 yards. There's 11 shots in just under 6" in that group. I have a 18x22" steel target at 600 yards I also hit very regularly if the wind isn't blowing too hard.

261289

I also take my H&R M1873 Officer's Model out to a spot where a "hostile" (rock about 2' in diameter in a large dirt bank) tries to ambush me. I usually park my jeep crosswise and brace over the spare tire on the back of the jeep (ain't got no horse.....) at 1000 yards out. Using the Lee 405HB bullet at 1325 fps I score a surprising number of hits using the tang rear sight and the bead of the Beech front sight. With the original M1879 Type III rear sight and the blade of the Beech front sight I throw a lot of dirt in the hostiles face......lots of fun...…

261290

[tazman]

Not nearly as far but still a cast boolit. My best shot was with an old CVA mountain rifle with a Green Mountain barrel in 50 cal. Patched round ball.
I shot a squirrel through the head at 75 yards during a hunting trip.
That rifle was really deadly with a round ball and 50 grains of black. Pop cans at 100 yards were nearly a given.

[alfadan]

Oh about 6 out of 10 .38 wadcutters on an 8in metal swinger at 100 yards from a k frame...not too bad for me

[Bad Ass Wallace]

I shot the Creedmoor match in Brisbane Australia in 2006 and watched riflemen hit the 20" bull at 1000yds with cast bullets, black powder and opensights. That bull is just 2 MOA.

This was one of my 10 shot practice targets before the match (45/90)

https://i.imgur.com/E7vhjh2.jpg

[Lloyd Smale]

back about 15 years ago at a Linebaugh seminar. 800 yards at a 3/4 sized steel buffalo. Gun was a 5.5 inch ruger bisley accusport 44 mag with a ballistic cast 340 lfngc. I won the 44 mag class with 4 out of 5 hits. You got 2 shots to range and 5 shots for effect. sitting with the gun between my knees. That same gun and load came in 3rd place that year in the penetration testing. Only two ahead of me were shooting 475s. Beat out a 458 lott and even my own #1 ruger 458 mag with ww solids. Load I wont list because it was WARM. It pushed that bullet to 1250 fps. Dumb thing is I sold that gun. it was probably the most accurate out of the box ruger ive ever owned.

[30calflash]

200 m with rifle at club silhouette matches and with revolvers when I shot IHMSA. Both worked well and knocked down targets.

[northmn]

Sometime REad books by Paul Matthews on cast bullets. Basically it is not distance but the care in casting and storage. H eowuld put his cast bullets separate in a 50 round 45 cartridge box and of course would weigh them. Some would even go so far as to mark the bullet mold and cases such that the bullet was always loaded the dame way into the case and with single shots then loaded the same into the rifle. There was a record held in Schuetzen that was I believe about .75" at 200 yards using a 32-40.

DEP

[OutHuntn84]

I have a 190 gr Lovelin and a 130 gr NOE that I run through my Rem 700 308 win and I can consistently hit a dinner plate at 200 yards.

[dogmower]

i shoot 45-70 from a buffalo classic with the noe pc 500 grain plain based mold. targets are 24x18 rams at 555 yards (500 m). even with iron sights, i manage to hit a few! i shoot the 7mm mauser and 30-06 at the same distance. if i can do it, anyone can!

[Win94ae]

I have shot my AK to 600 yards using the Lee CTL 312-1602R.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0Plo0l8pmA

It is the best shooting round out of my AK, shooting 1MOA at 250 yards consistently.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDi-3QwPqwM

In my 30-30, Lee C 309-150-F shoots as well as the jacketed bullets.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2fGGU10ukk

I actually don't see much difference in precision with cast bullets vs jacketed, but only with specific designs in specific rifles.

[Martin Luber]

They sure don't have transonic issues! Never saw anyone run jwords subsonic in a rifle either....

[Cosmic_Charlie]

I've yet to try any cast loads behind 50 yards. But I have had 5 shots touching out of my Ruger American .308 at 50. Lee 180 gr. over 17 grains of 2400, about 1550 fps. I'll have to zero that load at 100 and see where it hits at 50 then. Most of my plinking and hunting is within 50 yards.

[Cosmic_Charlie]

The last few years that I shot in NRA high power matches I used a 03a3 with cast bullets in reduced course matches (200 yd) with scaled down targets , actually did fairly well shot master scores a few times . Slow prone 20 rd groups were in the 3.5" range on average . Wish I could still see good enough to be able to do that now .

I know what you mean. My eyes have become the limiting factor in my shooting as well. We have a local optometrist who shoots bullseye and makes custom lenses for older shooters. He creates a sort of bifocal area on the lens close to the bridge of the nose if I understood correctly. I may have to pay him a visit if this virus thing ever ends.

[country gent]

I shoot BPCR and rams at 500 yds. If I miss its me not the rifle or load LOL. I use 38-55 ( High wall c sharps, and DZ Hepburm), 40-65 (CPA silhouette ), 45-70 ( pedersoli 74 Rem rolling block BRC SHarps Brochardt) All are very accurate. I also shoot Black Powder.

At 200 yds a 6" gong is a gimme.

The big thing at extended ranges Isn't the bullet or lower velocity. Its knowing your trajectory and sight settings. How much to come up for a given range. Next is reading the wind and the needed adjustments.

Early on the army did extreme range test of the 45-70 and 45-90 at Sandy Hook. out to 2 miles

[El Gato]

Farthest shooting with cast is 300 yards. I like shooting at the steel gong that my range has out there. I like using 8x57 and 8x50R Austrian.

My favorite 8mm Bullet is the Lee Maximum.They drop at 242 grains with ww alloy.
I size them to .324 and load them over 21 grains of Buffalo powder.

They work well out of my Persian Mauser and Gew 1888.

I use a NEI 330220 mold for my Steyrs. The drop around 245 grains if I recall. Same powder load as the Mauser. I size to .331

[quilbilly]

I don't know if a 5-gallon paint bucket counts or not but I bounced it three times in a row with my iron sighted 338 WM from almost 800 yards across a Nevada valley one morning before the wind came up. It will never happen again with my old eyes. The boolit was the 220 gr Lee in front of a charge of RE-7 that gives an MV of 1700 fps. That same morning I gave an unwary coyote a real thrill (but missed) from about 600 yards shooting from the same position atop some old mine tailings. In a couple weeks if the roads are passable, I will try it from the same position with a 270 at the same MV and the 140 gr Lee boolit.

[Norske]

While at our outdoor range, my neighbor and I tried playing Elmer Keith with my SBH at a deer-sized rock across a gully. My Leica rangefinder said it was 185 yards away. By holding the whole front sight blade above the rear leaf sight and keeping it centered, I hit the rock 5 of six shots. My neighbor did it 3 of 6. FUN! The club president saw this and told us we crazy people deserved to live next to each other.

[mvintx]

I have shot my AK to 600 yards using the Lee CTL 312-1602R.


I actually don't see much difference in precision with cast bullets vs jacketed, but only with specific designs in specific rifles.

Wow. I'm impressed. I gotta say your cast boolits shoot a heckuva lot better than any jacketed stuff out of my AK. I call it my "minute of car door" rifle. It's a Maadi build from Rifle Dynamics and it pretty much sucks in the accuracy department.

[robg]

200 yards as that our range max

[Win94ae]

Wow. I'm impressed. I gotta say your cast boolits shoot a heckuva lot better than any jacketed stuff out of my AK. I call it my "minute of car door" rifle. It's a Maadi build from Rifle Dynamics and it pretty much sucks in the accuracy department.

Load development turned my WASR into a tack driver. I've taken apart many tulammo cartridges, there was a 2grain powder charge difference between rounds; but even then, I get 2.25MOA with that ammo regularly. I call mine, The Harmonic Nightmare.

[ACC]

Curious here, what are the longest shots you take and still get " good " groups?

What caliber, gun, and how did you create snd prep the bullet and load?

I hear some folks shoot 30 cal at 600 yards in competition for high power. How about for 2&300 yards?

I know the 45-70 is good for that, and then some as l used to do BP Silhouette at 500 yards.

Thoughts? Thanks!

The last deer I took was at 250 yards with my Ruger American Bolt Action Rifle chambered in 7.62X39 using a 130 grain plain base bullet my brother designed. Hit the deer right at the shoulder junction. The deer ran about 25 yards. The deer dressed out to about 75 pounds. That was three years ago.

Now feral hog is something else. I try to get one in the 100 to 125 pound range. The longest shot I ever took was about 125 yards. The last ones I shot were with my NMB .357 with a 125 grain Lee RNFP at about 75 yards.

ACC

[koger]

I have been shooting a lot of 30/30 and 300BO with a 170gr Lee FNP and it does very well, out to 200yds, at nearly 1900fps out of the 30/30 and about 1100fps suppressed out of the .300BO, in a Ruger Ranch bolt action. I have a scope with ballistic has marks, Burris 3x9 and can regularly ring a 4" gong with the 300 at 200yds. The 30/30 will shot into 2.5 inches at 200 yds, with sized and lubed, or PC. I have shot a Remington Rolling block for 35 years, in 45/70, and have made some dang fine shoots, with cast bullets, and black powder, and smokeless as well. One day I was shooting at a measured 500 yds, with a 4x8' carboard backer. The target was 3 liter coke bottles with red dye in them so we could see them better. 'I had shot the yardage the day before, left my gun zeroed with the long range peep and a extra thin silver blade up front. I could sit about 3 of those bottles on top of the blade at that distance. Careful aiming, off of sand bags, I fired one fouling shot at a12" rock, and hit it center, then procedded to hit 3 jugs in a row, with carefully loaded black powder cartridges, using a 405 gr slug, lubed with SPG, and a lube cake under it with a cardboard waxed wad between the powder and the rest of the load, compressed about 1/8". I let a buddy shoot some and he hit the first 2 jugs and stopped. We were shooting with a guy who was shooting a 25/06 and he never could hit one. I believe he ruined that barrel that day, he shot so many times, about 40 in a row, and the gun never shot worth crap after that.

[warboar_21]

I shot a Road Work Ahead sign which is 36"x 36" (was already at the range) at 500yds with one of my Lee Enfield rifles. I was using the Lyman 314299 over a max charge of 2400 powder I think it was. I've lost the reloading information when my computer crashed. It was as accurate at 100yds as my Sierra match Kings were. If I remember right I did have to adjust the sights up a bit more than the Sierras.

[fcvan]

Back in the mid 1980s, Dad found my dream gun at a gun show, a S&W M57 8 3/8" 41 Magnum. My goodness, something did not look right, it was a mid 1970 gun, pinned barrel, recessed cylinder, but the grips were used 1980s. That didn't matter, the grips were immediately replaced with Hogue rubber mono grips.

Off to the range I went and literally had a blast. While cleaning it at the range I noticed the first signs of gas wear in the inner top strap. The gun was unfired. Wow. I told dad who asked the gun shop owner who was at the gun show. The guy had sold dad a lot of his firearms over the years. He said he'd picked up a M29 and had went through the gun, reblued it, swapped the grips, put it in the wooden presentation case from the M57, made big money on the M29, and sold dad the M57 for what he had into it, $300.

Back then, I was reading about Elmer Keith's exploits at long range shooting. I started shooting 1250 rounds a week, 500 through a S&W M13 357 double action fire, 500 through a Springfield 1911 45 ACP, both at ranges from 5 to 25 yards. Then, 250 round from the M57 at ranges from 100 to 250 yards. It took a while before I hit a 12 x 12" target consistently, and a 24 x 24" at 250. Later, hitting a 55 gallon barrel at 500 yards was all day.

I amazed friends, but that's what happens when you do that much trigger time for a couple years. Once, I tried to hit the 250 target with a Taurus M85 38 snubby, Yup it was an artillery shot. I was able to clear a bunch of 6" steel plates in a hill at dad's range, at ranges from 15 to 65 yards with that snubby. Dad cleared all of thing off-hand with his M57 4" pistol.

Back in 2013, I had just started powder coating and was testing a new rifle build. I also had a Glock 23 40 S&W and saw a 4 x 4" (actually smaller, it was a 2x4 chunk) and tried. It took 3 shots before I figured out elevation and windage before I got a hit. I also thought of all the things I had read, learned trough training and range time, and applied them. 8 of 10 hits for several mags with my brother and other guys on the range at the time.

They stopped shooting and just watched before coming over to ask 'how the heck can you do that?' 'Trigger time, lots of trigger time.' We talked for a while and I told them and showed them the powder coated boolits. They both commented they couldn't find components to shoot that much and I told them what dad told me when I was a kid first shooting 'I shoot, therefore I reload, I cast because I like it, and can shoot more.' I think he heard that from the guy who taught us to cast. I need more trigger time and some steel, I miss shooting that much. Heck, I'm retired now, need to get motivated, right now trying get motivated to mow the yard.