Larry Gibson
12-04-2008, 11:02 PM
I’d cast up 6-700 bullets with the GB C325-190-FN 6 cavity mould several weeks back. They’d finally aged as I let them air cool. Alloy was 60/40 WW/linotype. A friend had given me 350 +/- 1939 Turk 8x57 cases he’d pulled the bullets and powder out of. He didn’t like using corrosive primers so he gave me the cases. I neck sized them with my Redding NS die and belled the case mouth with a standard M-die. My intention was to load them as “throw away” cases for perhaps a jack rabbit shoot or two this winter. I usually pick up my cases and would in this case and dispose of them properly but if I lost one or two in the sage brush I wouldn’t have nightmares about it like with my W-W cases.
The load would be a proven one with that bullet, comfortable to shoot, accurate and powerful enough for 200 yard shots. Some times jacks like to run out a ways and sit. I would load them with 31 gr of milsurp 4895 and put a ¾ gr Dacron filler over the powder. The bullets would be sized .325 and lubed with Javelina. One of the members here made me a couple GC makers and they work very well. One will make .30 and .31 GCs and the other makes .32 GCs for the my 8 mm cast bullets. I made close to 1000 GC one evening while watching a couple good movies. I set a lead block on one leg and work off that. I purchase 50’ x 6” rolls of .012” brass stock and cut it into ½” wide strips. These “feed” in the GC maker real well. I can get close to 2800 8mm GCs per roll of brass stock. The cost is about $9-10 per 1000. The GCs using the .012” shim stock crimp onto the shanks of all my 8mm cast bullets. Beer can and other tin can material are not thick enough and have to be doubled to work. I could go the beer can route or other types of cans but the brass shim stock is easy to work with and makes good GCs. A photo is below of the GC maker, some cast C325-190-FNs, some loaded cartridges and some of the home made GCs.
The thought struck me as I was seating them on the cast bullets; how good are my home made GCs? So I put some Hornady GC on some of the bullets and kept them separate throughout the loading process.
I got to the range today to test the GC difference. I was using my M24.47 M98 Mauser for the test. This rifle is in full military trim with the exception that she wears a Leupold 6X scope. This rifle will shoot Sierra 175 SPs into moa or better. It also has been a very good cast bullet shooter.
Got it close to zero in less than 10 rounds and cleaned the barrel and let it cool off. Speaking of “cool”; it was pretty chilly at the range today. Cold and damp and a 3-5 MPH wind coming off the Puget Sound from 9-10 o’clock. With the barrel clean I fired 2 foulers and then fired 10 shots for group using the Hornady GC’d bullets. The 10 shot group size was 1.55”. Velocity was right at 1800 fps. That is the top group in the photo and you can see the 2 foulers also. I let the barrel cool and then cleaned it. I then shot 2 foulers and another 10 shot group with my home made GCs. Velocity was again right at 1800 fps and the group size was 1.65”. That is the bottom group in the photo and you can also see those foulers. Interesting note was that after the 2 foulers were fired with each group the first 5 shots went into right at 1”.
That demonstrates that the bullets from this particular GB mould are pretty uniform I did not weigh the bullets or attempt to sort by cavity. I just cast them and gave a visual inspection of the bullet for defects when seating the GC. It alos demonstrates that my home made GCs are pretty good. Also considering these were not exactly "match prepped cases" I sure can’t complain on the accuracy of either GC. Some have complained quite a bit lately on a couple other threads that I can't "launch" bullets or don't know how to "launch" them accurately. Seems these "launched" ok to me….now where are those pesky wabbits…….
Larry Gibson
The load would be a proven one with that bullet, comfortable to shoot, accurate and powerful enough for 200 yard shots. Some times jacks like to run out a ways and sit. I would load them with 31 gr of milsurp 4895 and put a ¾ gr Dacron filler over the powder. The bullets would be sized .325 and lubed with Javelina. One of the members here made me a couple GC makers and they work very well. One will make .30 and .31 GCs and the other makes .32 GCs for the my 8 mm cast bullets. I made close to 1000 GC one evening while watching a couple good movies. I set a lead block on one leg and work off that. I purchase 50’ x 6” rolls of .012” brass stock and cut it into ½” wide strips. These “feed” in the GC maker real well. I can get close to 2800 8mm GCs per roll of brass stock. The cost is about $9-10 per 1000. The GCs using the .012” shim stock crimp onto the shanks of all my 8mm cast bullets. Beer can and other tin can material are not thick enough and have to be doubled to work. I could go the beer can route or other types of cans but the brass shim stock is easy to work with and makes good GCs. A photo is below of the GC maker, some cast C325-190-FNs, some loaded cartridges and some of the home made GCs.
The thought struck me as I was seating them on the cast bullets; how good are my home made GCs? So I put some Hornady GC on some of the bullets and kept them separate throughout the loading process.
I got to the range today to test the GC difference. I was using my M24.47 M98 Mauser for the test. This rifle is in full military trim with the exception that she wears a Leupold 6X scope. This rifle will shoot Sierra 175 SPs into moa or better. It also has been a very good cast bullet shooter.
Got it close to zero in less than 10 rounds and cleaned the barrel and let it cool off. Speaking of “cool”; it was pretty chilly at the range today. Cold and damp and a 3-5 MPH wind coming off the Puget Sound from 9-10 o’clock. With the barrel clean I fired 2 foulers and then fired 10 shots for group using the Hornady GC’d bullets. The 10 shot group size was 1.55”. Velocity was right at 1800 fps. That is the top group in the photo and you can see the 2 foulers also. I let the barrel cool and then cleaned it. I then shot 2 foulers and another 10 shot group with my home made GCs. Velocity was again right at 1800 fps and the group size was 1.65”. That is the bottom group in the photo and you can also see those foulers. Interesting note was that after the 2 foulers were fired with each group the first 5 shots went into right at 1”.
That demonstrates that the bullets from this particular GB mould are pretty uniform I did not weigh the bullets or attempt to sort by cavity. I just cast them and gave a visual inspection of the bullet for defects when seating the GC. It alos demonstrates that my home made GCs are pretty good. Also considering these were not exactly "match prepped cases" I sure can’t complain on the accuracy of either GC. Some have complained quite a bit lately on a couple other threads that I can't "launch" bullets or don't know how to "launch" them accurately. Seems these "launched" ok to me….now where are those pesky wabbits…….
Larry Gibson