Casting For Rifle

[Esau]

I already cast for pistol, but I was thinking of casting for rifle. I am interested in casting for The 30-06. However, according to the load data in The Lee Manual, the pressure runs pretty high. Do I have to spend "a lot" of money on gas checks and linotype? Do I have to buy a convection oven!? Is there a cheaper way? What do most people use? And, what about BHN?

[mroliver77]

Essau,
Depending on how fast you want to push the boolit in the 06. For plinking and small game an air cooled wheel weight boolit and a fast pistol powder will do fine. For over 1500ish fps a gaschecked boolit is almost mandatory. over 2000ishfps I water drop my WW alloy. Pushing them hard I oven heat and water drop WW. Depending on conditions I may "sweeten" the alloy with antimony rich alloy to make boolits very hard. The Lee manual 2 also has a section on reduced loading that works out well.
Jay

[462]

Esau,

I am far from an expert -- others, rightfully so, hold that honor -- but here's what works for me in .30-'06, 6.5 Swede, and 7.5 Swiss. I haven't got to the Enfields, yet.

Gas checked boolits cast of 100% clip-on wheel weights and water-quenched.

If you don't already have it, do yourself a huge favor and get Lyman's Cast Bullet Handbook. Then read it a few times.

[O.S.O.K.]

What exactly are you trying to achieve? Velocity-wise and intended use?

That will help us answer your question.

[Ben]

If you want to do a little " paper punching ", it can be done on the " CHEAP " ! !

No gas checks ( a plain based .30 cal. bullet mold ) and pistol powder. I had " Buckshot " remove the g/c shank and HP this SAECO mold. Now I can shoot very economically.

I shot this group below with my Ruger # 1 sporter,stainless, .308 Win :
BTW.........I haven't really made much of an effort to fine tune this load, it might very well shoot even tighter if I experimented a little bit more with changing primers, changing the OAL of the loaded round, bullet dia. , etc.

These bullets were cast from air cooled WW's.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v494/haysb/57.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v494/haysb/SAECO%20307%20HP/PICT0003.jpg

[outdoorfan]

I already cast for pistol, but I was thinking of casting for rifle. I am interested in casting for The 30-06. However, according to the load data in The Lee Manual, the pressure runs pretty high. Do I have to spend "a lot" of money on gas checks and linotype? Do I have to buy a convection oven!? Is there a cheaper way? What do most people use? And, what about BHN?


If you want to hunt with this, then yes you will need to get gas checks. If you want to get by cheaply, then you can get a mold from Lyman or Lee, or a few other makers, that will produce a conventional boolit design. With a "conventional" design you will be limited to about 2000 fps max velocity. If you do things right, you may be able to shoot stuff out to 150-200 yards. However, if you want a your '06 to really perform, then you'll need a better boolit design, such as an LBT spitzer or LFN. Also, it's absolutely critical that you know the throat dimensions of your '06, and you either find a boolit to match that or you get a throat reamer to ream it out to match the boolit that you want to use.

An oven is paramount, IMO, for getting consistent heat-treated boolits, and you can adjust the heat to get whatever bhn you want, alloy taken into consideration. BTW, you can use your regular oven. The lead won't contaminate it.

BHN is brinnel hardness. It's a preset standard for measuring the hardness of something.

[1Shirt]

Ben, That is just a couple of pure plain pretty pics. I have been able to get a couple of plain base (square based) old out of production Lyman molds that will do about the same. Bevel based just doesn't hack it for me accuracy wise. Think I might have Buckshot do one like yours in a 180 - 200 gr. weight.
1Shirt!:coffeecom

[qajaq59]

I haven't got my Lyman Cast Manual handy but later in the day I'll take a look and see what loads might work for the 06 and let you know. I use cast in my 30-30s and the .308 and it works great. Plus it's so cheap that you can head to the range for the day and burn up a 100 rounds without bankrupting yourself. Go for it, you wont regret it.

[zomby woof]

I shoot the LEE 309-180-R with GC and TL through my 03A3. I use WQ WW with added tin. I use 20 grains of 2400 at 1700 fps. Shoots great, easy to assemble. The cases stay clean and can be reloaded several times. Win, win.

[Ben]

1Shirt:

Bevel based just doesn't hack it for me accuracy wise. My exact thoughts also. I have very little use for a bevel base bullet.

I've got more in this SAECO # 307 with the g/c removal and the HP'ing than I care to admit . ( bought the mold new from Mid Way.....that will tell you something about what I've got in my mold right now ) I'm way over a " C Note " right now.

However, now I'm set for a very long period of time for producing some accurate .30 cal. bullets ( no pesky g/c's ) and a lot of fun.

If you shoot from a particular mold for 20 - 30 yrs., I personally don't see $100 or $125 for a mold as an excessive investment. This SAECO will be producing nice bullets when I'm dead and gone.

Let's see.....$125 divided by 30 yrs. = $4.16 per yr. for nice bullets. I think I can afford that.

Guess that is what it is all about.

Rick will take good care of you on your HP'ing. He is a real gentleman.

If you need any measurements ( pin dia. , pin depth ) from me regarding my own mold, let me know.

Let me know how you come out with your project.

Thanks,

Ben

[Bret4207]

I already cast for pistol, but I was thinking of casting for rifle. I am interested in casting for The 30-06. However, according to the load data in The Lee Manual, the pressure runs pretty high. Do I have to spend "a lot" of money on gas checks and linotype? Do I have to buy a convection oven!? Is there a cheaper way? What do most people use? And, what about BHN?

You don't need linotype at all. GC's are still pretty reasonable. Straight ww and the correct powders will work just fine. Get something like the RBCS 30-180 mould and start there.

I'd also suggest getting the Lyman Cast Bullet manual. The lee book isn't nearly as useful IMO.

[Leftoverdj]

Lee #2 has a lot of good information in Chapter 10, including detailed info for the .30-06. I have and use the Lyman Cast Bullet Handbook, but it's 40 years out of date and relies way too heavily on fast pistol powders. I'm convinced that Lyman never shot those loads for accuracy because it's full of loads that may be safe but can't possibly be accurate.

Loading cast for rifle is easy enough if your expectations are reasonable. A lot of us load cast for its own sake and put a lot of time, money, and effort into it, but if 2MOA at 1800 fps will do what you need, that's easily done.

[Ben]

Ditto - Leftoverdj's comments.

Ben

[qajaq59]

I looked thru my Lyman Cast Manual and Bret is right. Keep the velocity down and you shouldn't need the gas checks. I do prefer them myself though. But I've shot plenty without them and did ok.

[Bret4207]

I never said GC's weren't needed, I said linotype wasn't needed. I feel the lyman book is more useful for real information, although as the guys said it's dated and almost all fast powders. I personally don't buy much of Lee's pressure stuff. I think he pouts too much emphasis on it and neglects to encourage people to seek a balanced load. But if that's all you have or you like it that's fine too.

[Esau]

Thanks for your help! I did order The Lyman Casting Manual.

Why is BHN so important anyway? What would happen if you didn't water drop your WW and didn't use gas checks and ran it at 2000fps?

[outdoorfan]

Probably MOB (minute of barn)

Actually, it sounds like you'd like to paper patch those suckers. Then you could fire them at 2000+ fps without gas checks, and you'd still probably be able to get good/decent accuracy.

[Marlin Hunter]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v494/haysb/57.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v494/haysb/SAECO%20307%20HP/PICT0003.jpg

Nice shooting, and I wish I could make boolits that nice.