Question on cast .223s

[legend]

I believe i will order the lee/bator boolit mold from midsouth.they say its going to be march before they can provide it to me.

so i was wondering if someone might lean me in the right direction,if,they have used this boolit.

i have only a remington 700bdl in 223 varmit special.

what thoughts might you have as to pitfalls,things to do,or,not to try as they wont work. this will be my first 22 casting,although i do have a 225415 .

thanks for any insight.

[Blackhawk Convertable]

I found with my 25 caliber mold that I could not bottom pour and get good boolits. I went to a ladle pour method and they came out perfect every time that way. Just my experience, YMMV...

[shotman]

the biggest problem you will have is expanding the case mouth to let a cast slide in the ones I loaded about half would split . I found military brass to be the best

[dualsport]

Take that Lyman mold and go for it! It's a good bullet. I have the bator, it's good but I haven't had a chance to really work with it yet. It's not magic, the Lyman may be just as accurate in your gun. I bottom pour most of my boolits and they're good enough. You could be shootin' in no time. Good luck.

[JIMinPHX]

You might consider yourself lucky if you actually see that mold by March. They have a history of backing up the delivery date on those things a few times before they actually come in. They're worth waiting for though. I've had very good luck with that boolit. It's been about the most accurate one that I've tried in my 1:12 twist barrel.

Midsouth sits on placing the order for those things with Lee until they reach a certain number of back orders for it, so that they can meet the minimum order quantity for a special order mold. If you order two, you might actually get them faster because it might help the order go into Lee sooner. That's what I did when I got mine. The extra one was easy to unload. I didn't even need to advertise it. Someone sent me a PM asking me to sell it. They are quite popular.

I found that I had to run my pot up around 720 degrees to get good fill out from the alloy that I was using (recovered bird shot + 1 or 2 % tin). I air cooled some & water dropped others. The water cooled ones were slightly more accurate. The air cooled ones had better terminal performance on small game. They punch coyotes up pretty good.

.22s in general seem to be a little more picky about paying attention to the details. Small defects in boolits that would have little effect on a 160-grain .30 cal boolit can be enough to cause noticeable performance problems with these little guys. I'm a little extra fussy when I sort out the good from the bad. I throw about 15% back in the pot for very minor deformations.

These little ones also seem to be very sensitive to being seated up into the lands when you load your cartridges. Seating them to just touch the lands is the standard practice, but I've recently found that if I seat them a full diameter into the lands upon cambering, they run a slight bit better. I had some ammo that I had seated way out for use in a rifle with a long throat. I loaded them in a more standard chamber & had good results.

I use an M-die to flair my case mouths before seating them. I've never had any problems with shaving lead or splitting necks. I easily get 10+ loadings out of my cases before I retire them. They usually get retired for having loose primer pockets. I've had good luck with LC, FC, WCC, PMC & RP cases. I've found that PMP & RORG headstamped cases have reduced case capacity & do not blend well with the loading data that I've worked up for the .223.

The 225415 mold from Lyman tends to vary a bit depending on how old it is. The older ones threw shorter boolits that weighed in around 45-grains. The newer ones seem to throw boolits that are longer in the gas check shank area & weight more like 55-grains. I've also had good luck with that boolit in the .223, but they seem to shoot best when I hollow point them.

If you haven't wandered over to the cast pics section of the website & found beagle's 3 part series on cast in the .223, then I highly recommend that you look it up when you have some time on your hands. That gentleman was kind enough to document quite an extensive collection of useful information on that cartridge. He seems to have quite a few things figured out.

[legend]

wow,this is great.look what i have learned already.

thank you

any one silly enough to try it with no gascheck?

[rhbrink]

Don't be afraid to try the 225415 I shoot one in a 14" twist Sako with 2400 and shoots great. Most of the time 1" to 1.5" groups sometimes smaller.

[dualsport]

Yes, I've shot my .22s without a gascheck, you just slow things down. To further decrease prep time I've tried boolits as cast, tumble lubed, without gas check. Results have been satisfactory at short range.

[Bullshop Junior]

No Bator, No No very bad!
That boolit shot terrible in my Remington 788 223.

[Bass Ackward]

It depends on what 225415 that you have and what kind of a throat you have. I have the 55 grain variant and a short throat. (match chamber)

I shoot 25 grains of IMR 4831 with a small pistol primer for 2650 fps.

[Greg in Malad]

I have the 50gr. version of the 225415, it shoots great in my .223 12 gr. of 5744 gives 2000 fps , 27 gr. of H-380 gives 3000 fps, and 4 gr. of red dot is good for 1000 fps. All loads shoot 2 moa or less, and are cast with 50/50 WW and Lino, water dropped with a BHN 28. Using a lee universal expander will solve loading problems. The 3000 fps load dropped a coyote at 250 yds, leaving a 3/4 inch exit hole. I almost forgot the important part, I use carnuba red on all my boolits.

[JIMinPHX]

any one silly enough to try it with no gascheck?

Yea, I was that silly. My shots were off the paper.

[JIMinPHX]

I have the 50gr. version of the 225415, it shoots great in my .223 ... 27 gr. of H-380 gives 3000 fps, .... All loads shoot 2 moa or less, and are cast with 50/50 WW and Lino, water dropped with a BHN 28.... I almost forgot the important part, I use carnuba red on all my boolits.

So, let me get this straight...
The 3,000fps load gives you 2moa??? Did I read that correctly?

[stubshaft]

All loads shoot 2 moa or less, and are cast with 50/50 WW and Lino, water dropped with a BHN 28.

I water drop pure Lino and don't get 28BHN?

[MT Gianni]

No Bator, No No very bad!
That boolit shot terrible in my Remington 788 223.

What twist Daniel?

[Greg in Malad]

My LBT hardness tester says 28, I use 50/50 WW and Lino cast at 850 deg.
I know that sounds outrageous but that is what the thermometer reads, and The
Weatherby vanguard has a VERY smooth bore. It will shoot 2 moa, trust me, nobody was more suprised than me.

[vacek]

I ordered a Bator from Midsouth in late October. They said it would be March. I got it in about 3 weeks later. Go figure. Nice Christmas present.:mrgreen:

[legend]

OK,now what have you done with it?