3 Attachment(s)
350 Legend and Cast Boolits
THIS IS A STORY OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF A LOW PRESSURE CAST BULLET CASE, A SET OF CAST BULLET LOADS AND A GUN THAT SHOOTS THE ABOVE.
IT DOES NOT GIVE YOU LICENSE TO EXPAND THE INFORMATION HERE TO ALL GUNS AND ALL LOADS, ESPECIALLY NOT TO HOT LOADS USING JACKETED BULLETS.
YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR WHAT YOU DO, NOT ME.
IF YOU FEEL THAT YOU CANNOT EXERCISE COMMON RELOADING EXPLORATORY TECHNIQUES AND TO OBSERVE AND NOTICE AND UNDERSTAND PRESSURE AND PRIMER WARNING SIGNS THEN PLEASE DO NOT READ THIS SERIES OF POSTS NOR TRY TO DO THIS SORT OF STUFF.
TO YOU, IT IS DANGEROUS WATERS .......
Next, I now have people following the long thread and SPENDING MONEY COPING THE DEAD ENDS AND THE MISTAKES CONTAINED THEREIN. I feel that a tool is needed to combat these false paths, so I will add hindsight warnings in Purple text when I am giving advice on not to go there ......
Greetings all
I'm back from motorcycling land (had to give it up, poor reflexes and general health not being up to the risks involved any longer) and I am back to chasing a new gun, a AR based 350 Legend.
Occasionally, LEE provides a couple of things you may already own that can fit your bill for a Cast Boolit for a new gun.
Attachment 247911
This one has a magazine filling nose which is pointed and tapered enough to feed from an AR magazine right into the auto-loaded chamber, with the bore riding nose picking up the rifling at the normal installation distance. I bought this one just now, to be my "heavy serious slug" for my 35 caliber pig and deer gun.
This next one has no current picture, as it was a longer heavier 153 grain slug of the same form that was intended for a 38 Super (38 Largo), so you have to use your imagination a bit as my slug is ~25%~ longer than shown.
Attachment 247912 OBSOLETE MOLD It shoots OK but in general is not worth pursuing as it is just another plinker bullet
Lastly, a wide meplat bullet that I am not really sure is going to fit or feed and work correctly at all in an auto-loading AR. But, we gotta try, right?
Attachment 247913
Powder will be from pulled down 8 pound jugs of BLC-2 for the heavy gas checked pig slug, and pulled down M1 Carbine powder WC820 for the lighter pistol slugs.
All the cast lead slugs will be towel dropped, and then powder coated with Eastwood Ford Light Blue. Then the slugs will get sized and gas checked in a .356" push through arrangement as I don't want to get wax based lube all over the inside of an AR gas system. The little bit of blue powder coating residue that will be remaining in the works will come right out with a long pipe cleaner and use of the standard AR cleaning equipment, during a standard "pivot the upper" cleaning.
Brass was laboriously neck/shoulder/body expanded from 5.52 Lake City brass and this really was a labor of love as I lost 30% of the cases due to splitting during the 6 expansion steps that I used (even with the two annealing steps along the way). I don't recommend doing this as it "lost money" compared to simply buying Grafs & Sons $17 per hundred range brass due to the excessive splitting losses already seen processing the Lake City 5.56.
:-)
Comment in passing, LEE has improved their 2 cavity molds quite a bit since the day I only had to add the set screw to the pivot shoulder screw and to burnish in some Hexagonal Boron Nitride into the cavities to get "free dropping" from the get go.
I still find the soft aluminum LEE bullet mold material to be too easily scratched and cavity edge burrs are formed too easily and the mating mold surfaces still want to seat into each other too quickly.
Still, the steel alignment pins and bushings are a refreshing thing to see and the mold block alignment does hold up better than previously.
Oldfeller