Anyone in here cast using the lee 230gr mold? What hardness are you using? I'm coating my bullets with hi-tek, and I'm curious if I'm too soft. Velocity will be 1050-1,100.
Anyone in here cast using the lee 230gr mold? What hardness are you using? I'm coating my bullets with hi-tek, and I'm curious if I'm too soft. Velocity will be 1050-1,100.
I don't see how you could be too soft unless you are using absolutely pure lead. I would think 9 BHN would be just right.
Tim
Words are weapons sharper than knives - INXS
The pen is mightier than the sword - Edward Bulwer-Lytton
The tongue is mightier than the blade - Euripides
I'd worry about sizing first. More than one member has shot cast at much higher velocities with no gas checks and no leading. Hardness won't save you if your boolit is undersized.
Warning: I know Judo. If you force me to prove it I'll shoot you.
Straight wheel weights or a 50/50 alloy of Pb/WW is about you`ll need. If you feel you need a harder bullet, water drop them for surface hardening.Robert
Well, I was careless with a few ingots, and I can't recall if they are COWW or SOWW's. I don't have a hardness checker, so i'm somewhere between 6-12. I do water drop all my projectiles, but if it's SOWW, the antimony percentage is so slim, I don't think it's going to do anything.
The key to your answer lies in the title to this thread . . . "Subsonic".
Cast what you have and try them, odds are good they will be fine.
Rick
"The people never give up their freedom . . . Except under some delusion." Edmund Burke
"Let us remember that if we suffer tamely a lawless attack on our liberty, we encourage it." Samuel Adams
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I posted recently in another thread about shooting the NOE 247 subsonic in a .30-30, those bullets come out about 9 bhn and are absolutely fantastic shooters in the quiet velocity range. The only issue I could see is the noses getting dinged badly or peeling shavings off and hanging up when feeding if you have the M4 feed ramps and/or some very sharp edges in the chamber entrance or chamber/throat transition. If you have issues with that, you might consider water-quenching right out of the mould to harden them a bit, but they will likely require a different powder to shoot well than the softer ones will.
Gear
I have no experience with loading for full auto but as Gear said, if it feeds and chambers well you should be ok. The only other thing that comes to mind at the moment would be lube if the barrel gets really heated.
Where it me I would shoot some to what happens. Report back with your findings, I'm sure there will be others will be interested in the results.
Rick
"The people never give up their freedom . . . Except under some delusion." Edmund Burke
"Let us remember that if we suffer tamely a lawless attack on our liberty, we encourage it." Samuel Adams
NRA Benefactor Life Member
CRPA Life Member
Less tin and antimony means higher melting point so softer could be better.
Tim
Words are weapons sharper than knives - INXS
The pen is mightier than the sword - Edward Bulwer-Lytton
The tongue is mightier than the blade - Euripides
I'm using the watever's in the pot that makes them 310 on that base band or so and air cooling.
if the bases are well filled out and sharp they shoot a lot better..
my objective is a lot different than yours though, I'm at the slow quiet one at a time end of the spectrum.
I got other molds to work on the 1300+ scale end of things.
don't have the can yet, so I'm just working on the velocity, accuracy, and quietness of the load to begin with.
I have a bolt gun so I'm not limited with my load selection.
the issue I have right now is that as soon as I get quiet, I also get vertical stringing, so there is a definite line there.
3.5 grs of powder doesn't have enough muzzle pressure to cause any kind of gas cutting in that area, so I doubt any leading in the can could occur there without it being present in the whole barrel.
Run, are you shooting the Lee bullet? TnT lube might help if the stringing isn't powder related. My Savage 219s wear 24" barrels, sound like a one-pump Daisy pellet rifle. No can required.
Gear
I run 11.5gr of AA1680 for my subsonic, good case fillout, cycles very well and chronos about 1050. That load isn't going to be good for anything but a really short barrel though. I cut my barrel on a 1:8 twist blank to 6", so it's pretty short.
This is with jacketed, but the same load.
Here's the first cast round I'm going to try.
Gear beat me to it. Gotta cast hard enough for the autoloader. I use straight coww and working ok for me if I'm careful with magazine selection.
And just for your info... casting with a single cavity is about as close as you can get to zero production, while still having some production. -- Whitespider
I polished my feedramps a little with a dremel and it helped
And just for your info... casting with a single cavity is about as close as you can get to zero production, while still having some production. -- Whitespider
yeah the lee t/l boolit, I'm still using up one of the test batches of 45/45/10 lube with wax and extra M/S.
I'm just searching that quiet/slow area for a cheap-o 50 yd shooter round that can be popped off all afternoon [cheaply] for some trigger time for the kids.
the vertical stringing in this case is being caused by the colder pistol primers I tried in this last batch, it doesn't do it with sr primers.
you'd think 3.5 grs of 700-x would be a pretty benign load, but it's just borderline enough to show up any inconsistency's.
I have some sp mag primers i'll give a go here soon, and see what they do.
And just for your info... casting with a single cavity is about as close as you can get to zero production, while still having some production. -- Whitespider
BP | Bronze Point | IMR | Improved Military Rifle | PTD | Pointed |
BR | Bench Rest | M | Magnum | RN | Round Nose |
BT | Boat Tail | PL | Power-Lokt | SP | Soft Point |
C | Compressed Charge | PR | Primer | SPCL | Soft Point "Core-Lokt" |
HP | Hollow Point | PSPCL | Pointed Soft Point "Core Lokt" | C.O.L. | Cartridge Overall Length |
PSP | Pointed Soft Point | Spz | Spitzer Point | SBT | Spitzer Boat Tail |
LRN | Lead Round Nose | LWC | Lead Wad Cutter | LSWC | Lead Semi Wad Cutter |
GC | Gas Check |