I'm going to take my Winchester M1 Garand hunting this year so i decided to start working up a load when I can,(remember 4 month old twin boys..) So I figured if a cast bullet is only really accurate at about 1800-2000 FPS then i might as well go heavy, so i ordered the Lee 309-200. After lee-menting the mold and boiling it in water and scrubbing it ....yada yada... it still wouldn't release with out a couple of good smart wacks with a dowel rod. So I cast some up put a screw in the base and squeeze some FLITZ into the cavities and then about 10 seconds later on LOW speed, they came popping out of the mold, i made 30 LBS them. The Alloy was 50% WW and 50% pure with 2% tin, they came in at 207 grn and out at .311 with 301 on the nose!!! PERFECT!!! my MY M1 slugs out at 309-and 301 on the nose. I powder coated then with the shake and bake method, no BB's just about 100 bullets and a table spoon of powder shaken until covered and then poured on 1/4" hard wear cloth then thrown in the oven baked at 400* for 20 min then thrown into some tap water. I let them sit for about 2 weeks and then finally today i was able to go into the reloading room for about an hour and a half and loaded up 3 clips of 35 grn of IMR 4064, 3 clips of 36 grn and 3 clips of 37 grn IMR 4064. These were gas checked and ran through a lee 311 sizer, seated to the crimp groove and just enough crimp to hold things together. At the range the 35 did okay hitting a pop bottle at 117 yards, off hand (which is how I practice my hunting loads) but missing the pop cans about 50% of the time, on paper it showed 6" groups. The 36 did better it was hitting the pop can almost ever shot, on paper if was showing 4 inch groups. The 37 grn load was hitting little pieces of clay's on the berm about 2 inches big. The 37 grn load was ejecting the cases with some UMPH about 15 feet away but on paper showed up about 2 inch Group!! holy cow that is the best this rifle can do that i can tell..I got so excited that i shot up the rest of my ammo and SMOKED a kid..(yeah i'm only 29 lol) who was about 18 or 19 with his 2000$ AR with a Acog on it! all i can say is..
Deer you better watch out.
Any ways this has been EXTREMELY fun and has brought back a lot of life into shooting for me!!
Thanks for all the help here!
43PU