Cleaned the BREN 2 after about 500 rounds of cast boolits...powder coating is where it is at. The barrel looked great and cleaned up quick. Very minimal leading on the gas piston, came off in a jiffy. Gotta make more...
Cleaned the BREN 2 after about 500 rounds of cast boolits...powder coating is where it is at. The barrel looked great and cleaned up quick. Very minimal leading on the gas piston, came off in a jiffy. Gotta make more...
Started out with a Lee C312-155-2R in a 6cav mould. Couldn't get one nice looking boolit to drop but didn't matter.
The material was range scrap. Air cooled, bulk shake and bake PC with a water drop after. Hornady gas checks after sized to 311. Weight was about 165 with a dress and shoes. After a week I tested for hardness and it's an 8.0. Yup, soft enough to deform the noses a little when seating. Not a problem in my 308 Win which I shoot a lot without PC at 1800fps with soft lube.
Here they are.
Test weapon was a Sig Sauer 556xi Russian with a 16" barrel topped with a 3x mini ACOG. Not the best for precision work. 30 rounds in total fired. Here's a look at the parts.
Barrel looked fantastic. Lead on the piston and cylinder took only a few minutes to clean off with Chore Boy.
My goal was to have a sustainable source of projectiles in case of a shortage or ban. I wanted fist size accuracy at 100 yards with the potential of some expansion. I've used this alloy to take deer in the past.
Two powders used were 5744 and H4198. Here are the charges, velocities and 5 shot groups at 50 yards.
5744 17.0gr 1615fps 3.0"
5744 18.0gr 1623fps 0.9" WINNER!
5744 19.0gr 1721fps 4.2"
H4198 18.0gr 1549fps 4.4"
H4198 19.0gr 1694fps 4.0"
H4198 20.0gr 1722fps 5.1"
As you can see there is one stand out winner here and it actually shoots better than my jacketed loads. I know a 5 shot group isn't the best data, but I was just trying to get a feel for what works. Now I'm going to load more and see if those groups hold up. I have no idea how magic works but it appears that charge has it. Go figure!
Last edited by Super Sneaky Steve; 07-24-2020 at 01:49 PM. Reason: Added more info
That is very nice, well done!
I got a dot on my BREN 2 the other day, green dot SIG MSR, a present, and the difference was noticeable. This is 8 out of 10 at 200 yards kneeling, braced. 129gr NOE powder coated.
Attachment 265295
How fast are you pushing your boolits? What's the clean up like on the rifle? I never could get good accuracy with cast beyond 1800fps so I opted for a heavier boolit to keep my energy up.
They are actually stepping out about 1750FPS. Nice noticeable interval between BANG and CLANG. Clean up is easy - the gas piston drops very easily once you know the trick on the thing. Disassembly is relatively quick, too, not as fast as the Scorpion, but quick enough for me.
Now the next question - I found some CFE BLK locally. Apparently nobody around here uses it, because the bottles were quite dusty...anyone used this with cast loads?
Steve, the surface imperfections on your boolits tell me that your mold is too cold. Try heating on a hotplate for a bit.
Lead Forever!
The 2nd amendment was never intended to allow private citizens to 'keep and bear arms.' If it had, there would have been wording such as 'the right of the People to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. -Ken Konecki, July 27, 1992
John Galt was here.
"Politics is the art of postponing an answer until it is no longer relevant". (From the movie 'Red Tails')
I shoot an AK and a mini 30 in 7.62x39 and tried some of the Harris loads a decade ago and didn’t get much luck, with the cast spitzer (160gr?) with 2400 it wouldn’t cycle the action on either rifle. I have an 8# jug of Western XTeminator and was looking through the load data for that recently and low and behold there are loads for several weights of bullets in 7.62x39 so I dusted off my dies and got to experimenting. So far much better, reliable functioning in the cast as well as 150gr jacketed. I find it highly disturbing that my Polish folding stock paratrooper AK shoots groups half the size as my Mini 30. But that’s a whole different rabbit hole...
Airplanes and guns should always be made out of metal.
After a few years hiatus due to the pandemic, I hauled out the 7.62x39 Martini Cadet.
Range -75m
Lee 155gr
Hitek coated
Hornady Gas check
weighing in at 165 gr
Federal LR primers
Trimmed to 38.5mm, primer pockets squared and cleaned, necks chamfered.
COAL 2.30"
The barrel is a .303, slugged at .313, pills are .313"
Powder SR 4759-found a 2 kg tin and trying to save the 2207 (4198)
Previously gold standard Blu dot load of 11.5 gr- rocking horse poo.
Cases PPU
Also tried some Norinco primed cases.
Load-17.5 and 18 gr from an old Lyman book.
Using an 8" hold over from the J word (123gr FMJ Geco and 150 gr Hornady .312" with 24.5 gr of 2207/4198-usually give me an inch or inch and a half depending on how bad my jitters are), I got a nice inch and a half group BUT, approx 8" drop from aiming point.
I dont want to boot up the charge-She's an old girl, action is c. 1912 and hot loads give zero extraction.
Maybe I should start lower at 16 gr?
"...Some days its rocket science, and some days it just zinc..."
On a Cadet it all depends on what data you read, some say 40k, others say 50k, some just say, similar to a G1 Contender, the first model, which would be 50k, but the big base cartridges with real high pressure loads can twist a Contender fame. Example, the 10" 357 Herrett, pushing a 200 at 2,000 fps, free recoil of 36#.
Bill Ruger had all of the first year production Mini 30s built with .308 barrels, because the 7.62x39 is a low enough pressure round to squeeze down .312 bullets and not to blow a Mini, SKS or even an AK, made in an alley in Peshawar, PK out of a shovel.
My 30-39 ARs with .308 barrels and 150s can run pretty warm with J bullet loads, like a mini 308 Win at 2,500-600 fps. Makes a good light, hog rifle.
“There is a remedy for all things, save death.“
Cervantes
“Never give up, never quit.”
Robert Rogers
Roger’s Rangers
There are three kinds of men. The one that learns by reading. The few who learn by observation. The rest of them have to pee on the electric fence for themselves.
Will Rogers
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 |