Favorite rifle caliber for cast lead bullets for target shooting?

[kcstott]

45 colt pistol or rifle
45 ACP
45-110 in my Shiloh Sharps
I have molds for every handgun cartridge i load for. and i have molds for a 30-30, 308, 303, and a 375.
Round ball mold for my flintlock
and a Dragoon mold for my Walkers.

[NapalmCheese]

I don't cast, but I shoot a lot of cast in .30-30. A 165 RNFP from Missouri (or anyone using that same mold) over 5.6 grains of Red Dot is about as fun as it gets IMO.

[rsrocket1]

Favorite rifle caliber for cast lead bullets for target shooting?

I have the Lee C309-113-F for light, cheap ?pellet gun? plinking, the C309-170-RF for target loads and the C309-200-R for subsonic loads. I?ve shot them plain based and gas checked with traditional lube and powder coated in .308 rifle and 16? 300 AAC Blackout AR and Ruger American Ranch Rifles.

I use the Lee C312-155-2R for my Mosin Nagant. I beagled the mold to drop .315 bullets and opened up the Lee push through sizer to give me .314 bullets for my particular rifle which slugged at .313 . I see that Lee now sells this mold in a 6 cavity version for volume shooters. I advocate buying 6 cavity molds whenever possible to speed up casting.

[jimmykan]

What are the maximum chamber pressures and maximum muzzle velocities for:

Powder coated cast bullets
Hi-Tek (non-metallic color, like Black K15) coated cast bullets
Hi-Tek (metallic color, like Old Gold or Red Copper) coated cast bullets

[jsanch03]

What are the maximum chamber pressures and maximum muzzle velocities for:

Powder coated cast bullets
Hi-Tek (non-metallic color, like Black K15) coated cast bullets
Hi-Tek (metallic color, like Old Gold or Red Copper) coated cast bullets

Powder coat and hi tek are 2 different methods of coating. Some swear over the other but both have their own pros and cons. Polymer coat tends to be thicker then hi tek so depending on your boolit profile you might run into chambering issues at a given OAL.

As far as maximums it really depends on the type of lead that you?re using. The softer the lead the lower you can push it. The harder the lead the higher you can push it. Of course factors such as bore diameter, lead hardness, gas check and profile all play a role. Main thing with lead is you want obturation of the boolit in the bore


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[jimmykan]

Powder coat and hi tek are 2 different methods of coating. Some swear over the other but both have their own pros and cons. Polymer coat tends to be thicker then hi tek so depending on your boolit profile you might run into chambering issues at a given OAL.

As far as maximums it really depends on the type of lead that you?re using. The softer the lead the lower you can push it. The harder the lead the higher you can push it. Of course factors such as bore diameter, lead hardness, gas check and profile all play a role. Main thing with lead is you want obturation of the boolit in the bore


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So if you were to assign percentages to each factor in how fast you can push a cast bullet:

Bullet hardness = ? %
Bullet coating's inherent properties = ? %
How well the bullet coating was applied = ? %

[kcstott]

So if you were to assign percentages to each factor in how fast you can push a cast bullet:

Bullet hardness = ? %
Bullet coating's inherent properties = ? %
How well the bullet coating was applied = ? %

Bullet hardness is important for two major reasons and a bunch of lesser reasons. Hard bullets slump less and bump up less when fired this is key for accuracy. The other issue is leading of the bore.

I gave up on powder coating. It's to time consuming for what I want to do. I bought a Saeco sizer and dies for all my cast bullet needs. I run one lube for both smokeless and black. That lube is SPG. I also made my own lube too. I'll be making bullets for my 30-30 and 375 win along with my 303 brit. Those will be gas checked and lubed.

I also paper patch for my 45-110. No greasers in that rifle.

Remember Bullets steer with their base. You must protect the base of the bullet if you are pushing it very hard. powder coating works well on pistols. Gas check on rifles and wad stacks on black powder.

[NapalmCheese]

What are the maximum chamber pressures and maximum muzzle velocities for:

Powder coated cast bullets
Hi-Tek (non-metallic color, like Black K15) coated cast bullets
Hi-Tek (metallic color, like Old Gold or Red Copper) coated cast bullets

I couldn't tell you either, but I can tell you that Hodgdon lists the max load of H4895 with lead 160 grain bullets as 21 grains, and the start load with H4895 with jacketed 160 grain bullets as 27.8.

I shot hitek coated bullets starting at 17.5 up to (IIRC) 23 grains. No leading, and I'm still not burning all the powder (so I'm going to keep working up).

I haven't compared my chrono data for hitek coated bullets over 5.6 grains of red dot vs. lubed lead, but both seem to work well and the lubed lead is just a smidge cheaper and still shoots clean at that load.

[ar15barrels]

Just curious if anyone here cast lead bullets that they like to use for paper punching and ringing steel with their rifle?


I've cast for .223 haven't gotten around to play with them yet but have with 30-30. .30 cal is a lot easier to deal with than those small .223 boolits especially with gas checks.

So what's your favorite rifle caliber?

30-30, 303, 30-40 and 7.62x54r are my picks for cast bullet rifles.
Manually operated actions allow you to run much lower pressures than autoloaders and those lower pressure loads are much milder to shoot than full power loads which makes them more fun for plinking.

[kcstott]

What are the maximum chamber pressures and maximum muzzle velocities for:

Powder coated cast bullets
Hi-Tek (non-metallic color, like Black K15) coated cast bullets
Hi-Tek (metallic color, like Old Gold or Red Copper) coated cast bullets

Powder coat was never meant or designed for cast bullet coatings.

Follow the reloading manual for max load and velocity. Coatings will not change the properties of the lead bullet and it the hardness of the lead that is your limiting factor. All the coatings do is prevent leading and remove the requirement for bullet lube.

[jimmykan]

Thanks jsanch03, kcstott, and NapalmCheese for your replies to my questions.

I have recently become aware of this semi-wildcat cartridge "8.6mm Blackout"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/8.6_mm_Blackout

https://www.loaddevelopment.com/8-6-creedmoor-or-8-6-blk-or-8-6-blackout/

It's like a shortened Creedmoor case necked up to 338.

Q Rifles and Faxon make rifles/barrels chambered for it.

Seems like a good candidate for cast bullets? But the twist rates for this cartridge are crazy tight, like 1-3 or 1-4

[NapalmCheese]

Thanks jsanch03, kcstott, and NapalmCheese for your replies to my questions.

I have recently become aware of this semi-wildcat cartridge "8.6mm Blackout"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/8.6_mm_Blackout

https://www.loaddevelopment.com/8-6-creedmoor-or-8-6-blk-or-8-6-blackout/

It's like a shortened Creedmoor case necked up to 338.

Q Rifles and Faxon make rifles/barrels chambered for it.

Seems like a good candidate for cast bullets? But the twist rates for this cartridge are crazy tight, like 1-3 or 1-4

I think the point of that cartridge is to make up for impact velocity with rotational velocity to open up bullets. I think it's a terrible idea, but according to the internet I'm just a Fudd, resistant to new ideas and concepts.

If that's the size bullet you were looking to cast/shoot, I'd look towards .338 Federal. I can't imagine the tight twist of the 8.6 blk would do anything good for cast bullets.

[hambam105]

For Costal California deer and hog, these animals have never read a single American Hunter magazine article that
specifically addressed the effectiveness of 7.62X54R cast rifle bullets.

Therefore these furbearer beasts won't know they are supposed to die after being shot with above mentioned caliber.

[Cowboy T]

^^ How true. They all do know, though, that it's now illegal to hunt with those cast bullets, so after you shoot them with said cast bullet, the bullets will automatically bounce off and these triggered animals ("OH, NO, HAZMAT MATERIALZZ!") will just call up the California Game Wardens on you.