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Casting bullets

Cast rifle bullets need to be loaded to very low velocity and pressures. To shoot at higher velocity, one has to put a gas check on the base; bullet should have a reduced diameter for the gas check. I cast for .38 and .44. I recommend Lee molds as they are aluminum blocks and lead doesn't stick to aluminum. Also have the 10 lb. Lee melting pot.
 
Safari Hunt said:
Cast rifle bullets need to be loaded to very low velocity and pressures. To shoot at higher velocity, one has to put a gas check on the base; bullet should have a reduced diameter for the gas check. I cast for .38 and .44. I recommend Lee molds as they are aluminum blocks and lead doesn't stick to aluminum. Also have the 10 lb. Lee melting pot.
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I am wanting to cast some bullets to load 300 blackout for sub sonic. I have lots of the supplies already between hand me down and the lead I have stockpiled for jig heads. Actually have about 10 lbs of Lyman #??? Alloy. Also have lots of "flux". Need a mould and sizing die still. My question is, do you have to run gas checks for subsonic rounds through a suppressor? Will be powder coating
 
A lot will depend on bullet hardness and sizing. Straight air-cooled lead will be very soft and give you issues no matter what, but harder alloys that are water quenched or heat treated, and properly sized (.001-.002 larger than YOUR verified bore diameter), will work. I'm not familiar with shooting with cans, but I've heard of (internet, dunno if it's true) gas checks coming off during firing and damaging suppressors. I'd make sure that I used a good gas check and sized it properly to lock it on, then fire several of them with the can off to verify retention before I shot them through a can. If you are over 1600 FPS or so, you will need a gas check. Straight wheel weights are actually a pretty good alloy for water-quenched cast up to about 2000fps
 
As Snowwolfe said, you need to go to castboolits.com and read until your head hurts. That is the best website going for learning a hobby. They have somebody who has tried about anything you can imagine and one of the sub forums I enjoy most is the one about Hunting with Cast bullets. I've been casting since the late 1970's but never did much with rifle cast bullets until reading the success stories on that forum. If you get the proper fit to bore, use a soft enough alloy to get obturation, use a gas check bullet of course and decent lube, you can load most of the "Woods" type cartridges to full power in cast AND get great expansion and killing power.

If you have Lyman #2 alloy on hand that is good bullet alloy but is harder than you really need for most shooting. Good thing though is that you can mix it with softer and get what you do need. I'd mix some pure lead in with it if it were me for subsonic loads. Most of the time leading is caused by too soft lead rather than too hard and poor fit aggravates the problem even worse. I'm mixing clip on wheel weights and pure lead 50/50 with 1% pure tin added to that and according to my alloy estimator hardness is 10.3 Brinell. I'm shooting it in a 35 Remington at about 1,900 ft/sec with no leading problem and good accuracy. It gives full expansion in water jugs and 95% + weight retention at both 20 and 100 yards. Kills deer like lightning.

Have shot the same alloy at up to 2,100 ft/sec in 30-30 with good results but not nearly as much testing so the jury is still out on that one.

There is a "Sticky" on one of the castboolits.com forums that has an alloy hardness calculator that you need to get. It's an Excel spreadsheet. You can input any amount of the types lead or alloys listed to mirror what you are wanting to use and it gives a resulting hardness so you have an idea what you can do with an alloy before you mix it up.

One decison a new caster has to make is how to lubricate his bullets. The old traditional way was to put a wax or grease based lube in the bullet grooves and this is the way I've always done it. But since you are wanting to use your bullets through a silencer you might do better to consider powder coating. It seems like you can almost forget about gas checks with powder coated bullets and get no leading. That would get rid of the problem EastTNHunter mentioned about gas checks coming off a bullet in the can. Also you shouldn't need a gas check anyhow with subsonic loads but the powder coat would allow you to push the cartridge to it's limits with no gas check if you ever decide to try that.

I have a 32-20 that I load to 1,280 ft/sec with a plain base bullet using traditional lube and it doesn't lead the bore. I never clean the gun.
 
Hunter 257W said:
As Snowwolfe said, you need to go to castboolits.com and read until your head hurts. That is the best website going for learning a hobby. They have somebody who has tried about anything you can imagine and one of the sub forums I enjoy most is the one about Hunting with Cast bullets. I've been casting since the late 1970's but never did much with rifle cast bullets until reading the success stories on that forum. If you get the proper fit to bore, use a soft enough alloy to get obturation, use a gas check bullet of course and decent lube, you can load most of the "Woods" type cartridges to full power in cast AND get great expansion and killing power.

If you have Lyman #2 alloy on hand that is good bullet alloy but is harder than you really need for most shooting. Good thing though is that you can mix it with softer and get what you do need. I'd mix some pure lead in with it if it were me for subsonic loads. Most of the time leading is caused by too soft lead rather than too hard and poor fit aggravates the problem even worse. I'm mixing clip on wheel weights and pure lead 50/50 with 1% pure tin added to that and according to my alloy estimator hardness is 10.3 Brinell. I'm shooting it in a 35 Remington at about 1,900 ft/sec with no leading problem and good accuracy. It gives full expansion in water jugs and 95% + weight retention at both 20 and 100 yards. Kills deer like lightning.

Have shot the same alloy at up to 2,100 ft/sec in 30-30 with good results but not nearly as much testing so the jury is still out on that one.

There is a "Sticky" on one of the castboolits.com forums that has an alloy hardness calculator that you need to get. It's an Excel spreadsheet. You can input any amount of the types lead or alloys listed to mirror what you are wanting to use and it gives a resulting hardness so you have an idea what you can do with an alloy before you mix it up.

One decison a new caster has to make is how to lubricate his bullets. The old traditional way was to put a wax or grease based lube in the bullet grooves and this is the way I've always done it. But since you are wanting to use your bullets through a silencer you might do better to consider powder coating. It seems like you can almost forget about gas checks with powder coated bullets and get no leading. That would get rid of the problem EastTNHunter mentioned about gas checks coming off a bullet in the can. Also you shouldn't need a gas check anyhow with subsonic loads but the powder coat would allow you to push the cartridge to it's limits with no gas check if you ever decide to try that.

I have a 32-20 that I load to 1,280 ft/sec with a plain base bullet using traditional lube and it doesn't lead the bore. I never clean the gun.
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Thank you for the information. I'm looking for another option to reload subsonic 300 blackout. Although I do have several 35 rem and that peaks my interest. Also have an marlin 1894 44 mag I never shoot anymore that needs to be shot!
 
I use a custom mold in the 35 Remington from the Accurate mold company. It's mold # 36-200A. I chose it for the very wide flat nose which transfers energy better than a round nose. It feeds fine in my Marlin 336 but when a friend tried it in a Winchester 94 in 356 Winchester the blunt nose causes it to jam. The only negative with that bullet is that the front driving band in front of the crimp groove is a bit too wide and jams into the rifling in my Marlin causing you to have to make a noticeable effort on the lever to close the action. I fixed the problem by trimming my cases .010 short of the minimum trim length. This must have been a problem for a lot of people because now Accurate came up with a variation of the mold with part # 36-200AS - the "S" being for short throat. Most people use either the RCBS or Lee 200 grain bullet for the 35 Remington but neither have that wide nose that hits so hard.

Bullet casting opens up a whole nother world of factors to experiment with when loading your ammo,.
 
Hunter 257W said:
I use a custom mold in the 35 Remington from the Accurate mold company. It's mold # 36-200A. I chose it for the very wide flat nose which transfers energy better than a round nose. It feeds fine in my Marlin 336 but when a friend tried it in a Winchester 94 in 356 Winchester the blunt nose causes it to jam. The only negative with that bullet is that the front driving band in front of the crimp groove is a bit too wide and jams into the rifling in my Marlin causing you to have to make a noticeable effort on the lever to close the action. I fixed the problem by trimming my cases .010 short of the minimum trim length. This must have been a problem for a lot of people because now Accurate came up with a variation of the mold with part # 36-200AS - the "S" being for short throat. Most people use either the RCBS or Lee 200 grain bullet for the 35 Remington but neither have that wide nose that hits so hard.

Bullet casting opens up a whole nother world of factors to experiment with when loading your ammo,.
Click to expand...
It seem it does open up a ton of other factors to think about. I'm currently reading all I can before I order moulds.
 
When starting out I'd always look to Lee molds 1st then if they don't have a bullet like you want try both RCBS and Lyman. The custom makers are quite a bit more expensive and you may or may not decide they are worth it depending on how much you get into casting.
 
I load cast bullets in a 30/30 with a small dose of Unique. It is a subsonic load. I have never tried
powder coating, though I plan to. I use the Lee liquid alox tumble lube. I never have had any problem with leading. My lead is straight wheel weights.
 
Since you are asking about subs, I would rather use a plain base bullet, so there is no risk of a gascheck coming off in the can and getting a baffle strike, low risk they say, but I say why chance it. Look into powder coating your bullets, that way you don't need the gas checks. The mold will come with gas check or without (plain base), so depending on your plans buy accordingly. I've seen bullets shot without the gas checks that had been powder coated and reports are that they shoot fine, but I would buy one without the rebated rim if I was planning on powder coating. I have the Lee TL309-230-5R which is supposed to be good for subs, but haven't cast for it yet, so far I haven't shot subs out of mine, no can, but have the supplies if I get to that point later. Right now I just load and shoot barnes 115 gr blacktips and a 115 gr varmint round for practice.
 

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