reloading .308 cast lead
- Thread starter zzr600
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enfieldspares
Well-Known Member
Yes. With good success. Use the on-line maker's guide to using Trail Boss and you'll get good results. If you need Trail Boss I and others here have the odd canister that we no longer use we'd be happy to sell. I'm not too far from Sheffield if you drive to M1 Junction 21 if you wanted to buy the canister that I have. The secret is to flare the case mouth as you do for a lead bullet in a pistol cartridge reload. That way you don't shave the bullet. Shaving the bullet's base is fatal to lead bullet accuracy.
gonzo
Well-Known Member
The Lyman Cast Bullet handbook is worth it's weight in gold, when you come to this.
I load pretty much all my fullbore rifles with cast gallery loads, so that I can shoot them at my local indoor pistol/carbine calibre range.
The Lyman book helped me here too, as the club insurance required that you use manufacturers loading data for all home loads. And this is published data, at least by the manufacturer of the casting dies. So boxes ticked.
I load pretty much all my fullbore rifles with cast gallery loads, so that I can shoot them at my local indoor pistol/carbine calibre range.
The Lyman book helped me here too, as the club insurance required that you use manufacturers loading data for all home loads. And this is published data, at least by the manufacturer of the casting dies. So boxes ticked.
I spent a couple of decades experimenting with high velocity cast bullets in bottle necked cartridges -in fact, for better than 20 years I shot only cast bullets. My M98 sporter rebarreled with an FN-made Israeli contract barrel in 308 is my favorite deer rifle. I have killed many deer with this rifle using the RCBS 30-180-SP bullet at 2400 FPS. Shooting cast bullets is a study in itself, but a rewarding one.~Muir
Viht N310 is good for subsonic loads.
gonzo
Well-Known Member
Unique is in that same burn speed range as N310, and I've used that too.
The Lyman cast bullet book does have load data for unique too.
I usually use bullseye, as I have lots. BUT.... I would not suggest that as a powder for large volume cases, unless you are a very experienced hand loader.
I use 8 grains of bullseye with 185gn cast lead alloy, in 308 and 303. Seems to group well at 50yds. Don't have the chrono readings to hand. But I do use a case filler or something like oats, to reduce the empty space and to keep the powder against the flash hole and together (to avoid flash over). And a pinch of cotton woll between them, to stop the powder migrating into the oats.
4grains of Bullseye, with 77grain 32acp bullets, lead and jacketed, works too. But the groupings are not good. Bullet weight, size, twist rate is all wrong. But it does let me play in our indoor pistol range.
But if you are not a well seasoned hand loader, I would very strongly suggest going for a slower burning powder. Things like trailboss are worth looking at too, as they are so bulky, you can consider not using a case filler.
But on faster powders, fillers ares important, otherwise you can get an explosion. Which is always a risk if uaing very small powder charges in larger cases. And choose a filler that will not bind under pressure and cause a plug, at the case shoulder. As you can guess what the result of that is!
The Lyman cast bullet book does have load data for unique too.
I usually use bullseye, as I have lots. BUT.... I would not suggest that as a powder for large volume cases, unless you are a very experienced hand loader.
I use 8 grains of bullseye with 185gn cast lead alloy, in 308 and 303. Seems to group well at 50yds. Don't have the chrono readings to hand. But I do use a case filler or something like oats, to reduce the empty space and to keep the powder against the flash hole and together (to avoid flash over). And a pinch of cotton woll between them, to stop the powder migrating into the oats.
4grains of Bullseye, with 77grain 32acp bullets, lead and jacketed, works too. But the groupings are not good. Bullet weight, size, twist rate is all wrong. But it does let me play in our indoor pistol range.
But if you are not a well seasoned hand loader, I would very strongly suggest going for a slower burning powder. Things like trailboss are worth looking at too, as they are so bulky, you can consider not using a case filler.
But on faster powders, fillers ares important, otherwise you can get an explosion. Which is always a risk if uaing very small powder charges in larger cases. And choose a filler that will not bind under pressure and cause a plug, at the case shoulder. As you can guess what the result of that is!
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I've read the odd comment about small quantities of fast burning powders in light cases, but none of the handbooks I've read say this is a problem. Hodgdon reload data suggest 8 grains of Titegroup in .308 produces 25,000 CUP. Titegroup is a fine round powder (I use it in .357) and 8 grains is a very small volume. It would barely fill a .38SP cartridge. I can't imagine Hodgdon recommending a potentially explosive load!
devonair
Well-Known Member
Following this thread with interest as I intend to homeload fullhouse and reduced loads for my 12g,/.308 Finn combi gun. I have Alliant 2400 and was gifted a near full tub of H4895, looking for moulds for both. (Conditioned for solid slug too)��.Also kindly given some linotype by Vince green in return for charity donation��
Muir, any suggestions for .308molds other than rcbs(lee) for deer up to reds, alloys? Should I be using pure linotype?
Muir, any suggestions for .308molds other than rcbs(lee) for deer up to reds, alloys? Should I be using pure linotype?
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Sorry but i'm not in agreement!
Bullseye and Viht 310 are similar but NOT Unique.
115gr cast boolit with a 4gr to 5gr load of Viht 310 works really well.
I don't like case fillers either, as they can cause problems.
DO NOT USE reduced loads of slow burning powder - the starting loads in the manufacturer's books are there for a reason.
You will not get an explosion using fast powders (Viht 310 for example) if you do not overload.
As a regular user of cast boolits I am speaking from experience.
Never heard of that either! Sounds like nonsense to me!
Rifle Bullet Moulds
16 to 17gr of 2400 would do the job
Cast on the softer side. Lyman No 2 alloy is the hardest you need. Use a gas check and a good lube - Carnauba red from White Owl in the States works really well for me.
Get the Lyman Cast Bullet Handbook as well
I tend to like exceptionally hard bullets -at least hard when compared to lead alloys. I would cast my bullets from a mix of 9:1 (non zinc) wheel weight metal to linotype, size and gas-check, then heat treat them. This gave me a bullet of 31 Bhn which while hard, not near as hard as copper. I would run these through a .001" over-sized sizer die and lubricate. These bullets, when snugged up against the leade, will withstand 44K psi without deforming. This leaves a lot of room between loads giving utilitarian velocity and leading, provided the bullet is the proper fit and the bore is scrupulously clean of copper. I have shot 55 grain .225" bullets at 2750 and near 1 moa accuracy from a 222 with judicious powder selection.
As to bullets/ moulds, slug the groove of the rifle you intend to shoot and measure the bore diameter. If your bore is much over .300, most of the nose-riding bullets will be too loose for good high velocity accuracy. These are the two-diameter RCBS designs I mentioned (30-180 SP, 30-165-SIL) earlier. Then you might want a Loverine design with the driving bands running the length of the parallel sides of the bullet. A chamber cast would tell you how long a bullet you can shoot without having the lube rings/driving bands pushed below the case neck. This gets tricky in some 308's as the throats come in all lengths from NATO 'ball seat' to long tubes meant for 180's. My aforementioned 308 has a 'ball seat' that is a very short throat. I accommodated this by making a 3-degree (included) angle tapered sizer for the nose of my bullets. This puts a slight taper on enough of the bullet to allow it to seat out to the lands without seating th gas check below the neck-shoulder junction.
Done correctly, cast bullet shooting is a study in itself. High velocity cast bullet shooting even more so. Far more difficult than shooting jacketed bullets. Don't skimp on the preliminaries: Doing a chamber cast and slugging the bore will save you from wasting money on an ill-suited mold. ~Muir
gonzo
Well-Known Member
I didn't intend it to be read that Unique/Bullseye/N310 were interchangeable. Just that they were in the same rough are of the burn rate charts.
But best practice in working up loads when switching between these powders should be observed.
I personally have not seen any evidence of a 'detonation' as it has been described, using small charges of fast burning powder in large cartriages. But that is often cited as the concern, by those who make the policy of what is and is not permitted on ranges. (On your own land, it's your own best judgement.) As far as I can tell, such detonations are rare, and so evidence is scant. It may be more likely that having a tiny charge/large case gives more chance of an overcharge going un-noticed. And the cause is nothing more than that?
What I have seen, is inconsistent burns in such loads. So I use case fillers not to reduce empty space, but to hold the charge in a repeatable position against the flash hole.
But best practice in working up loads when switching between these powders should be observed.
I personally have not seen any evidence of a 'detonation' as it has been described, using small charges of fast burning powder in large cartriages. But that is often cited as the concern, by those who make the policy of what is and is not permitted on ranges. (On your own land, it's your own best judgement.) As far as I can tell, such detonations are rare, and so evidence is scant. It may be more likely that having a tiny charge/large case gives more chance of an overcharge going un-noticed. And the cause is nothing more than that?
What I have seen, is inconsistent burns in such loads. So I use case fillers not to reduce empty space, but to hold the charge in a repeatable position against the flash hole.
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