Page 47 of 56

Re: What Rifle Reloading Did You Do Today?

Posted: 09 Aug 2019 04:38
by Ranch Dog
GasGuzzler wrote:I've never been concerned with a cannelure since I load for OAL regardless. Most times it ends up where the bullet maker wants, sometimes not.
I will trim a case to match the cannelure. Just did it with the 35 Rem for my Rem 600 with the 200-grain SP InterLock. Hornady does the same with all their levergun ammo. Heck, they don't even make SAAMI length brass for some of their levergun cartridges, they want you to use their FTX bullets.

Re: What Rifle Reloading Did You Do Today?

Posted: 09 Aug 2019 07:05
by Macd
The subject of crimping has probably been discussed in the forums, in articles and books as much as almost any other handloading issue. I crimp all lever rifles and revolvers with the correct type of crimp if they have a groove or cannelure or with a collet if they don' t. After that it depends on application. Plinking ammo and bolt action for the range doesn't usually get crimped unless it is to remove the mouth flare if there is one. My 9mm for my M&P9 gets a light crimp as it goes loose in an ammo box and gets banged around a bit. Hunting rounds get crimped as they tend to get loaded and unload repeated times and occasionally there is the inadvertent one that gets dropped.

Re: What Rifle Reloading Did You Do Today?

Posted: 10 Aug 2019 02:52
by GasGuzzler
Without reading the topic title well my response was more a straight wall pistol comment.

Re: What Rifle Reloading Did You Do Today?

Posted: 11 Aug 2019 15:06
by Ohio3Wheels
A short 38-55 ladder with my new bullet, Lee 379250 and H4198. Now to see if I can squeeze a range session out of this week.

Make smoke,

Re: What Rifle Reloading Did You Do Today?

Posted: 16 Aug 2019 06:08
by reloader762
RBHarter wrote:Far be it for me .

I tried to learn all I can and and for all I've learned I'm still dumb as a mud fence when it comes to the physics of all of this ......the mechanics I'm good on but the physics.......

I've been very surprised and pleased as well as incredibly frustrated by cast so many times ...... That fast twisted 06' just gave me fits until I figured out I couldn't get there from here . I went heavy and never looked back . At the same time the 308 won't shoot anything over 175 gr regardless of shape or type .

Then there's this 30-30 that outside of a 230 NOE , that was just an experiment to see if it would , won't shoot a bad load .

Of course you know about fit over form as well and that's a big part except when it isn't .
RB, back in the day when I first started reloading and casting I was on my own, nobody that I knew of around me here in rural NC reloaded or cast their own bullets. All I had to go on was a Lyman and Lee reloading manual and after doing lots of reading and research going with my own gut feeling as to what would work in my particular gun an more times than not it's worked out pretty well.

Thats not to say that I don't have the occasional failure to get a particular cast bullet to shoot well in a particular gun but it's not the fault of the bullet or the gun they just don't fit well together. 9 mm gave me the most fits when I started casting for them, different throats/leads and bore groove dia. so I solved that issues by just buying a 38 cal. TC mold http://noebulletmolds.com/NV/product_in ... qqeusp7gk4 that dropped .359" dia. bullets and sizing them to fit individual pistols, I bought the one that cast two plain base and two gas check bullets as I can shoot the gas check bullet in my 357 Mag. loads with softer alloy than I would normally use for plain base bullets.

I've had a couple in rifles as well, my biggest disappointment was with my Ranch Dog .311" 170 gr. FN clone mold, the ogive was just too large to chamber in my Sav. 170 pump gun but it does fine in my buddies Marlin and Winchester 30-30, so let's try it in my newly acquired 30-06, nope want chamber in it either. Well as a last resort lets give it a try in the old Sav. 99 in 300 Sav. it eats everything so I made up a dummy rd. and slowly closed the lever and it dropped right in like it was made for it, shoots great to so now I have a nice plain base or gas check hunting bullet for the 300 Sav. that shoots great. I still have to work up some higher velocity loads for that bullet but that want be a problem.
Image

I don't seem to have much of a problem getting a good load or loads worked up using cast lead in any of my rifles or handguns although I do get thrown the occasion curve ball once in a while but I do know enough about cause an affect to figure out how to fi

Re: What Rifle Reloading Did You Do Today?

Posted: 16 Aug 2019 10:30
by Kaiser
I reloaded and shot my 444P this week with the intention of using it for deer season this Fall. My 46.0/H4198 under a 265gr Hornady slug shot as expected, about 1 1/8" at 100 yard, but my 290gr BTB cast would not work through the magazine port. After my session, I went back to my "bench" and checked my COAL length and found my length was 2.570. I've re- seated those cast bullets to 2.550 to feed with a powder charge of 50.0gr of RL7 (always worked well previously clocking over 2200+fps).
I've not had as good of luck with the RD 300gr cast in my "short throated" 444P. Can anyone suggest a load, OAL, and seating technique for the 300grRD that works (I do realize every gun is differnet)? My "go to 300gr jacketed load is 42.5gr of H4198, which is a "max" load by the book. (I understand that Speer has discontinued this particular bullet, so I'll probably go to Hornady's when I run out.)

Re: What Rifle Reloading Did You Do Today?

Posted: 17 Aug 2019 04:54
by Ranch Dog
Kaiser wrote:(I do realize every gun is differnet)?
I wanted to start with this part first of your post as it is very important. The best place to start with any cast bullet, possibly any bullet, is to see how it fits your rifle. I drop a bullet in the chamber so that I can measure what maximum cartridge overall length is, the point that the bullet's ogive meets the chamber's throat.

Make a "dummy cartridge" that represents the maximum COAL for your rifle:
  • Start with an empty chamber with the bolt closed.
  • I insert a cleaning rod or wooden dowel down the barrel and mark the rod with pen or pencil at the muzzle.
  • Open up or remove the bolt and drop the bullet into the chamber. Seat the bullet with a dowel. If the bolt cannot be removed, a pump or semi-auto, use an appropriate length allen wrench to seat the bullet.
  • Reinsert the rod/dowel and mark the rod at the muzzle.
The distance between the two marks is the Maximum Cartridge Overall Length possible. With a cast bullet, my experience is that the closer the ogive is to throat contact, the better. I start about .005" shorter than max. Almost all bullets or reloading press setups have a small amount of overall length deviation; the total length should be adjusted shorter by the standard deviation you are experiencing with your press.

That's where I start. If the COAL is long for the crimp groove, I trim the brass to match a point on the Micro-Bands which is the beauty of this type of cast bullet.

Image

If the target COAL is such that the case mouth is ahead of the crimp groove, I trim the brass back to match the crimp groove.
Kaiser wrote:I've not had as good of luck with the RD 300gr cast in my "short throated" 444P. Can anyone suggest a load, OAL, and seating technique for the 300grRD that works
Here is mine, notice the brass is trimmed back to 2.212 from the SAAMI max of 2.225. The load would need to be recalculated with any shorter lengths. I can help you with that. H335 rules the short barrel P and G (45-70).

Image

Re: What Rifle Reloading Did You Do Today?

Posted: 17 Aug 2019 10:15
by Macd
Good explanation Micheal. I would add that when using reduced charges typical of cast loads there is nothing wrong with having the final seating done by the bolt closing.as long as it doesn't jam so tight the bullet gets pulled if you unload the cartridge. This engraves the bullet and aligns it with the bore for a nice clean start. I also believe it adds a slightly higher and.. more consistent start pressure.as indicated by reduced SD over thr chrono. THIS IS NOT RECOMMENDED FOR NORMAL PRESSURE LOADS, PLATED OR JACKETED BULLETS. My experience is this often gives the best accuracy. Of course this assumes no crimp. For normal and non-cast loads I use a comparator (Hornady) and start at .015 to .020 off.

Re: What Rifle Reloading Did You Do Today?

Posted: 18 Aug 2019 17:13
by Kaiser
RD- thank you for the explanation regarding the 300gr load method. I will have to try H335, also.
Macd - I will try your method of loading "reduced" cast loads; for I have gotten in the habit of using the Lee factory crimp die on all 444 loading cases and most straight walled cases it never occurred to me to skip the crimp. Thanks.

Re: What Rifle Reloading Did You Do Today?

Posted: 19 Aug 2019 04:57
by RBHarter
762 ,
The 06' in question had a 1-8.5 twist .
I had a 308 with a 1-12 that refused to shoot anything over 175 gr no matter the shape or type .

I eventually get around to one load or another in everything , most will run some sort of a standard . I did get a load dialed in for the 06' with a 200 gr custom spitzer shaped bullet that I could consistently put on a dessert plate out to nearly 300 yd every trip .

My goal in every gun is to have a clean margin of error hunting load . In some cases that's pretty easy to max out the load like 9mm , 40 , 45s , 30-30 , 32 Rem/Special , 222 ......others not so much , like an 8×39 SKS .