Heavy Cast Bullets

[Von Gruff]

I will do a tutorial later in the day as the previous one I did, that I could have linked here, has all the pics gone through the photobucket outrage so I will do it again.

[Von Gruff]

This is how I get the soft nosed cast bullet that will shoot accurately at over 2400fps.

First off I cast up a bunch of 50/50 ww/Pb 160gn bullets and use a simple guide to cut the noses to a length that will give me a 60 grain nose. I started out using a hacksaw but ended up using a different measuring system and used small bolt cutters as it was much quicker and did not eave the jaged edge that the hacksaw did althouth the ones in this tutorial were all done with the hacksaw method and needed a little cleanup before the next step. My plinking load used the 50/50 bullet so casting a quantity was always part of the process.

[Von Gruff]

When I want to cast the hunting soft nose I will put a pt of lino on and get it and the mould up to heat and using a pair of fine needle nosed pliers I will (carefull of the heat) put a nose into each cavity


Then the mould with the nose in it is put into the hot lino pot for 30 seconds which will pre-heat the nose to just short of melt temp and the lino is poured in till the cavities are filled. It takes a few seconds longer for the sprue to set but when it has the mould is put back into the pot till I see the first sign of silvering which indicates that melt is about to happen on the surface so it has taken place down in the mould where the two alloys meet.

[Von Gruff]

Because the two alloys have both got to melt temp the join is as harmonious as if they were one alloy but because of the heat used for the mould needed to get this to happen, it take time for the sprue to coo before turning the finished bullets out of the mould.
I have a wet hand towl on the chair behind me (anything wet away from the alloy) and place the base of the mould on it to help speed up the cooling. I have a jug of water handy and will re-wet the towl between castings as it will steam off much of what is ther from the heat of the mould. When the sprue is greying up to indicate start of set-up I wil turn the bullet out and because the extra cooling is from the bottom I know the bullet is solid in the mould.


Normal sizing, gaschecking and lube is then done and then I will load the bullet in properly prepared cases and then dip the nose of the bullet up to the transtion between the nose and first drive band in a diluted mix of LLA and turps and hang them to dry in a rack I made that is simply a series of holes that will alow the cartridge to slip in up to about half the shoulder dia. After about 15-20 minutes any surplus of the nose lube has madea drip on the meplat so with a dab on a paper towel it is removed and the cartridge can be sat right way up in a cartridge box ready for a hunting trip. It takes a little more time to make these but a short casting session can have enough for a few years hunting even when getting onto mobs of goats that see 15+ shot in one go.
You can see the slightly darker coour of the LLA on the nose of the loaded bulets


This was the first animals taken with these bulets so I left the scope on but in all subsequent outings I hunted with the aperture sights and still killed to near 200 yds. These couple were taken in a big set of bluffs so I ony carried out the legs but usually I will carry out the whole animal

[Von Gruff]

This was the result of another outing where the soft nosed cast bullet acounted for some of our winter meat so I became very confident using cast bullets on game athough for other of my rifles I cast a different type of bullet where I had moulds made with a larger meplat % and have gone to a different alloy that has toughness to withstand velocity but is ductile enough to exand during meat encounters.



even the Grendel-Max has acounted for goats out to over 150 yds with one of my alloys (47-33-20 ww-B-lino) with a bhn in the 12 range that will easily take 1900fps with a al GC even though the bullet is only going at about 1650fps being a plinking load.

[Smoke]

That's one pretty rifle and some good shooting
Many many thanks for the detailed write-up and pics.
Going to have to try that technique this winter

[Von Gruff]

Thanks Smoke. It is a 1908 DWM action that I used to build a Rigby styled 7x57 that gave me not just the 2400fps with the cast bullet but 2700fps with the Woodleigh 160gn PP bullet and 3225 for the 120gn GS Custom bullet. I have since sold it on and built the 6.5x57 on the 1916 Erfurt SR action.