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Bullet Casting & Coating MegaThread

Artie said:
Hit the range this morning to see what works well for my Norinco SKS and the Lee C312-155-2R using IMR-4198.
Seated Hi-Tek coated .3135 diameter / 157gr cast bullet to 2.156". Barrel slugged out to .312.
Loaded up 7 clips with 4 or 5 rounds, starting at 17gr of IMR-4198 up to 20gr in increments of .5gr.

The SKS is not a precision rifle, accuracy is purported to be ~3-4" or "can hit a man-sized target anywhere between 0 and 300 meters, somewhere from neck to nuts"

Tested at 50 yards, all rounds cycled perfectly and went bang. My best group was with 18.5gr.. Going to load up some more starting at 18.0 and work up to 20gr in smaller increments. Hate going through the primers. Others showed up to the range after i started, didn't have enough targets setup, couldn't mark the shots, and didn't want to keep asking to go cold, no target pics, they would have been ugly anyways. Supposed to rain tomorrow so hopefully i will be there by myself.

**ETA**
No leading in the rifle.

View attachment 599612View attachment 599613View attachment 599614
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Long story short, 20gr of IMR-4198 with this bullet got me the best group but steel cased Tula, Wolf and Red Army group better. I broke down the rifle and did get leading in the barrel and on grooves of piston, but not too bad. Cleaned with Chore Boy and Shooters Choice w/out issue. Unsure if i am going to chase this any further, good enough for paper punching but was hoping for more accuracy. May try to find some bulk plated bullets in ~ 123gr from Berry's or Hornady and give that a try. Hope @BFDX7 has better results when he gives his a try.
 
Artie said:
Hit the range this morning to see what works well for my Norinco SKS and the Lee C312-155-2R using IMR-4198.
Seated Hi-Tek coated .3135 diameter / 157gr cast bullet to 2.156". Barrel slugged out to .312.
Loaded up 7 clips with 4 or 5 rounds, starting at 17gr of IMR-4198 up to 20gr in increments of .5gr.

The SKS is not a precision rifle, accuracy is purported to be ~3-4" or "can hit a man-sized target anywhere between 0 and 300 meters, somewhere from neck to nuts"

Tested at 50 yards, all rounds cycled perfectly and went bang. My best group was with 18.5gr.. Going to load up some more starting at 18.0 and work up to 20gr in smaller increments. Hate going through the primers. Others showed up to the range after i started, didn't have enough targets setup, couldn't mark the shots, and didn't want to keep asking to go cold, no target pics, they would have been ugly anyways. Supposed to rain tomorrow so hopefully i will be there by myself.

**ETA**
No leading in the rifle.

View attachment 599612View attachment 599613View attachment 599614
Click to expand...
You should be able to find a nice cast load thats decently accurate especially over factory garbage . I was getting sub 3 moa when I ended my project
 
Jay77 said:
Out of curiosity any reason you went with the lube groove version over the groove less.?
Click to expand...
If I ever can’t get my hands on hi-tek or similar I can probably make lube with a number of household items. Just need a groove to put it in. Also the NLG version weighs about 5 grains more which I was trying to avoid. Anything I can do to keep the speed up and expansion consistent is a plus.
 
ffej ruedorb said:
I had the same issue. I went with accurate molds and had the mold in a 2-1/2 weeks. They have the best selection. The price is no bargain but not far offView attachment 682126View attachment 682126
Click to expand...
Sexy beasts!


I’m going to mess with some hollow points this weekend. The last batch of 9s were a little hard and didn’t hold together perfectly during expansion. Some petals stripped off.

So back to the drawing board!
 
Bullet shown beside a 147 HST for comparison.
Only 10” of penetration in bare gel but super consistent from shot to shot. I’m thinking if I slow this down a bit or maybe try the same alloy with the regular round hollow point it might slow down the expansion and get better penetration.

I have to compare the hollow point pins though because the round is very similar size. I’m guessing the round expands a little slower than the penta due to not having the sharp corners that turn into petals.

Oh and retained weight was virtually 100%.
I didn’t weight this alloy before shooting but the harder alloy was about 129 grains. This being softer I figured it’s a few grains heavier. The recovered mushrooms weight 129.5 average. Close enough.

018C5E0F-2E15-4B3F-B6D5-9C23456A75DB.jpeg
 
mac1911 said:
I started collect wheel weights for 2023 seminar , these are coming in less often. These are off my personal vehicle as Im putting new rims on as these have rotted so much they constantly leak at the bead , valve stem and one even leaks on a weld.
Fun stuffView attachment 702381
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Now those should be packaged separately. Not only are they lead weights but your persona lead weights. Can you autograph them? 😂
 
Michael J. Spangler said:
Have you ever seen a Calculator when you try to divide by zero?

That’s what my brain is doing right now. 😂😂

I think I have lead poisoning
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I can roll with that. I think I have ink poisoning. Or was deprived of oxygen in the womb.
Answer me this-
3 molds, roughly the same nose design, same grain weight.
Mold 1
Mold 2
Mold 3

Assume they all size out to .452.
For each design, we'll assume same case, primer and powder charge. Barrel type and length will be the same across all 3.

Using Hi-tek coating and not wax lube, what are the advantages or disadvantages of having or not having lube grooves, and does one lube groove style have an advantage over the other?
 
TrashcanDan said:
I can roll with that. I think I have ink poisoning. Or was deprived of oxygen in the womb.
Answer me this-
3 molds, roughly the same nose design, same grain weight.
Mold 1
Mold 2
Mold 3

Assume they all size out to .452.
For each design, we'll assume same case, primer and powder charge. Barrel type and length will be the same across all 3.

Using Hi-tek coating and not wax lube, what are the advantages or disadvantages of having or not having lube grooves, and does one lube groove style have an advantage over the other?
Click to expand...
Only advantage or dis advantage is more bearing surface. ?
 
TrashcanDan said:
I can roll with that. I think I have ink poisoning. Or was deprived of oxygen in the womb.
Answer me this-
3 molds, roughly the same nose design, same grain weight.
Mold 1
Mold 2
Mold 3

Assume they all size out to .452.
For each design, we'll assume same case, primer and powder charge. Barrel type and length will be the same across all 3.

Using Hi-tek coating and not wax lube, what are the advantages or disadvantages of having or not having lube grooves, and does one lube groove style have an advantage over the other?
Click to expand...
no lube groove bullets
More bearing surface
Better coating finish aesthetics. Sometimes a lube groove doesn’t get filled with coating and it looks funny.

Most manufacturers use the same profile which means lack of lube groove will weight about 5-10 grains more. You need to figure that into your plan.

If you run out of hi-tek you can’t use traditional lubes.

Traditional lube groove bullets
You can lube it with anything.
Possibly a lighter weight design vs the no lube groove (again depends on manufacturer)

Micro groove
Better for tumble lubing with Alox or 45-45-10
More forgiving on sizing. If they drop .454 you can probably just load and shoot them. The smaller driving brands conform easily to the bore. So basically you don’t need a sizer.
Can’t really lube as well in a traditional sizer.

All designs can be hi-tek coated just fine. A sizing die is a cheap investment.
So it’s more about which one drops at the right weight and if you’re like me and want to use traditional lube as a backup at some point.

My last 9 mould was purchased with a lube groove just encase coatings ever ran dry. Also it drops big enough where I can size it for 38/357 which I prefer traditional lube with.
 
Anyone have a bag of 7-1/2 shot? They'd be willing to part with?

And I dropped these last night after melting that 100lbs the other night.
 

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