propmahn

looking for a bullet to start casting for my 1917 30-06. open to all suggestions (except " dont use cast bullets" , this is hobby of mine so please dont call me dumb). i dont have a lubrisizer so i can pan lube or liquid alox. im a college student so i have more time than money. please include loads and alloy used thanks. and if i need a filler or not.
thanks

LARRY338

Propmahn, I have an old Lyman mold that works best in my 03A3, but there are several bullets available that are real similar. Mine is a 311291A Its a roundnose with the front half a bore rider, with two grease grooves and three wide driving bands. Gas check. I' m sure the tumble lube would work fine with it. My load is out of Ken Waters manual and Ive seen it shoot good in every 3006 Ive shot it in. Its 15 gr of 4227. I use a piece of dacron batting about 3/4" square as a filler. As you know there is some debate over fillers causing ringed chambers, but Ive shot thousands of rounds without ringing one yet. If you can seat the bullet to the base of the neck I dont think you can ring one. Ive tried this load without the filler and it shoots ok, but tighter with the filler. The metal I use is 2 parts wheel weights, 1 part scrap lead, 1 part linotype, and .1 part tin. I just happen to have a whole bunch of this metal that I mixed up years ago, but you can get wheel weights to shoot just as good by quenching them. The bullets should be dropped out of the mold into a bucket of cold water to harden this way. Needless to say, be very careful about doing this as water and molten metal dont mix. The bullets come out of my mold at about .310 diameter with this metal. And I have found that they shoot better at .310 than either .309 or .308. Maybe you will get good results in your enfield as they come from the mold. Most 30 caliber molds will throw bullets around .310 anyway using wheel weights or something harder. What kind of metal do you plan on using? You will be more likely to get an oversize bullet to shoot straight than one bore size anyway. RCBS makes a mold that works good too, but I dont know the number. The bullet is 180 gr and the nose part looks like a icbm missle. You will know what Im talking about it you look at some pictures of their molds. The main thing about these bore riding bullets is that your bore needs to be small enough to where the tops of the lands supports the nose of the bullet. You can check that by sticking a bullet in your muzzle. If it will go in then the bullet is too small. You will need to lap the nose portion of the mold. Are you a member of the cast bullet association? I didnt mean to write a book here, but cast bullet shooting is something I like to do. It will allow you to shoot your highpowers many more times than if you only used jacketed bullets. Accuracy in the range of 1 moa is not hard to get either. Good luck. The Lyman cast bullet handbook is a good reference if you dont already have it.

eldeguello

The 311291 is a good bullet in the ' 06, as is the .31141 which is just a flatnose version of the .311291. I have had good results with Lyman flatnose or round-nose bullets in .30-caliber cartridges in weights of 150 grains on up. However, I have never had much luck with spitzers, although some people say they have been able to get good accuracy from pointed ones!! With the right alloy hardness and lube, velocities over 2500 FPS can be attained with good accuracy and no leading from cast bullets! It is more of a challenge to begin with, but also more of an achievement than when just using plain ol' jacketed projectiles!!

Briman

I' ve heard that 2 groove ' o3 springfield barrels really like cast bullets and I just happen to have a fresh 2 groove on my springfield[8D] Is there a certain bullet that works best with this rifle or are the bullets mentioned in above posts good for all around 30 cal shoting?

BTW: where do you get linotype and tin from? I can figureout where to get wheel weights from but haveno idea what linotype is...

LARRY338

The two groove barrels will shoot good with groove diameter or slightly larger bullets. The one' s Ive shot were about as accurate as the four groove barrels. You should slug the bore and mic the slug to find the groove diameter. Linotype is an alloy of about 2% tin, 12 % antimony, and 86% lead, or something real close to that. I found 1500 lbs of it in the basement of a print shop here in town about twenty years ago, but you will be hard pressed to find any type metal these days. Try Bill Ferguson www.theantimonyman.com in Arizona. Or you might locate the metals from a base metals dealer near you and alloy them yourself. To make the alloy you will need something that will generate alot of heat. If memory serves, antimony and lead will alloy at about 1500 F. Quenched wheel weights will be as hard as Lyman #2 alloy though. Thats much easier to find. I think Ferguson can answer your metals questions, and the cast bullet association has a good magazine with how to articles on every cast bullet subject imaginable. The NRA used to sell a book by C.E. Harris, cant remember the name of it right now, and the Lyman cast bullet handbook are good sources of information.