Cast deer loads for the 91/30 Mosin Rifle.

[Badger]

I have a 91/30 7.62x54R MM Rifle that was given to me by a neighbor when I was attending college in Texas in the late 1960s. It was a Korean War trophy that was made in 1942. The bore is dark with strong rifling and will not shoot jacketed .308 bullets accurately.

I got around to load testing cast bullets and found my Lyman #311467, 175 grain gas checked bullets sized .311 ahead of a load of IMR 4198 will group into 1.5 inches at 100 yards with the rear sight set at "400." I now have, another, woods rifle for rainy days here in PA. The other rainy day rifle is an 8x57MM with the Lyman #323471, a 215 grain gas checked bullet, and IMR 4198.

Badger

[vashper]

I Lyman #311467, 175 grain gas checked bullets sized .311 ahead of a load of IMR 4198 will group into 1.5 inches at 100 yards with the rear sight set at "400."

And how much powder?

[Badger]

vashper,

I use 20 grains of IMR4198 and a CCI Large Rifle primer.

Badger

[dave-t.]

Badger, a couple questions.

Are there different cleaning techniques for shooting cast bullets?

Are pressures high enough to fire-form cases?

What is the advantage of cast over cup and core bullets? Is it just price, or do cup and core bullets not perform at those velocities?


Thanks.

[Badger]

dave-t,

I use cast bullets as well as jacketed cup and core bullets in most of my rifles. I clean the bores the same way for both types of bullets. I use a good bore cleaner and bronze bristle brushes to scrub the bores. I often use cast bullets to fireform cases because the pressures are generally high enough to do a good job.

The advantages of cast bullets are many: One can size a bullets for an oversized bore. Cast bullets are plenty accurate enough for target shooting out to 200 yards, cost way less than cup & core bullets, give less recoil due to velocities in the 1500-2000 fps range and can be used for varmits and deer successfully.

I suggest you buy and read the Lyman Cast Bullet Handbook for all the interesting details and much excellent loading data.

Badger

[rimrock]

"What is the advantage of cast over cup and core bullets? Is it just price, or do cup and core bullets not perform at those velocities?"

jacketed bullets generally are designed for the velocity range of the most popular cartridges in any caliber, thats why so many 308 caliber bullets ate designed for the 308 win and 30/06 velocity ranges
if you are shooting a lower than the designed velocity range performance can be spotty at times, while cast loads can easily be custom taylored with alloy changes


Ive done VERY little bullet casting or shooting with calibers under .357,simply because the results I got were less than ideal (probably my fault) when I tied to cast & load 22 and 25 caliber bullets, and the vast majority of my experience, has been in the .430,(44 mag and 444 marlin).459,calibers(45/70.govt,450 marlin,458 win, 458 lott)were Ive had great results.
But at least in those calibers a well made hard cast bullet can very easily be pushed to almost the same velocities as the heavier jacketed bullets in those calibers and you can usually get excellent accuracy and a great deal of very cheap reloading if you take the effort to find out what loads work best in your rifle.
Ive found no real problems with accuracy or performance , when using the heavier hard cast bullets on game or at the range

[dave-t.]

Thanks guys.

Can you take a typical deer rifle, like my 257R, and load it down to double as a .22mag? I see loads going 1400-2000fps, and think that would be a substantial reduction in noise, and give my backstop a rest to boot. Can I use a jacketed bullet and load it down to those velocities also?

[vashper]

Thanks guys.

Can I use a jacketed bullet and load it down to those velocities also?

What's the problem? You may simply pour out some powder, as poachers do.
But of course better to find recommended weights. In "Loadbooks USA "308Win" Reloading Manual" there are a lot of them - I think there is something for your caliber too, up to subsonic, which is really effective in reducing in noise.

[Badger]

dave-t,

Several of the most recent reloading mnuals have reduced powder charges for jacketed bullets. I recall Speer lists many such loads.

Badger

[Badger]

dave-t,

I just looked in the 12th Edition Speer Manual and it lists a .257 Reduced Load for a 100 grain jacketed bullet using 15 to 17 grains of SR4759. Hope this helps.

Badger

[vashper]

Example for 308
http://talks.guns.ru/forums/icons/forum_pictures/002737/thm/2737183.jpghttp://talks.guns.ru/forums/icons/forum_pictures/002737/thm/2737183.jpg

[vashper]

http://www.surplusrifle.com/shooting/castfiller/index.asp

[dave-t.]

Thanks fella's, that is the type of info I was looking for. I'm wanting to do some high volumme shooting with my deer rifles, but see no need to shoot full house loads for punching paper. 1500-1800fps or slower would be ideal.

[vashper]

http://talks.guns.ru/forums/icons/forum_pictures/002807/2807492.jpg

[dave-t.]

Thanks Vashper. Now I need to track down some SR4759.

[T2133]

This might help some:

http://tinyurl.com/2c2qcxw