My quest for speed and accuracy with powder-coated cast bullets

Ian

Notorious member
These military cases, fired in my rifle's chamber, hold 54.5 grains of water. The Remington brass I'd been using before holds 55.5 grains. Program default is 56.0. After adjusting the Quickload parameter it looks like I might have bumped just over 50K psi max and likely drove these on up to 2500 fps just by changing case volume. Primers are beginning to show a reduced radius, but nothing at all that concerns me. Probably still 15% under max. Very happy where I am right now with this, until this weekend anyway because I made plans to do some shooting out to 400 yards if it holds together at 200.
 

Spindrift

Well-Known Member
Fantastic results! Looks like end-stage load development to me, nothing more you can ask for, really. Just load, shoot and have fun! Very inspiring :)
 

fiver

Well-Known Member
12 tries and 6 months later.
you just have to be patient and try your best to read the signs.
then make a best guess at what your seeing and try it.
 

popper

Well-Known Member
I had to file the lips on pmags for the BO - doesn't take much to fix them. You have to look at the front edge of the mag too, it steers into the ramps. Rough rims will snag the one below and push it forward too. Then you get a nose bump.
Good shooting, wish I could do as well.
Got the magnetospeed, headed out with the 30/30 to test both.
 

Ian

Notorious member
Read the directions on setting the sensitivity for lead. There isn't really a definite "setting", you'll just have to make adjustments. Make notes once you get the sensitivity setting right. Mine keeps the sensitivity set even with the battery out and haven't looked at it in a couple of years so no idea what number to tell you. I think "custom" and "6" may be it, but not sure. Use the range rod to set the distance, very important to not have too much gap and sensor must be parallel to bore.
 

Ian

Notorious member
Well well. Got to shoot at 200 and 400 yards today with the LR-308 in-between wind gusts. Same basic loads as before, 35, 35.5, and 36 grains of RX7 with the powder-coated 30 Sil bullets from air-cooled wheelweights diluted with 10% soft lead and 1.5%tin added for 14 bhn aged.

The range:
8929

Groups at 200 yards, first one was three aiming at the top bull, then I aimed at the top of the paper and got the second group, then changed the top target for a different one with a 2" pastie for aiming and shot the lowest group.
8931

Being pretty dang happy with that, I set up a plate at 400 yards (it was already there and I didn't feel like packing it back to 300), estimated the drop and shot one low into the rocka at the bottom. After aiming a foot higher I put the next four into 11.5":

8932

Not quite as good as Waco's long range shooting, but I got an 18" semi-auto with a plastic receiver and a buttstock that is about as unfriendly as it gets for riding bags.
 

Brad

Benevolent Overlord and site owner
Staff member
Nice job Ian. Looks like those loads carry accuracy pretty well past 100. Maybe you need to make a road trip to Oregon and shoot at 1000 with Walter.
 

Ian

Notorious member
I figure 1.5 moa for five shots twice, with different powder charges, at 200 yards, is plenty good for what I need. Probably could have done better at 400 but the wind was a buggar and I was aiming at an imaginary point about 4' above the plate.
 

fiver

Well-Known Member
I think you have a higher node available.
usually that little bit of vertical goes away with more powder but you just changed to a horizontal.
there has to be more.
 

Ian

Notorious member
The rifle tends to start walking the groups left as it gets hot, and I'm still no great shakes at shooting the flimsy plastic receiver rifles from bags, so I wouldn't read too much into the groups just yet. Also, the wind was gusty from 2:00 and sometimes I miscalculated when there was actually a lull. I need to change the buttstock to a more bag-friendly design and put a lot more rounds downrange before I can start nitpicking the load, but for now it will certainly do.

With the limited data I got today, it appears that the 30 Sil HP has a BC of about 3.25. That means about 1825 fps impact velocity at 200 yards, so the 14 bhn alloy should be about right for that range.
 

Ian

Notorious member
Oh, and as to a higher node...not so sure. I used two different flavors of '08 brass: WCC (as usual) and PMJ. PMJ (first time I've ever used it) was loaded at 35.0 grains and was showing the beginnings of flow into the ejector hole and some impressive swipes on the case heads. The WCC did fine at 35.5 and 36.0 as usual but is getting some shiny swipes at 36.0. After 5 firings I can barely read the headstamps anymore.
 

fiver

Well-Known Member
I forgot you just put this together.
I been watching the guns tendencies a bit, and your right it really doesn't have a track record to judge from yet, but it is starting to show some.

I think for what your planning to do with the gun you are in good shape and as long as your within your 200yd distance you have nothing to worry about.
 

fiver

Well-Known Member
with the rl-7 you are for sure close to pressure.
you'd have to keep going slower and slower at the same pressure to find out.
for the can thing I'm not so sure I'd want to go further, except to maybe try 3031 or even jump all the way back to like 335/cfe-223 just to see.
 

Ian

Notorious member
Upper is a complete PSA unit with the lightweight barrel profile that takes a .750" gas block and is smaller than that between the midlength journal and chamber. Add a 17 ounce can on the end and harmonics becomes a guess.

According to Quickload, there's nothing I can use that's any slower at all without making a big jump in muzzle pressure at a lot lower velocity. With only 18" of barrel and a titanium form 1 suppressor, muzzle pressure is a huge concern for me. I shot some 160-grain Lee bullets with 4320 (my M1A load) through this rifle at first and it was a little scary how loud it was and how fast the can got smoking hot. 2000 psi more muzzle pressure and about 320 fps slower, too. I'm good with RX7 in this rifle! Working within the limitations of weight, length, and muzzle pressure that I've imposed on myself doesn't leave much room for experimentation.
 
Last edited:

Pistolero

Well-Known Member
Sounds like the PMJ (??) is too soft for this load.

Really good results. How many times do you actually expect to be able to see a pig
at anywhere near that range, anyway?

Bill
 

Ian

Notorious member
Definitely good enough for now. Steel isn't just fun, it's a necessity at 400 yards with mirage and only a 40X spotting scope. Can't see bullet holes that far off. Velocity predictions around 400 yards are dismal, 1300-something fps, so not a realistic killing distance. 300 yards will probably be about maximum effective range for this rig.

The first of the last three pigs I killed was at 174 steps from a standing-height shooting stick, so 200 yards is very much an expected engagement distance on ranches such as these. The property I occasionally get to hunt down in the coastal plains offers some shots exceeding 800 yards, with many being 1-200 yards in the semi-cleared creek bottoms. Stalking around with a .458 Socom is great....but there are a lot of shots that just can't be made without a good bit of stalking. Stalking is great fun, especially sice piggies have such a good sense of smell, but sometimes it's nice to just snipe them from where you see them and get more shot opportunities at longer range.