My try at HV cast

Ian

Ian

Notorious member
31" is kind of unwieldy with a 10" can screwed on the end.:p Besides, the rifle was a gift with suppression in mind, and I'm enjoying it a lot. No custom barrel necessary. Oh, and it has nice, factory, suppressor-height iron sights right from the factory, so I put Leopold QD mounts and rings on it, to pull off that Weaver econo-glass if I want :cool:
 
fiver

fiver

Well-Known Member
I thought I was cheating with the 30" barrel on the AR-30.
it was nearly new with fewer than 40 rounds down the barrel, I only gave 800$ for it with the bi-pod and scope.
 
Will

Will

Well-Known Member
Did a pound cast today. Not sure I’m able to glean a whole lot of info out of it. I never could get the crimp groove to mash out of the bullet and I hit it pretty hard several times. I even put it back in the rifle and tried again and I had the same results.

One good thing is it gives a good reference point. It measure just under .310 right in front of that crimp groove. The bore measures just under .309. Case neck diameter is .346”C4D299F8-352E-4596-8E67-45DB983ABA76.jpeg
 
Ian

Ian

Notorious member
That neck is way oversized, even for a NATO chamber. Ideally you'd want about .335" there, but that would be for a custom chamber only.
 
Will

Will

Well-Known Member
So should I just order a neck bushing based off of bullet diameter+ brass thickness?

I’m gonna size .310 next time and see what that does. That should make a tight fit in the freebore section.

Those groups I shot yesterday were with non weighed bullets. I cast a bunch today and still need to weight sort them. Then I’ll probably heat treat this batch to hopefully get a more even hardness. Do you gas check before heat treating or does it really matter?
 
Ian

Ian

Notorious member
Will said:
So should I just order a neck bushing based off of bullet diameter+ brass thickness?
Click to expand...

Yeah, pretty much what you're stuck with. I realize this is what you were asking earlier, but the pound cast confirms your throat and bullet sizing size, so just figure your neck thickness x2, bullet diameter, and subtract about .003" to get your tension and account for springback. I'd personally get the size you think you need, and one up and one down from that.

With all that neck slop you might have better luck with .3095" bullets, but only the target can tell. I'd still try .310" first.
 
fiver

fiver

Well-Known Member
Box coming your way Will.
there is some ready to run .310 bullets in it, and some sticky [Simple lube V-2] lube.
I didn't know if you had a heater or not so I left out the chunk of batch number-3 I was going to send.

usually a pound slug is hard [ww type] alloy in the case and dead soft or close to it in the throat.
I should have included a couple of 1% antimony slugs I guess, but I didn't think about it until just now.
 
fiver

fiver

Well-Known Member
that would be somewhat helpful but IMO he needs to focus in on settling down his load as much as possible and just shooting it for a bit.
once it starts to show some trends like a primer does this, or a different size does that, then he has an absolute baseline load to judge things by.
right now he just has a good ladder test, it needs repeating and monitoring without a bunch of confusion.
 
V

VZerone

Active Member
Yeah fiver I was more or less just kidding Ian. Yes it does work and helps. He needs to shoot it a lot to wear the beginning of that throat so he can shoot a fatter bullet then a .310 diameter.
 
fiver

fiver

Well-Known Member
in most cases the thick brass like you mentioned is warranted.
heck it's sought after if someone knows what to do with it, and wants to put in the work.
straight is straight and is really the very first step in gaining accuracy, or at least in not ruining it.
 
Will

Will

Well-Known Member
The first thing I plan to do it is load up the exact same loads and see if I can duplicate my results. I have about 20 more bullets left from that casting.

I casted more today but I will have to give these 25-30 days after heat treating.
 
Will

Will

Well-Known Member
I don’t have a .312 sizer or I would. I have a .310 for the Lyman 4500 and a .309 lee push thru that I honed out a little.
 
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