Home Forums Reloading Bullet Casting 30-06 cast bullet

Picked up a Rem. 770 bolt gun in 30-06 first of last year and loaded up some test loads for it awhile back. I was using mixed brass by Win. Rem. and Fed. along with CCI LR primers and I use three different powders Alliant 2400, H-4198 and Unique. The two bullets I used were the Lee 170 gr. FP and the Lee 160 gr. TL RN both powder coated, gas checked and sized to .311". Targets were shot at 50 yds. as that is as far as I can shoot around here in the backyard range without making a day trip to the public range. All load data came from the Lyman Cast Bullet manual #4, below are the groups but none were much larger than 1.5" and some under 1". We had some issues with the Chrono not reading probably due to overcast skies on some loads but I will be retesting those loads for data at some point as well as some additional powders I have and maybe even a primer change on a couple loads to see if that improves things. I haven't been behind the trigger since last Nov. after having surgery and weather not cooperating on my days off so I'm a bit rusty.



Cast up about 150 of the NOE 165 gr. 30 XCB bullets from the new mold I purchased over the 4th of July sales NOE had. I only had a limited time to work with them so I just coated about ten each using Super Durable Clear and Popping Silver Vein gas checked and sized them to see how they would turn out. I cast a random set of samples during the casting process and after they cooled I measure and weighed each set. The bullets across the sampling weighed between 167.0 and 167.3 grs. Two bullets from the mold using my micrometer measured .311" while the third bullet measured .311.5" The powder coating added around .002" to the diameter before sizing.





I sized these bullets to .309" and will do a test fit later in the week to see how well they chamber at that dia. if all goes well I'll load up a batch of test rds. to see how fast I can push this bullet, hopefully by the end of the day I will be at my target velocity of around 2500 fps. while still obtaining excellent accuracy.



I've found the load I plan on using 35.0 grs. of H-4198 and have loaded up enough to last me awhile. Average MV for 5 shots was 2279 fps.