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Are these really lubed? confused

Got a box of 100 260 gr. LFNGC from Midway as a start of developing some cast loads for a new to me .38-55 Winchester High Wall. Midway's blurb says,"The special lube process used by Cast Performance produces a clear, dry lube, which is barely noticeable on the bullets.", and they aren't kidding. I can't see any lube to speak of in the grooves at all, the bullets just have a faintly slippery feel to them, unlike raw lead.

Going to try some as they come at .378" in this High Wall's .3751" bore, they should be fine, but I might also try to squeeze a few down to .377 and at the same time fill the grooves with some LBT Blue. It ain't cast shooting unless there's smoke... wink


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Dunno.

Tried one box when they had blue crap in the lube grooves; melted most of the box because the bullets had wrinkles, voids and they leaded like mad....they obviously shot like crap too.

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Won't be long and you'll be casting your own. laugh

4th from the right is my version, Mos mould does 300 grains w/30:1 alloy.

[Linked Image]

This is the best I've done with BP at 100 yards. Offhand.

[Linked Image]

Last edited by DigitalDan; 02/24/18.

I am..........disturbed.

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I bought cast bullets for a short time. Then I bought a cheap Lee mould, an old pan, and a ladle. It was far easier to cast good bullets than I'd suspected. Some years, a couple dozen moulds, and a couple bottom-pour pots later, I dislike paying for bullets if I can pour my own. Playing with alloys and treatments gives me whatever performance I desire. Powder coating has made loading cast for some problem "children" quite enjoyable. Now casting is just another part of the fun.


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Yeah, it hurt to buy store bought when I've been casting since 1976. But this .38-55 needs some figuring out. Groove diameters traditionally have been all over the place, from .377" up to .380" or even more whereas this High Wall is .375" on the money (.3751" to be exact). Standard Lee, RCBS or Lyman molds for the .38-55 tend to throw bullets in the .378-.380" range. Those will certainly work in a .375" bore but IME about .001" over groove diameter is where you want to be in a rifle. With a good fit to the bore and #2 alloy I'm thinking 1600-1700 fps or more is doable with plain base bullets without leading. However, trying to size down 15 BHN bullets .002 or more from as cast diameter gets to be detrimental.

Plus load data is not as readily available as for something like a .30-06, so I needed to run some powder increments over a chronograph to get an idea of where my velocities will be. Wanted to try some Missouri plain base bullets but the on-line retailers are all out of 100 packs. Guess I'll bite the bullet (no pun intended) and order some straight from the source sized to .376". Have to get a minimum of 250 for custom sizing, though.

Once I get an idea of how fast a plain base can go I can order an Accurate mold in a suitable design to throw bullets right at .376 or .377 with my #2 alloy, then start cranking out some good steel ringing loads.

Anyway, this first batch of 100 is just to get something to go bang as a first step. This whole project is "interesting" which means fun in my book, in that it's not just take it out of the box and go shooting, but instead have to play with a bit to get things all optimized.


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Originally Posted by DigitalDan
...This is the best I've done with BP at 100 yards. Offhand.

[Linked Image]

That's good shooting! wink


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Size to fit snug in the throat.

Size nose first if you need to reduce the diameter.

I use a .417 mould for the Rigby that gets reduced to .412 for the 400 Whelen. It actually shoots a bit better since it fits the throat proper.Sizing wont hurt a bit so long as its concentric.

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Originally Posted by Jim in Idaho
"The special lube process used by Cast Performance produces a clear, dry lube, which is barely noticeable on the bullets.", and they aren't kidding. I can't see any lube to speak of in the grooves at all, the bullets just have a faintly slippery feel to them, unlike raw lead.

Going to try some as they come at .378" in this High Wall's .3751" bore, they should be fine, but I might also try to squeeze a few down to .377 and at the same time fill the grooves with some LBT Blue. It ain't cast shooting unless there's smoke..

Standard Lee, RCBS or Lyman molds for the .38-55 tend to throw bullets in the .378-.380" range. Those will certainly work in a .375" bore but IME about .001" over groove diameter is where you want to be in a rifle. With a good fit to the bore and #2 alloy I'm thinking 1600-1700 fps or more is doable with plain base bullets without leading. However, trying to size down 15 BHN bullets .002 or more from as cast diameter gets to be detrimental.

Guess I'll bite the bullet (no pun intended) and order some straight from the source sized to .376". Have to get a minimum of 250 for custom sizing, though.

Once I get an idea of how fast a plain base can go I can order an Accurate mold in a suitable design to throw bullets right at .376 or .377 with my #2 alloy, then start cranking out some good steel ringing loads.

Hawk is steering you in the right direction.

If my bore was .375, I would want to run a bullet diameter around .378 at least for good results and larger might be better. I don't agree with the .001 over bore crowd, especially with larger bores.

Sizing a bullet down .002 is absolutely no problem in the Lee push through kit, but I would recommend to try just loading and shooting those as is. The lube they use is a clear coating and should be fine. It should be tough enough that the lead will never actually touch the rifling if the batch is cured properly.

Trying to run them too small is where you will run into problems with leading.


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Finally got out to shoot yesterday and agree with your opinion on the Cast Performance Bullets. They didn't shoot worth a hoot. Was just shooting three shot groups to get chrono data, even then best group was a triangle about 3" across, got several "groups" with two about 3-4" apart and the third maybe 5-7" away from the other two. Weighed some when I got home and there's a bit over 4 grains difference between the lightest and heaviest in a sample of only eight. At least with the gas checks they didn't lead up to around 1790 fps.

The good news is that it definitely wasn't the rifle. I had some Sierra 200 JFP loads and they were putting three shots together nicely. By the time I got to them I was shooting in a snowstorm but of the 4 groups fired the worst was under 1.5" and the best went into .302" with velocities from 1800 up a bit over 2000 fps. Recoil was still gentle at top end, noticeably less than a typical .30-30 with 170 grainers.


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Hit the target, all else is twaddle!

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