Home Forums Reloading Bullet Casting 30'06 cast bullet recommendation

Arsenal molds

This is a tumble lube/ micro band design. From the successful and accurate "Ranch Dog" design . you can specify the diameter you want for no extra charge. Available in gas check or plain base cavities, or a combination mold of each. Excellent quality, and very high value.

http://arsenalmolds.com/products?product_id=107&limit=100


Also remember, that you can use a "regular lube groove" cast bullet mold, and lube it without an expensive lubrisizer. Pan lube them. Melt bullet lube in a flat bottom pan, and place the batch of cast bullets- base down, standing up- in the melted lube. you need just enough melted lube to cover the lube grooves, not the entire bullet.

Let the lube cool. Use a fired case of a matching neck diameter as the cast bullet. Hacksaw off the rim. Slip the neck of the case over the lubed bullet, like a cookie cutter. Then do the same to the next bullet, and repeat. The 3rd bullet you cut out of the lube will push the earlier bullet up through the case. You can remove the top bullet with you fingers from the open-ended case that you cut off. Repeat cutting out the bullet lube ( and removing the pushed through bullet until done. Easy peasy and low cost.

Seating gas checks can be tricky without proper equipment. Lee Precision makes a push through sized that can be used on a reloading press. Just minimize sizing the bullet down. May have to hone out the inside to get the desired diameter. You can seat a gas check with the Lee push through sized die.


The bullet will be lubed, but not sized. Don't really need to size a bullet anyway, if the as-cast diameter fits in the throat of the chamber ; and will shoot more accurately than a smaller sized down diameter.

So far I've had good success with Lee 309-170. They fall from the mold at .309". I quench harden while casting. Seat gas checks and lube with an old lyman 450 with my homemade beeswax lube formula. I'll bet they were going 2600fps from a 26" barrel and 37grs of surplus 4895.

Shot several 1-1/2 groups at 100yds. Finished boolits weigh 180gr with lube and gaschecks

Forgot to mention these were loaded in a 308 win. The most fun I had was when loaded with 34grs of 4895 and fired in a semiautomatic. They're just powerful enough to cycle the action with greatly reduced noise and muzzle blast.

2600fps, 180 cast bullet over 37 grains 4895??

Yepper. I'll pull out the chronograph if you prefer some official results. The 26" barrel on a schultz and Larson action is most of the reason for higher speeds. Not to mention the beeswax lube and softer boolit metal. Gas chekt boolits will always out run their copper jacketed brethren because of less friction.

Ordered a few molds just yesterday. All out of stock so it may be a while.

Really just want a comment in so I can stay up on the thread, carry on.

Yes, please do. I'll remain skeptical until I see proof.

Oh, and it's spelled "bullet".

Looks like we'll be testing two things. #1. My homemade 309-170 Lee Gaschekt bullets loaded with 37.0grs of 4895, and #2 my ability to estimate velocity. This should be interesting, but first I need to do some loading. I only had 5 rds for experiment the first time around

Now just so you know. I'm always up for a good challenge, but currently it's 2 degrees outside with a couple feet of snow on the ground. I do my testing at a 100 yd range in SW Wisconsin

Ok, so I have an admission, a confession, and a flimsy excuse for the reason why. #1. the 309-170 clocked 2307 fps over 37grs of imr 4895 #2 my estimated velocity was only 300 fps short - but hey, ammo manufacturers do this all the time #3 my flimsy excuse is that it was cold. 22degrees F at the range when testing, so expect lower speeds with a temp sensitive powder such as imr 4895. But..im actually very glad you put me up to this because I wasn't necessarily planning on conducting this test

this is a 6-shot group. If I would have stopped with 5 I wouldn't have sent the last one high. Had a nice cluster going with 4 of them..

What's especially cool with these is the squeaky clean barrel that still shines after each shot. I shot this tiny little 100 yd group with these cast bullets and didn't need to clean it from the last time. I do prefer to have a clean barrel for proper accuracy testing

I like the 311284 with IMR 3031, not top speed but very accurate for me.



160yd shot

Awesome shot! What's your powder charge and velocity if known?

31gr of IMR3031 and about 1900 fps.

through front leg bone
through this..



out other side.

Excellent! 311284 (and the "other guys" clones) is an all time great .30 bullet. I was gifted a 311284 single cavity Ideal mold 45 years ago and God only knows how many bullets have been cast from it. Back when I used a Krag for my "daily bread" it was my go-to bullet. It doesn't get much use nowadays - for no good reason other than it's a single cavity mold - that pic inspires me to correct that (and fire up the Krags some more)!