Home Forums Reloading Bullet Casting PB or GC?

I'm reviving an old technique for shooting plain base rifle bullets. Wax wads. My first trial consists of A.O.Niedner's formula: 2 parts beeswax/2 parts Japan Wax/1 part colloidal graphite - as published in Phil Sharpe's handloading book, and measured out in ounces (2,2,&1). Initial mix didn't turn out too good, it was rather hard and flaky. I re-melted everything and added another 1/2oz. Japan Wax plus one teaspoon of castor oil. Bingo, it pours nicely onto wax paper and flows out to about a heavy 1/16" thick puddle. Cools/hardens quickly. Cut into 3"x3" squares and squirrel away with wax paper between them.

The plan is to use them in .32-40 breech seating. There's no risk of leading in the way I'm currently doing it (14 grains 4227, 1:20 alloy 185gr. bullet) but I'm always scouting for a little more of an edge in accuracy. Last season I hit upon using dental wax wads (available in sheet form, on eBay) in the mouths of these cartridges and I saw a distinct increase in accuracy out of my two .32-40 High Wall competition guns. But, I also discovered some fairly nasty hard wax buildup in the throat when I went to clean them. I didn't like the looks of that, despite the great accuracy. Hence the search for a friendlier wax wad - and I figured "why re-invent the wheel when guys like Niedner, Roberts, Sharpe, et al already did the legwork over 100 years ago?" (But actually their efforts were geared toward increased velocity with less or no leading.)

If it works as hoped I'll expand the experiment to other cast bullet applications. The old timers also used graphite-bearing wax wads behind jacketed bullets (for added velocity), but the reportage at the time had mixed reviews. We shall see about that also.

Protocol for use: simply press the sheet of wax over the mouth of the charged case, like a cookie cutter, leaving a thin wad of wax in the case mouth. Seat bullet, or in my instance shove the thing into the chamber behind a bullet pre-seated up into the rifling ahead of the chamber. I had been using wads punched out of 1/8" hard felt or card wads punched out of bar coasters - but they were more for keeping the powder from spilling out of the case on its journey into the chamber than an edge for accuracy or to combat leading.

Stay tuned boys and girls.

Well said.

I use GC’s in heavier loads.
There’s many different factors in getting good shooting cast loads. Some say it’s an art not a science, IDK. GC bullets almost always work for me as well as plain base. But I use plain base in many cartridges, mainly because the extra cost of the gas check isn’t worth it in mild loads.

Top group is the 311041 w/o the gas check. Why bother?

Bottom group is a plain base.

Regarding bullet fit:
I have a new to me Model 71 348. I ordered .001” over-size and .002” over size cast bullets and took them to the range, identical powder in new cases.
The group size was as close to exact same size as I could measure with calipers.
It’s my opinion that bullets that are undersized except for perhaps near pure lead is more of a problem that oversized.

There are many ways to screw up cast bullets: too hard, too soft, imperfect bullet shape, undersized, imperfect lube, pushing too fast - it’s not just one thing.

Need GC?
I load 30-30 cast to the same velocity as jacketed bullets. I suppose it’s possible to do that successfully without GC’s, I have not done so. But I imagine others have.