Figured I’d get more action here than the Cast section. Anyone work with heavier cast bullets in the 9.3?

I’m looking at buying some of Missouri Bullet Co.’s 270 gr coated bullets for practice and plinking in my 9.3s. I saw John mentioned The Load of 13.0 gr of Red Dot in my Gack book and further research led me to Harris’ mention of 16 gr of 2400. I also found Hodgdon’s 60% rule for reduced loads of H4895.

I’ve never worked with cast in rifles before (apart from .44 Mag) and am looking for suggestions on the best starting place for that particular 270 gr bullet. Any help would be appreciated.

Also, anyone have an idea on the velocity limit for such bullets to avoid leading?

Trailboss from IMR data ?????

I do cast in 35 Whelen. I used the 200 Grain RCBS mold and powder coated using Yondering's Shake and Bake method. I loaded them over H4895 and turned my 35 Whelen into a hot 35 Remington, which was about where I wanted it to be for whitetail deer.

My guess is that you could size them to 9.3 and get similar results.

See:

Whelenizer Makeover

I've had good results with 286s cast from the NOE mold using both Trailboss and 5744, tumble lubed with alox, at velocities of 1200-1500. Interestingly, with a gascheck they shoot great but without one shoot horribly, to the point of tumbling. I briefly experimented with the same bullets powder coated as mentioned above. I drove them to 2400 with no leading issues but accuracy wasn't great. I didn't mess with them beyond the first range session however. I think if you wanted a bit more velocity, say around 2200 H4895 would work well.

Edit to add: The above bullets were all WW

If you use a reasonably strong alloy (maybe ~16-20 Bhn) and a gas check with a properly sized bullet, your velocity limit is whatever pressure the rifle will handle. Powder coating (and still using a gas check) makes that even easier with more wiggle room for accuracy and no fooling around trying different bullet lubes. You can get there with powder coating and no gas check too, but have to be more careful with alloy and size. HiTek coating like Missouri uses is OK but a step down in my experience, but still easier to work with than wax lubed lead.

Most of my cast bullet rifle loads are full power loads with the same powders as jacketed bullets, not reduced stuff with Trail Boss, Red Dot, etc. 3,000 fps is no problem. I don't know if that's what you're wanting to do with those Missouri bullets, but you could if you want to.

Paper patching the same bullets works well too, and is easy to get good accuracy, but it takes more prep time. Not much need if they're already coated though.

I can't suggest other specific bullets or loads for the 9.3 though, as my closest thing is the 35 Whelen; similar but not the same.

In my 9.3x62, I load 250 gr cast FNGC bullets with 14 grs of Red Dot (no filler) in resized Rem 30-06 brass and RP reg LR primer. Hardly any recoil and shoots 1 1/2" inches at 100 yards consistently. Only shot a couple of woodchucks with it. I shoot a similar cast FNGC (265 gr.) bullet in my 375 H&H with red dot powder and it shoots about the same. Low recoil and very accurate. I never tried to load hotter cast bullets loads in either rifle.