Cast Bullets for Military surplus Rifles

[SKS50]

I shoot cast bullets in my Mosin M44,Yugoslavian M59/66A1 & Chinese /26\ SKS,the bores on all three rifle slugged out at .312" which was a plus. I just use plain old wheel weight for general purpose bullet,the wheel weights around here are a mix of Lead,Lead/Zinc,pure lead stick-on's or just plain old steel.

The steel just get thrown in the recycle bucket,the PB stick-on's are separated and melted down into muffin ingots for late use in make my handgun HP bullets. There are several ways to separate the Lead wheel weights for the Lead /Zinc ones.

The lead one are heavier and you can feel the difference between the two once you handle enough of them or you can simply just drop them on the concrete floor,the Lead make a thud sound while the Lead/Zinc weight make a sound similar to dropping a piece of steel. You can also test the weights with a pair of side cutters,the lead weights are soft and mark easily the Lead/Zinc weight are very hard and take a considerable amount of force to mark. They get thrown in the recycle bucket with the steel weights and sold as scrap along with anything I skim out of my ingot pot.

If your lazy and have a Lead thermometer,just keep your melt temperature around 650 degrees or slightly lower. Lead melts at 621.43 degrees F. Zinc melts at 787.15 degrees F. the Zinc weight along with the steel clips and other impurities will just float to the top and you can skim them off. There are many thing you can use for flux but I use dried out hardwood sawdust I get at a local cabinet shop Last Paragraph

Anyways my wheel weight alloy test out right at 12 BHN it's been pretty constant for the weight I get around here over the past several years,I basically use them as is,cut 50/50 with pure lead or water quench or heat treat depending on what I use them for. I use a little Tin once in awhile but not often.

The only bullet I'm currently shooting in the Mosin and SKS rifles is the Lee .312" gas check tumble lube 160 gr. RN,using my WW alloy it drops form the mold at 313.5" which is nice because my Mosin will only chamber a .314" bullet. Bullets get tumble lubed with a light coat of Alox/JPW lube gas checked in a Lee .314" sizer and tumble lubed once more,on occasion when I'm load for the Mosin and SKS and plant to shoot loads up around the 2K fps. range I'll ranch dip the lube grooves after applying the gas check and push it back through the Lee sizer gas check first,this fills the grooves nicely and leaves the bullets nose nice and clean. My powders of choice in the Mosin is either the Universal Load or The Load

In the SKS I use Alliant 2400 you can start with 11.0 grs. in the x 39 cartridge and increase the charge by .05 grs until you get the rifle to cycle reliably the Max load is 15.0 grs. My Chinese SKS will cycle every time with 12.5 grs. MV 1400+ fps. and drop the brass right at my feet,while the Yugo take the full charge of 15.0 grs. MV 1900+ fps. to cycle and throws the brass similar to steel case ammo.

Recent 5 shot group from my Mosin M44 range 50 yds.