Shooting Cast Bullets

[Jonzie]

I originally was going with a cast bullet that I can use to shoot at the local range . I most often shoot offhand at 200 yards however I do have plenty of paper targets I can make use of .
It will be a learning experience for me for sure. The more I read the more I see how much I don't know. Thank you for sharing your knowledge
Richard

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[Rick]

I originally was going with a cast bullet that I can use to shoot at the local range . I most often shoot offhand at 200 yards however I do have plenty of paper targets I can make use of.

I generally shoot standing, kneeling, sitting, prone at 100 yards using various reduced targets. Best bang for my buck and time at the range, and with a good cast load, you can get that. Why shoot spendy Hornady/Sierra 174 gr. match bullets through paper at that distance, instead of reserving those loads for when you decide to give it a go out at 300, 400, etc and see how you deal with wind and mirage and so on?

To give you an idea of what the best and most experienced are getting in military BENCHREST, the guys at the top in the national championships last year were getting 5"+ groups at 200 yards.

That's the guys at the top. At 100 yards, it was 2"+ for those at the very top. To the best of my knowledge, the ones getting anywhere near the top were shooting 1903s, not a single Lee-Enfield in there. I would not be surprised to learn that a lot of those 1903s had a history of involvement in NRA over the course shooting with jacketed ammunition, at ranges well beyond 200 yards. If Lee Enfields could compete with those 1903s, those guys winning the matches would find themselves a high quality Lee Enfield. The Swiss K31s seem to be the only ones giving the 1903s competition in milsurp cast bullet benchrest.

The point of all that is, there's the benchmark for the best available grouping ability from a milsurp with cast loads, as cast, loaded, and fired by the most accomplished shooters in the game. The likelihood that you (or I) are going to cast and assemble cast bullet loads that get anywhere near that 5" grouping at 200 yards is pretty small. Ditto for getting those 2" groups at 100 yards.

With that in mind, unless you decide to dive all in and go down the cast bullet competitive shooting rabbit hole, you have to decide what you consider to be a grouping that you're happy with shooting using your own cast bullets. And figure that into your preferred activity of shooting offhand - not from a bench.

Think of it as realistic expectations. It's easy to start thinking you must be doing something wrong when you can't get close to the results the best in the game get.

It will be a learning experience for me for sure. The more I read the more I see how much I don't know. Thank you for sharing your knowledge
Richard

Proper resizing techniques also helps when you get into the cast bullet game. If your ball seat/leade cast tells you your bullet shank should be .316", trying to cram it into a neck sized for .311" jacketed bullets is not going to help you get the best of results.

There's assorted ways to deal with that. Using a Lee neck sizing collet die, and replacing the original mandrel with one that gives you the desired resized neck for a cast bullet at the same time is the easiest and best for maximum case life at the same time. Alternately, you can use the factory mandrel in the crimp die and then use NOE's very nice and very inexpensive neck expander plugs to then open up the neck to your desired size. I.e. a .315" or .314" for your cast bullet with .316" shank.

Anyways, keep us up to date as you progress. I was lucky, I had Ken Mollohan volunteer himself to help me out when I started into the cast bullet game. Molly probably forgot more about cast bullets than the vast majority of cast bullet users learn in their entire lives. Losing him a few years ago was a great loss both as an encyclopedia of knowledge and as a fine man and good friend.

And hang out over in the cast bullet forums. Even just random reading of the threads that catch your attention can help flatten out the learning curve when you're starting out.