Lee Black-out bullet

[Ray1946]

Recently got a 96/11 Swiss rifle with the 23cm. twist; 1-9.055. I am thinking this may be fast enough to stabilize the Lee black-out (TL309-230-5R) bullet. Has anyone here used that bullet? If you have, I have a few questions; will the shank take a crimp-on gas-check? What was the actual as-cast diameter? If you used a sizer lubricator, what top-punch did you use? Thanks so much!

I have been away from casting for almost 30 years and decided I wanted to get back into shooting. Just for fun, I got on Graefs web site to look at the price of bullets. You guessed it, I am going to get back into casting! Thanks to everyone..............................

[supersniper]

Ray,

It will take a gas check. As cast diameter varies with alloy used. I used the Lyman top punch for the sharp pointed 115gr M1 Carbine bullet (#459 maybe?).

I am now powder coating my bullets so no lube or GC are needed. No more leading issues either.

[DrtRacr09]

Ray, that TL in the mold number is Tumble Lube, you can use the liquid alox for it.
Supersniper, would that be #359? For the 311359.

[Ray1946]

Ray, that TL in the mold number is Tumble Lube, you can use the liquid alox for it.
Supersniper, would that be #359? For the 311359.

Thanks so much for the info. I know this boolit was designed for sub-sonic speeds, but I am wanting to try to get it up to about 1900 fps. if possible. I also want to try the Lyman moly lube, as I am thinking something really slick is needed to get that velocity and consistency for long range. I am planning on shooting 600 yds. I have an NEI 308195 mold from the early 80's and this is a beautiful boolit and has performed well at 100,200, and 300 yds. If the Lee mold doesn't work out, I may try this one at 2000+.

That dry lube sounds interesting, but I fooled with something like that back in the 80's; it was a dip lube that coated the boolits with Moly. It worked well up to about 900-1000 fps, past that and it leaded the barrel really badly. Good luck with the new lubes. One important thing to remember is: bullet lube is a COOLANT as much as a lubricant..........................

[supersniper]

DrtRacr09,

Yes - that is for the 311359 Lyman mold.

Ray - the powdercoat is actually baked onto the bullet so it is not really like Moly. There is a sub-section on this that you can research.

[frkelly74]

It has been some fun in my 308 M700 at about 1500/1600 FPS I am guessing. I just tumble lubed with Liquid alox and did not size them. There was a post a while back that someone was complaining about a undersize front section of the boolit. While I was reading that I kept thinking it might work well in my K31. I can't find that post now, but my mold casts a nice fat .302 nose and is .311 at the bands. I am not sure if the 96/11 has the same diameter bore or throat as a K31. The K31 is notorious for short throats and quite a few have tried to chamber a round and gotten a bullet stuck in the throat that wasn't seated short enough, before getting the bolt closed all the way. Then you get a mess when the powder dumps into the magazine when you finally get the bolt open and the bullet is still in the bore. You will want the round to chamber easily so that you don't get into a frustrating mess like I did.

[Ray1946]

I am thinking the twist in your 700 might not be fast enough to stabilize the long 230 gr. bullet. I have 2 K31's and after taking several measurements I decided not to try to develop cast bullet loads. However the leed(throat) in the 1911's and the 96/11's have a more moderate leed and are able to accept a normal cast boolit. Following the acceptance of the model 1911 Schmidt-Rubin, there were approximately 15,000 of these rifles fitted with a 1 turn in 23 cm. twist barrel; 1/9.055 in. twist.

Using Greenhill's formula and a constant of 150, the I/9.055 twist will stabilize a 1.471" long boolit. Reducing the constant to 135 to compensate for lower initial velocity results in a length of 1.323". I think this twist would stabilize the long Lee boolit.............................

[guywitha3006]

Ray1946 I have the Lee 300 BlackOut mold. I however use it for the Blackout. I believe the cast at ~.309" (sorry not at home to confirm) I typically cast them out of straight wheel weight alloy. I have tumbled lubed them and powder coated them (powder coat holds up well for can use). I may have a chance to get into the garage this weekend, PM if you would be interested in some samples.

[Ray1946]

Thanks so much, but I am going to make my own. I have about 500lbs. of a no.2 alloy and am planning to use that. I think I will try to find out more about the powder coating. I used to use a dip coating back in the early 80's and it worked well as long as you ran it thru the sizer-lubricator and pumped grease in the grooves. I don't understand the term "powder coat holds up well for can use"? I have kind of been away from cast boolits for a while...............................

[frkelly74]

"Can use" is shooting through a supressor I think, judging from the context. I guess that the lube from cast boolits gets thrown off into the baffles and dirties up a supressor. That is what I have gathered from reading on this site.