.308 cast load

[buggybuilder]

I am considering using my .308 with a cast load for deer this year. I was wondering if straight wheel weights are too hard or do they need to be softened up a bit ?

[Tatume]

Wheelweight metal should work just fine. If air cooled they will deform somewhat on impact, and if water cooled they probably will not.

[geargnasher]

Intended muzzle velocity?

Gear

[cbrick]

Clip-on WW should work just fine but Gear is right, not much info in your post to go on. What firearm, load/velocity? At what distance do you plan on hunting?

Rick

[runfiverun]

An exact load I have used before.
28.5 grs of IMR-4895 a fed 210 primer and the rest of the case filled with cotton towel dryer lint
The boolit was cast from clip on ww alloy and stick on ww alloy mixed 50-50 with .5% tin mixed in then water dropped from the mold and cured for a couple of weeks.
It gives me a velocity of 1950 to 1975 fps and is super accurate. (Shrug)

[MBTcustom]

An exact load I have used before.
28.5 grs of IMR-4895 a fed 210 primer and the rest of the case filled with cotton towel dryer lint
The boolit was cast from clip on ww alloy and stick on ww alloy mixed 50-50 with .5% tin mixed in then water dropped from the mold and cured for a couple of weeks.
It gives me a velocity of 1950 to 1975 fps and is super accurate. (Shrug)

I've done the same (sans dryer lint) and it worked great.
if I were going to hunt with it, I'd use a 180ish grain boolit, lubed with 45/45/10, with a GC.
I would cast out of COWW and drop them on a towel.
Dead deer.

[jaysouth]

Hmmmmmmmm...................there are some great minds here that think alike. In my .308 Remington 7600P pump with 16.5 inch barrel, I use a 165 Ranch Dog or Lee 170F over 28 grs. of H-4895, a little dacron filling in a LC case with WLR primer. With a V-3 scope, it shoots just over an inch at 50 yards and 3 inches at 100 yards. Alloy is WW with a little solder air cooled and gas checked.

I am now working up a plain base 311041 that weights 181 grs. Powder coated, I am getting 3 inches at 50 yards. When that gets perfected to a reliable 100 yard load, that will be all I shoot in the future.

By the way, the 28 grs of H-4895 is a very good load for jacketed flat point Hornady bullets made for 30-30. But it is blasphemy to talk of such things here.

[buggybuilder]

Sorry my post was so vague. I shoot a Remington 700 bolt action. My load is 18.0 gr. of 4227 approx. 1600 fps.
I am not trying to achieve a designated speed, only accuracy. I feel I have achieved this because my groups are consistantly a one hole group ( a big ragged hole) at 50 yds. I have not yet tried 100 yards yet. In my deer blind I will have about a 60 yard shot.
So..........will my wheel weight bullet be soft enough to open up for a good kill?

[tomme boy]

I have used 28-32 grs of 4895 and was getting hangfires. I would be using dacron. As soon as I did, the hangfires went away.

[wmitty]

dryer lint needs to be from denim; preferably Levis but Wranglers will work in a pinch...

[geargnasher]

Sorry my post was so vague. I shoot a Remington 700 bolt action. My load is 18.0 gr. of 4227 approx. 1600 fps.
I am not trying to achieve a designated speed, only accuracy. I feel I have achieved this because my groups are consistantly a one hole group ( a big ragged hole) at 50 yds. I have not yet tried 100 yards yet. In my deer blind I will have about a 60 yard shot.
So..........will my wheel weight bullet be soft enough to open up for a good kill?

Depends on how hard your WW are. Most likely what you have will poke clean holes straight through and meat in the freezer. If you had time to fool with it, I would advise working with a water-quenched, lower antimony alloy such as Runfiverun suggested, or actually a little softer like 75/25 sticky/clippy weights if you like 1600 fps. When you change the alloy like that, odds are you'll likely need to rework your load anyway to optimize accuracy for the alloy. If you have a load worked out that shoots to your liking and you are comfortable hitting your mark with it, that's the MOST important thing.

Gear

[runfiverun]

dryer lint needs to be from denim; preferably Levis but Wranglers will work in a pinch...

I noticed the lint with dog hair in it was more accurate then the loads with cat hair were
i think the cat hair stuck to the boolit and kept trying to land feet first on the target.

[detox]

Cotton panty lint and blonde pubic hair is the trick.

[espea101]

What about silk lint? Wouldn't that add some latent lubrosity and help with any leading you might get??

[fcvan]

Last month was a very, very bad month for me. I walked into the local gun store with my brother so HE could do the paperwork on some pistols he had delivered there. It's not my fault they had a Sprinfield Armory M1A in the rack. Plain Jane, synthetic stock, used but not abused and priced at $1000. I shouldn't have bought it but I had collected about 80 pieces of .308 Win brass and had nothing to shoot them through.

I've been casting and powder coating the Lee C312-155 2R for the 300 Blk, and figured it would be a good shooter. I use a lot of IMR 4227 with the .223, 300 Blk, and figured it would be fine in the M1A. Lyman #49 says 20 to 30 grains so I started working up. 25 grains cycled and locked back with 'minute of soda can' at 100 yards. I should be happy, right?

Right after I buy the M1A, a buddy offers me a Sig 716 Patrol Rifle (AR 10) for an incredibly low price after firing only 20 rounds through it. The 25 grain load was not cycling the SIG correctly, even after playing with the adjustable gas port for the piston action rifle. At 28 grains, we were golden. I also noticed I was getting closer to 'minute of bottle cap' at 100 yards with both rifles. The chrono was consistently showing 2175-2200 fps. I have some 4895 available but my brother wants to reserve that for jacketed loads through his 2 M1A rifles, an M1A National Match and a Scout Squad.

I've been casting with 50/50 ACWW/range scrap, coating with ESPC, and sized to .311 with aluminum gas checks made from aluminum flashing using CheckMaker Dies from PatMarlins, a vendor on this site. I have no doubt this load combination would be decent deer or pig medicine but it will likely only see tin cans. No telling, but i'm sure it will do the trick.

[tomme boy]

Fcvan, do you have any pics of the rounds and the groups. It sounds like you are the only person that has been able to break the 1 MOA for powdercoat.

[Thompsoncustom]

Indeed that is impressive accuracy at 2100/2200fps I'd be tickled pink if I get that kind of accuracy at those speeds with my 308, haven't even tired speeds that fast yet.

[RugerFan]

Sorry my post was so vague. I shoot a Remington 700 bolt action. My load is 18.0 gr. of 4227 approx. 1600 fps.
I am not trying to achieve a designated speed, only accuracy. I feel I have achieved this because my groups are consistantly a one hole group ( a big ragged hole) at 50 yds. I have not yet tried 100 yards yet. In my deer blind I will have about a 60 yard shot.
So..........will my wheel weight bullet be soft enough to open up for a good kill?

You didn't mention what boolit you're using. With a flat nose or round nose design I wouldn't worry about expansion. The boolit will cause plenty of wound cavitation in the soft lung tissue. Spitzer type jacketed bullets "need" to expand for effective terminal performance. FN/RN cast boolits do not.

[David Caldwell]

I kill 'em with a 200 gr. 311299 at 1600 fps.. No evidence of bullet expansion when shot through ribs and lungs - in one side, out the other, small holes but ruined lungs. They usually go 30 to 60 yds shot like that. I try to hit 'em right square in the shoulder bones so as to cut down on the post-shot travel. I do not recommend a neck shot. If you miss the spine you'll only poke a 30 caliber hole in muscle, blood vessels, and perhaps an esophagus - never to find your deer (voice of bitter experience). I've killed a bunch of them, though, shoulder shot by wheelweights at 1600 fps at 50 to 75yds.