Cast Bullets and
Old Battle Rifles

As this is written, the United States is perhaps experiencing the worst ammunition and reloading component shortage since World War II. Gun and sporting goods stores have little or no supplies of loaded ammo, gunpowders, primers and factory-made bullets. As to powders and primers, I have no advice. Bullets are a different matter.

With a few exceptions I have a bullet mold for — and have shot cast bullets in — most rifles in my vault. The exceptions are semi- and full-autos and my Remington .222 Remington Magnum Model 700ADL. Formerly I cast for it too, until my fingers stiffened from arthritis to the point handling such tiny bullets and even tinier gas checks became difficult.

My vintage battle rifle collection runs from 6.5mm on to 8mm. They’re used for recreational shooting such as plinking steel or informal competitions where cast bullets easily fill in for jacketed types. Instead of history as to how I arrived at a good cast bullet load for this rifle array, I’m just going to tell how I do it.

Payload

The shapes of bullets I use are round-nose or semi-round-nose/semi-pointed. For example my all-time favorite .30 caliber bullet is Lyman’s #311299 at nominally 200 grains. Lyman gives us a bonus because they make the same design of bullet for .31 calibers, i.e. 7.65mm Argentine, .303 British, 7.7mm Japanese, and 7.62x54mm Rimmed. It’s their #314299 and also is nominally 200 grains.

Bullet metal isn’t a difficult matter. At one end is Lyman No. 2 formula, also listed in their Cast Bullet Handbook. Its Brinnell Hardness Number (BHN) is about 15. On the hard side is straight Linotype alloy of which a friend gave me a lifetime supply. Its BHN is about 22. If scrounging alloy is not your forte you can buy pre-blended Magnum type alloy from several sources such as Buffalo Arms in Idaho.

The Right Size

As for sizing diameters, I go large — as in a couple thousandths over nominal jacketed bullet diameters. For instance, jacketed 6.5mm bullets are 0.264″. I size 6.5mm cast bullets 0.266″, jacketed .30 caliber bullets are 0.308″. I size 0.310″ and so forth. In my mind, gas checks are necessary but brands don’t matter — they’re all pretty much crimp-on types now anyway.

A case neck/mouth belling die is absolutely necessary for good cast bullet shooting. All the bullet mold manufacturers supply proper ones by caliber. For primers nowadays, use what you can get, just don’t try to substitute pistol primers for rifle primers.

Here are some of my settled-upon cast bullet/battle rifle loads. (See chart at left.) Powder for all is 5744. I’m not listing exact velocities as they vary from rifle to rifle anyway. All these loads run in the 1,600 to 1,900 range:

6.5mm JapaneseType 38 rifle
Lyman #266673 150 grains, 16.0 grains/5744

7mm Mauser, Brazilian Model 1908 rifle
Lyman #287346 140 grains, 20.0 grains/5744

.30-06, U.S. Model 1903A3 rifle
Lyman 311299 200 grains, 25.0 grains/5744

.303 British Enfield #5 Jungle Carbine
Lyman #314299 200 grains, 22 grains/5744

7.62x54mm Rimmed Finnish Model 1939
Lyman #314299 200 grains, 25 grains/5744

7.7mm Japanese Type 99 rifle
Lyman #314299 200 grains, 25 grains/5744

8mm Mauser German K98k rifle
Redding/SAECO #081 195 grains, 27 grains/5744.

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