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I now have a couple of hundred cast boolits for my .303's - many thanks to Dodgyrog for shipping them down to Middle England. I also have a quantity of Accurate 5744

Can anyone suggest a start load for the 190 grain boolits for a 4(T) and a P14. Also is there anything I should be doing to prepare my rifles before shooting cast lead for the first time? I plan to start at 300 yards and move out as far as I can with them with 1000 yards being my goal.

As matter of interest, how fast can you drive a lead boolit from a 303 before it strips over the rifling?

I remember doing some tests with a Schmidt Rubin in the original 7.5x53.5 chambering and couldn't get 'em faster than around 1900 fps.

With that kind of velocity and the abysmal BC of a lead slug you'd need about 150 MOA to get on at 1000 yds!

Cheers
Vince

It will be interesting and yes 1000 yards might just be too much to expect. I am used to 174SMK's and N140 so this is a whole new world to me so well worth a try.

The Gun Pimp wrote:As matter of interest, how fast can you drive a lead boolit from a 303 before it strips over the rifling?

I remember doing some tests with a Schmidt Rubin in the original 7.5x53.5 chambering and couldn't get 'em faster than around 1900 fps.

With that kind of velocity and the abysmal BC of a lead slug you'd need about 150 MOA to get on at 1000 yds!

Cheers
Vince

Depends.

You can shoot them to jacketed velocities with accuracy so long as you have good boolit fit and a suitably strong, not hard alloy. For my long range .303" load my alloy is around 65% WW to 35% Linotype BHN 22, a gas check helps a lot to. Paper patching also allows high velocities with accuracy.

In fast twist rifles like the 6.5 Swede then slow powders also help as the boolit is well into the rifling and supported before the pressure spikes.

ovenpaa wrote:I now have a couple of hundred cast boolits for my .303's - many thanks to Dodgyrog for shipping them down to Middle England. I also have a quantity of Accurate 5744

Can anyone suggest a start load for the 190 grain boolits for a 4(T) and a P14. Also is there anything I should be doing to prepare my rifles before shooting cast lead for the first time? I plan to start at 300 yards and move out as far as I can with them with 1000 yards being my goal.

Start at 16 grains and work up to 22 grains in half grain increments and see how it does, your velocity at 22 should be around 1800 fps, for more velocity I would rethink the load but try it and see. Would you be using 5744 for hi velocity condom boolits in your 308? 28 grains looks like a safe maximum for around 2100 fps with 5744.

Get every bit of copper out of the barrel, you will need a few shots to season the barrel so wait a bit for the first groups to settle down and put up extra of your starting load for seasoning.

Seat the boolit as far into the throat or lands as it will go, that particular boolit you have is made specifically for my No 4T's throat so it should fill yours.

For first loads I think 1 or 200 yards would be better distances.

The Gun Pimp wrote:As matter of interest, how fast can you drive a lead boolit from a 303 before it strips over the rifling?

I remember doing some tests with a Schmidt Rubin in the original 7.5x53.5 chambering and couldn't get 'em faster than around 1900 fps.

With that kind of velocity and the abysmal BC of a lead slug you'd need about 150 MOA to get on at 1000 yds!

Cheers
Vince

Vince,
You ought to talk to Dromia as you have the complete wrong idea about cast boolits.
2400 fps is easily attainable and with accuracy.

BC is also a function of velocity as well as boolit/bullet shape, as velocity increases then your BC gets lower.

I must admit, I'm amazed you can shove 'em at 2400fps. I remember back in the days when we had pistols - you could soon overload a 9mm so that the bullets stripped.

As I said, my lead boolit experience is limited - mostly to 45-90 Rolling Block shooting swaged paper-patched 535gn boolits at about 1250fps.

Good fun at 1000 yards in Diggle's annual Billy Dixon shoot!

Cheers
Vince

Aye Vince poor boolit fit and inappropriate alloy. The UKs handloading guru Clive Stevens (amongst others) used to shoot 9mm cast in long range pistol events with great success.