250 grain hard cast

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250 grain hard cast

Postby Dan-schenk86 » Thu Nov 19, 2020 4:24 am

Has anyone tried 250 grain hard cast with lil gun or x-terminator? I’m planning on powder coating, but can’t find and load data for them. 16” bca upper.
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Re: 250 grain hard cast

Postby jmbod » Sun Nov 22, 2020 2:21 pm

I have shot 250 g coated (red hi-tech) to get on paper, then switch to 250 ftx. I reduced the load from the 250 ftx down to minimum H 110, at 37 grains ( 4 grains less than max), 2.07 oal. I slighty flared the case mouth, so bullet base inserted in about 1/16, and light crimped case mouth to .478 which is the factory measurement I made from federal 450bm. I believe the case mouth needs to be to spec so the mouth headspaces correctly. I read internet specs of .473-4 but I went with factory measurement.

FPS (hodgdon data) is 2030, so probably around 2000 fps, When sighting in I started about 40 yds, bullets shot fine and showed no pressure signs. At 40 the impact was about 3" off (left) from my bore sighted setting, the next shot at 60 was close to the first shot.

Then I changed to the ftx 250's to dial in the poi. and as expected they were off a bit and I dialed them in at 100 yds. Of course since I have my gun dialed in for 250's that is my go to bullet loaded to 39.2 grains estimated 2100 fps, accurate and effective.

My take on the coated cast is favorable for up to 2000, with commercial coatings (powder coating would require testing). I used a swc bullet which probably has killed many deer. Adopters of hard cast bullets would do research to get factual first hand info. Look at buffalo bore and other commercial offerings and their recommendations. Of course for reloading Keith style bullet is required: a flat meplat is needed for hunting, energy transfer and good wound channel.
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Re: 250 grain hard cast

Postby Dan-schenk86 » Mon Nov 23, 2020 4:05 am

Thank you, it’s mainly going to be for ringing steel in the desert, and picking are slim as far as powder. I have lilgun and x-terminator available. I’m just wanting to avoid leading the crap out of my barrel and shoot as cheap as possible. I have some tall gas checks coming as well that I’ll be trying too.
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Re: 250 grain hard cast

Postby jmbod » Mon Nov 23, 2020 4:21 pm

The 250 grain coated rnfp didnt have a gas check, plain base bullet that were used in my previous post. Cast bullets that use gas checks have to have a proper base cutout to accept and crimp the check to the base. The purpose of gas checks are to prevent gas cutting and some say they remove leading out of the bore. With coated bullets there is no leading as long as the coating is intact in the reload process, as for gas cutting my lead loads flew very close to jacketed so the g. checks were not necessary. Removal of leading with uncoated bullets is a cleaning hassle following a shooting session; although some uncoated hard cast bullets with good lube may not be too bad. Commercial lead bullets for the 450 bm will be designated as handgun bullets and should be .452 dia. additionally the minimum bullet weight listed in Hodgdon and Accurate data are 225, so trying lighter bullets may not seat deep enough in the case, I cant say for sure as I used 250 grainers.

The wild card in this discussion is the powder I used. All the powder was fast pistol powder like lil gun, h 110 AA 1680 etc and all the bullets listed were jacketed. For a lead bullet I went with the minimum listed powder for the 250 grain jacketed bullet. As SAFETY is primary for you and fellow shooters, start with minimum loads and research if any manufacturers have data on lead, so far I havent seen any. Usually you will see a reduction in powder of 4-5 grains. I have read of experimenters that used reduced loads a grain or two less than published minimums however I didn't try it. I did try trail boss for fun, shot fine, dropped a ton.

Finally small rifle primers in these cases require good ignition and br4 and wsr primers have been used. clean the flash hole, need all the zip u can get.

be safe shoot well
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