A funny thing happened on my way to the cast boolit match...

[Pentz]

My second match yesterday, last one was at 100 and 200 so I was "prepared". But the targets were HUGE and I discovered to my dismay it was a 300 yard match, one of two a year. Everybody else was shooting modified military with glass; but one of the elder statesmen informed me if I would set my rear sight to hit 20" at 100 I should be on paper at 300. Danged if he wasn't right! Anyway, that 300 bull sure was small. Two 10-shot targets for group, two for score. I managed to eke out a 10 3/4 group and a score of 86-1x with my 1902 sight using the peep. My loads of 16/2400 under a 204gr 311299 at .310 carried the day. Amazing how this rifle shoots. I need to find a d&t'd Krag with a good bore....

[psteinmayer]

That's awesome. Krags never cease to amaze me with how well they shoot!!!

I have converted my cutoff sporter to a Cast Bullet shooter with the addition of a scope (mounted on a Kraghaus barrel mount). I'm in the process of working up loads for 155 grain and 185 grain bullets that Bob Wolfe has been sending me. So far, I'm happy with it. I'm keeping my 1898 rifle for shooting in CMP matches only, so no cast boolits will go down that tube!

[Mark Daiute]

Paul, that's funny cause cast boolits is ALL that goes down the bores of my Krags. Mostly cause I'm too damned cheap to buy bullets, I guess.

[madsenshooter]

For 300yds, I'd have to have one of my cast spitzers, or one of my Eagan conicials. Either one starting at least 2000fps. I can see nothing but fuzz through a 1902 peep, and I don't think I could drill a hole large enough to remedy that and have anything left. I already tried to talk Paul into going with cast Mark, maybe when he can no longer get his jacketed 220s. Hey Pentz, if you was the only one shooting iron, that means you won your class! Same has happened to me when shooting at Washtenaw. Everyone else was shooting benchrest rifles.

[psteinmayer]

Paul, that's funny cause cast boolits is ALL that goes down the bores of my Krags. Mostly cause I'm too damned cheap to buy bullets, I guess.

If Hornady doesn't start making the 220 gr RN again, I may be shooting them at Perry in my rifle too. The Hornady bullets are expensive enough... but some of the other brands are astronomical!

I need to get up to speed on how to do it first. My rifle slugs out at a nice tidy standard .308, so I need to find a good 220 gr RN design. I guess I had better start looking in to this. Bob's 185 grain fat spitzer shoots pretty good in the cutoff sporter but they are sized to .310.

Ok, educate me people!

[Pentz]

I shoot issue-class cast for the joy and challenge of a hand-made boolit attempting to find the impact point of it's predecessor. I've gotten the loan of a 311284 and am waiting for a day without rain to do some casting. But I am thinking of finding a bubbafied Krag to mount glass on - one with an excellent bore. Sighting is mainly a chore of watching the wind flags and waiting for my eye "floaters" to pass by.

[Parashooter]

. . . My rifle slugs out at a nice tidy standard .308, so I need to find a good 220 gr RN design. I guess I had better start looking in to this. Bob's 185 grain fat spitzer shoots pretty good in the cutoff sporter but they are sized to .310.

Ok, educate me people!

Are you thinking you need a .308" cast bullet to fit a .308" groove diameter barrel? Not usually. The critical fit of a cast bullet's major diameter is the rifle's throat - normally a bit wider than the grooves. If the bullet is loose in the throat, it can yaw and engrave off-axis - not a good thing. If the bullet is a "nose bearing" design, the fit of the forward section to the bore diameter is also critical. Ideally, the lands engrave the nose just enough to ensure good bearing all around, as seen on the fired example here -

http://i43.tinypic.com/34hxahf.jpg

I hope we will all think twice before writing "boolit". This clumsy emulation of uneducated spelling is neither clever nor cute - and it does expose us to ridicule by the anti-gun crowd - who delight in characterizing us as ignorant rednecks. We don't need to reinforce that for them.

[Bob S]

A quick simple check for bore riders is to attempt to "drop" one point first into the muzzle. If it falls in of it's own weight up to the driving bands, or will enter the muzzle with very light pressure, the chances are it will not shoot well from that rifle. A "bore rider" really does have to "ride the top of the lands" in order to stay straight in it's journey down the tube and get launched truly point-first.

Resp'y,
Bob S.

[psteinmayer]

I'll have to try that with the bullets that Bob (Madsenshooter) sent me. I slugged the bore, and Bob sized them based on my slug measurements.

[Mark Daiute]

I've been chided for using the term "boolit" to differentiate from jacketed bullets before. I picked up this habit over on Castboolits.com. It is not an attempt to be cute and no-one that knows me would ever accuse me of being clever. I will cease and desist. Henceforth "Cast bullet" it will be!

[Pentz]

bowd·ler·ize
transitive verb \ˈbōd-lə-ˌrīz, ˈbau̇d-\

: to change (a book, play, movie, etc.) by removing parts that could offend people

[psteinmayer]

I checked those bullets that Madsenshooter sent me, and they don't drop into the muzzle... so they should be good to go!

[Bob S]

I just refuse to spell things wrong intentionally. I am an engineer, and all of the jokes regarding poor grammar and spelling got a little old about a month after I got out of undergraduate school. And that was 45 years ago.

Resp'y,
Bob S.

[Mark Daiute]

I just refuse to spell things wrong intentionally. I am an engineer, and all of the jokes regarding poor grammar and spelling got a little old about a month after I got out of undergraduate school. And that was 45 years ago.

Resp'y,
Bob S.

Bob,

What is your discipline? Are you a Civil Engineer? My profession is Land Surveyor.

Within the circle of bullet casters the "other" spelling is appropriate but as you said, there is the non-shooting world out there and we need to put our best foot forward.

All the best from Maine,

Mark

[Bob S]

Mark:

Undergrad BS Mechanical Engineering, Worcester Tech.
MS Marine Engineering, MIT
MS Naval Architecture, MIT
O.E., MIT ("professional degree" of Ocean Engineer ~ poor man's doctorate)
Fire Protection Engineering, School of Hard Knocks (final 7 years in the Navy).

P.S. My Home of Record for awhile was Fryeburg.

[psteinmayer]

Go NAVY!

[Bob S]

Go NAVY!

Yup. 5 enlisted, 20 commissioned.

[madsenshooter]

I checked those bullets that Madsenshooter sent me, and they don't drop into the muzzle... so they should be good to go!

I specialize in fat noses. For cast bullets that is. Keeps them below max magazine length, yet allows them to be stuffed into the rifle's throat. My experiments indicate that the more bearing surface you have, the more accuracy you're likely to get.

Bob's 185 grain fat spitzer shoots pretty good in the cutoff sporter but they are sized to .310.


You don't have the fat one Paul, just above the crimp groove is .305-.306 on yours, the fat one I'm hoping to take to Perry is .310-.311 at the same point. That's really not a crimp groove, it's a cleaning groove, a place for powder residue and lube from previous shots to go. You could load the same spitzers you have in your .308 groove diameter Krag, no problem, no sizing needed, the throat will do the sizing.

[psteinmayer]

Ahhhhhhh Ok, roger that! I'm heading to the range tomorrow to work on sighting a little more, and hopefully getting er' spot on. I'll let you know how she works out...

[psteinmayer]

Hit the range today. Was doing a nice job of sighting in my scout scope, and fired around 60 rounds, until the scope broke! I am using an AIM long eye relief scope (inexpensive), and the locking ring holding the ocular lens in place popped out and the ocular lens became mis-aligned. I tried to put it back into place and tighten the locking ring, but it won't tighten. Needless to say, I am quite irate about it, and I'll be calling AIM on Monday morning! Below are a couple pictures of the scope mounted with the Kraghaus mount, some cast loads with Madsenshooter's 185 gr spitzer, and my first sighting target!

My 1898 sporter with scope mounted
http://i1153.photobucket.com/albums/p511/Paul_Steinmayer/My%20Krags/KraghausMount05800x315_zpsc640e92e.jpg
Close up of the scope mounted
http://i1153.photobucket.com/albums/p511/Paul_Steinmayer/My%20Krags/KraghausMount04800x376_zpsaf5182a9.jpg
185 grain spitzers provided to me by Madsenshooter
http://i1153.photobucket.com/albums/p511/Paul_Steinmayer/My%20Krags/IMG_20140327_170816860800x450_zps31f3198c.jpg
Sighting-in target
http://i1153.photobucket.com/albums/p511/Paul_Steinmayer/My%20Krags/Target01800x800_zpsfe4afd2f.jpg

[madsenshooter]

That's not bad for the first load you tried Paul. A couple other factors probably influenced group size too. I've had the ocular bell come loose on a similar scope, and that moved the POI around, so your lens working out likely did the same. I also note you're giving the bullet a jump rather than seating them into the rifling. With low pressure loads, that sometimes works ok, the neck doesn't expand much and keeps the bullet from going crooked before it starts to take the rifling. I noticed the other day that the 36.5gr of RL19 I use doesn't fully expand the neck, it blows them out to .313" ID, but a higher pressure jacketed load in the same rifle blows the neck out to .315" ID.

[psteinmayer]

I agree that the neck is probably not expanding much. I'll measure them before I clean and resize. I can also seat the bullets out a little further too. I may seat one loose and chamber in an empty case to see where the bullet contacts the rifling. Then I'll have an idea of how far out I can seat them and still have them fully supported by the case neck. I have a little homework to do now!