condor bravo
New member
I use a large variety of cast lead rifle bullets, mostly for indoor range shooting and primarily loaded with Trail Boss powder. Up to several months ago my primary source of cast bullets had been Montana Bullet Works but very unfortunately owner Dave Jennings had to quit business due to injury and the business was up for sale. You could get almost every conceivable bullet from MBW. As an example where else could you find a .228 70 grain cast bullet for the .22 Savage Hi-Power?
So it finally came down to the point where it became necessary to try to find other sources. Scanning the internet for vendors offering a wide variety of calibers was hardly successful. I finally placed orders to two vendors, one again in Montana and another in Idaho, three calibers from each. One order included 255 grain .338s indicated as being sized to .339 (which is correct).
However, starting to load five rounds with the indicated .339s
suggested that something wasn't quite right. For starters, very excessive case neck flaring (some flaring necessary for seating cast bullets) was required for inserting the bullet in the case. And the unusual behavior in seating the bullets and trying to apply a slight crimp was almost beyond description. However was only loading five rounds so continued.
At the range the rounds would not chamber. Back at the bench the
Irounds were disassembled and the cases returned to nomal by resizing. Finally pulling out the calipers, bullet diameters miked at .3495 to.3500. Some .338s previously at hand miked at normal .339. By comparing the .339s side by side to the .3495s, the difference could easily be seen. Should one of the loaded rounds been forced to chamber, high pressure no doubt would have developed for lack of neck expansion room in the chamber.
At any rate does anyone have sources of lead cast rifle bullets that would hopefully include a large variety? The other five of the six recently received cast bullets are fine.
I received a six pack of Trail Boss powder today that I had on back order with Graf & Sons but now they are out of stock again. However, if intereted, you can place a request through their web sites with Graf and Natchez (and probably others)
to be informed via email whenever a powder becomes available
So it finally came down to the point where it became necessary to try to find other sources. Scanning the internet for vendors offering a wide variety of calibers was hardly successful. I finally placed orders to two vendors, one again in Montana and another in Idaho, three calibers from each. One order included 255 grain .338s indicated as being sized to .339 (which is correct).
However, starting to load five rounds with the indicated .339s
suggested that something wasn't quite right. For starters, very excessive case neck flaring (some flaring necessary for seating cast bullets) was required for inserting the bullet in the case. And the unusual behavior in seating the bullets and trying to apply a slight crimp was almost beyond description. However was only loading five rounds so continued.
At the range the rounds would not chamber. Back at the bench the
Irounds were disassembled and the cases returned to nomal by resizing. Finally pulling out the calipers, bullet diameters miked at .3495 to.3500. Some .338s previously at hand miked at normal .339. By comparing the .339s side by side to the .3495s, the difference could easily be seen. Should one of the loaded rounds been forced to chamber, high pressure no doubt would have developed for lack of neck expansion room in the chamber.
At any rate does anyone have sources of lead cast rifle bullets that would hopefully include a large variety? The other five of the six recently received cast bullets are fine.
I received a six pack of Trail Boss powder today that I had on back order with Graf & Sons but now they are out of stock again. However, if intereted, you can place a request through their web sites with Graf and Natchez (and probably others)
to be informed via email whenever a powder becomes available
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