This article written by Karl Bosselmann, appeared in the Mar/Apr 2000, #144 issue of the Fouling Shot.

Regrettably many modern-day shooters and hunters don’t realize that optimum-quality cast bullets of appropriate or ideal design excellence can outperform most commercially produced jacketed soft point bullets in game-field results (terminal ballistics). However, many consistencies are mandatory for the casting of top-quality projectiles. Among them are quality alloy of appropriate composition and hardness, caster knowl-edge and static time-proven techniques, and fine equipment.

I fire hundreds of large bore centerfire rifle rounds per year in plinking, concentrated practice, recreational and experimenting pursuits; I find that for several years straight I’ve also increased their use in big game and big dangerous game hunting. For over three decades I’ve stayed with scrap wheel weights for alloy due to its ready availability, composition (antimony, arsenic, lead, and tin) and usually low junk pricing. These I melt in a single large pot in 100 to 250 lb. batch-es, not only to guarantee composition consistency in the ingots produced, but also to get rid of most all dirt and other impurities. All moulds I presently have are custom made to the given rifle’s bore diameter and chamber throating and all bullet designs incorporate the flat nose style with wide meplats. Additionally, all utilize a long front drive band which, when seated in the cases, extend out to solid throat contact.

A successful technique used when casting to easily increase bullet hardness, which, in turn, allows increases in muzzle velocities for better penetration as well as flatter trajectories is called water dropping -dropping the just-cast bullets directly from the mould into a nearby bucket of water. Years ago I developed what’s become for me an extremely practical and efficient water-dropping method.

This article by Terry N. McArthur, appeared in Fouling Shot #145, May/June 2000.

There is no way in this day and age that the average person can become an expert on bullet performance, but I have hunted with cast bullets in two states for the last 20 years and have formed some opinions.

About all my hunting with cast bullets has been done with the .375 H&H in a Ruger #1. I have used other rifles for coyotes, but even for them I prefer the .375.

The first mould I used was the Lyman 375449 hollow point. This is a grand little mould that casts a 260-grain bullet when using wheel weight metal. It is just too light and fragile for deer at .375 H&H speeds. It sure is a great bullet for coyotes and rock chucks. The bullet will usually shatter inside a coyote and not leave any big exit holes to sew up.

Figuring a heavier bullet was needed, I had Richard Hoch make a two-diameter mould that casts a 330-grain bullet when using wheel weight metal. That bullet never was very accurate and it was all my fault. I ordered a .375” diameter bullet and that is just what he made for me. Later on I realized my rifle shoots a lot better with larger bullets.

At this time I had not even heard of water quenching or heat treating to harden bullets. The air-cooled bullets that were recovered from deer all had expanded. Not having a chronograph, I don’t know how fast I was driving them, but I had 70 grains of H4831 in the case, so they were probably leaving the muzzle around 2000 f.p.s. After playing with the 330 gr. Hoch for a few years, I ordered a single diameter mould from Dave Farmer of Colorado Shooter’s Supply (P.O. Box 3777, Milan, NM 87021), which drops at .378”. About this same time I started water quenching. That bullet is accurate with 70 grs. of H4831, but with only a small flat on the point, it isn’t very good on game.

Several things were tried to improve the performance of this CSS bullet. A bored hollow point helped quite a bit. Annealing just the point seems to help but the way I was doing it isn’t very reliable so I gave that up. Casting a two-alloy bullet with a pure lead nose seemed to work best but is quite a bit of bother. For some reason soft pointing ends any shattering problem, at least in these .375 bullets. When a small soft point is added, that bullet really penetrates. One was driven through thirty inches of bear, and for all I know it is still going!

This article by Joe Brennan appeared in the Mar/Apr 2006, #180 issue of the Fouling Shot.

This bullet was originally the Lyman 308403, and later the number was changed to 311403. According to Rudi Prusok, the ASSRA archivist, this bullet was first listed in the Ideal/Lyman handbook in 1927, and was listed until 1957-when the number was changed to 311403.

From the 1927 Ideal Hand Book:“308403. Bullet designed by Mr. Harry Pope for extreme accuracy in competitive shooting in the .30 Springfield rifle. Should be used as cast and not resized. Diameter of first four bands from point .301”, fifth band .303, sixth band .305”, and last band .315”. Bullet seated in case with fingers so mouth of case extends only half way up base band. Powder charge 12 to 15 grains DuPont No. 80 powder. This bullet gives better accuracy up to 200 yards than any combination we know of in the Springfield, but owing to the bullet being seated so lightly in the case, it is not suitable for handling except on the target range.”

This "Speaking Frankly" article written by Frank Marshall, Jr., first appeared in Fouling Shot #161, Jan/Feb of 2003.

Target shooters are preoccupied in their quest for sub-m.o.a. cast bullet accuracy, and this misleads the average shooter into thinking that getting “adequate” accuracy from cast loads requires sophisticated techniques. This just isn’t so. Elaborate refinement of loads and techniques is essential to the ultimate accuracy, but very satisfactory results for most hunting and target shooting can be had by use of very ordinary methods and equipment.

Adequate accuracy and ultimate accuracy in cast loads are about as far removed as are ordinary hunting loads, and benchrest loads with jacketed bullets, both in the equipment used, the complexity of technique and the accuracy level attained.

There is nothing complicated about cast bullet shooting. Despite emphasis on target shooting, the typical shooter simply desires reasonably consistent performance from his rifle. Group sizes around 2” at 100 yards are entirely adequate for informal shooting and are quite easily obtained with cast bullet loads in ordinary rifles.

The difference between ordinary hunting perfor-mance at 2 m.o.a. and benchrest cast bullet performance at 1 m.o.a. or less is what brings all the skullduggery and witchcraft out in match shooting. But the factors needed to bridge that gap rarely are significant in ordinary rifles and are of no particular concern to the average shooter looking for an “adequate” 2 m.o.a. cast bullet hunting or plinking load.

While there is no hard and fast formula which can guarantee your plunking 10 consecutive shots into 1” at 100 yards, it is entirely possible to establish procedures which will permit reasonably good accuracy from most hunting rifles.

The general-purpose/adequate accuracy load requires only minimal considerations for loading tools, and the basics are equally applicable to any modern center-fire cartridge. Start with a bullet which is among the heaviest that is common for that caliber, 170 grains or more for a .30-30, 180 grains or more for a .30-40 or 30-’06 and 200 grains or more for a .35 Rem., etc. The bullet must be suited for the twist and velocity of course.

Most .30-’06s will have 10” twists, which handle bullets up to 220 grains well even in light loads. Most .30-30 and .308 Win. rifles have 12” twists and may not handle very heavy bullets well at low velocities, but you can expect very good results if you don’t go over 200 grains, velocity is kept over 1400 f.p.s., and you don’t shoot past 100 yards. For 200-yard shooting, you’ll need to keep the velocity up around 1700 f.p.s. in a 12” twist for bullets over 180-grains to remain stable.

High velocity (above 1800 f.p.s.) is not conductive to best cast-bullet accuracy with simple techniques. High velocity loads require considerable refinement for consistent results. If you want good results easily, keep your velocity down. This has many advantages. Besides being more economical of powder, it lets you use softer, less expensive bullet metals. Moderately soft alloys have the further advantage of giving best expansion on game, and optimum accuracy, through their better obturation, at low velocities. A good, inexpensive basic alloy which gives fine results for rifle hunting or plinking loads not exceeding 1800 f.p.s., or for handgun loads is 1/2 lb. of 50-50 (lead/tin) bar solder to 10 lbs. of wheel weights. This is strong enough for the velocities we are talking about, but still soft enough for good action on game.

Before you cast a bullet, boil your new mold in water with some laundry detergent for about 20 minutes. This will remove the cutting oil from the metal pores, reducing “break-in” time. From then on, lubricate the sprue plate pivot and dowel pins with graphite from a pencil to prevent galling; never use any oils or waxes which can get into the mold cavity.

The electric bottom pour pot is the easiest to use,but you must be sure to scrape the sides and bottom of the pot frequently to dislodge dirt and impurities for skimming. You must also develop a rhythm to your casting so as to keep a constant casting temperature. The easiest way to do this is to alternate between two molds. Adequate heat of the mold and metal is essential to get good castings, but don’t use any more heat than necessary to get good bullets. When using gang molds for pistol bullets, or for rifle bullets in plinking quantity, a somewhat higher pot temperature is required to keep the mold up to good casting heat; perhaps 700 degrees with gang molds vs. 650 degrees with single or double-cavity blocks.

With reasonable care in casting, good shooting results should be easy. Weighing or finicky bullet selection need not apply. Simple refinement of concentricity can provide real gains, and the procedure is so simple there’s no reason not to apply it to the general-purpose load. Let your dies float in the threads of your press, so your bullet seating and case sizing operations will tend to be self-centering. Keep your dies oriented to you by a mark from a felt-tip marker, and orient your cases as you size and seat bullets in each one. Simply grasp the case with the headstamp reading 12:00 held between your forefinger or thumb, and naturally insert it into the shell holder without turning it. You will instinctively do it the same way each time. Do the same when grasping your bullet with a mold mark next to your thumb, or when grasping a cartridge by the case rim to load, and you will always do it the same way each time. This easily applied trick takes little effort, costs nothing extra, and soon becomes automatic.

This article appearing in Fouling Shot #203 of Jan/Feb 2010, was written by Ralph Schneider.

Back when I was first getting interested in hunting deer with cast bullets in the .45-70 cartridge, I thought that even those big slugs would be made more effective if I could persuade them to mushroom in the target. So I invested in a Lyman mold that came with a removable hollow point pin which produced a deep and rather nar-row cavity. The bullets looked great, but whenever I tried them out in an impact medium of some sort, the bullet nose would nearly always fragment and fall away, leav-ing the bullet’s stub to continue penetrating on its own; there was little mushrooming effect to speak of. Although some shooters have found this to be a useful ballistic outcome (see John Haviland’s excellent article in Handloader #260), I decided to continue looking for a combination that would produce genuine mushrooming with a cast bullet.

Since I have recently been impressed with the per-formance of cast pistol bullets with wide meplats and with the shallow point depression typified by Winchester’s “Dyna-Point” .22 long rifle ammo, I decided to get a .45-70 bullet of the proper design and modify it with a very wide and shallow hollow point. I consulted with Veral Smith of LBT about the widest-nose bullet I could use in a Marlin 1895, and he recommended an LFN design.

Eventually the mold arrived: an LFN-459-410 GC mold that casts two bullets of near-perfect roundness and drops them from the mold with no need of any per-suasion. The meplat measures .330”. Cast of my usual WW+ alloy (standard wheel weight alloy with 0.5% tin added; BHN 16), these bullets weigh 408 grains without the gas check or lube. I realize that a BHN of 16 seems a bit high for wheel weights, and it is slightly higher than I usually get from a batch of wheel weights (typically 13-15 BHN), but I checked them again and that is what they register.

Written by Jim Rothel, this article appeared in the Mar/Apr 2012, #216 issue of the Fouling Shot.

After tiring from years of toting my casting equipment to the garage for bullet casting sessions, I decided to assemble a vent hood for casting which I could use in the basement away from the extreme cold or heat in the garage usual during the times I chose to cast. I of course wanted to keep the cost of the project to a minimum, so I looked at garage sales for a used range vent hood & eventually found one for $10. Many range hoods are available from folks who change out their nearly new vents in order to install a microwave unit. Look for a model that has a two-speed fan plus a light.

Some units like mine don’t vent to the outdoors, but just recycle the air through a filter. So in order to vent through a duct through a basement sliding window, I cut a hole in the top of the vent hood (Fig 1) to fit a flanged starter end for 4” aluminum flexible dryer vent duct.