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Unbelievable!

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Very nice to see this thread alive.

I doubt heavy weight .2245" bullets (>70 grains) would be practical at 2600 FPS because high pressures would be needed.  Slow powders like H414/H380 might be useful, only powder volume intrusion would cut into that.

You would have to design a special bullet with a groove-riding round nose, then 3-4 driving bands that would leave the GC supported in the neck.  If the GC is deep seated past the neck, you will have fliers .

I could sketch something up, something with a 0.220" diameter nose about 0.48" long, then 0.2248" shank with 3 grease grooves and a GC shank to see what kind of weight is possible.  It should also have a crimp groove with one driving band forward to prevent telescoping.

ETA, the rough math is over.  70 grains of pure lead is possible.  Alloy?  68 grains.  If there were no grease grooves, GC shank and a pure wad cutter design, it would be 77 grains.

The best BC to be had with a 68 grain design would be in the low 0.200s.  Definite possible 200 yard use, 300 on calm days.
 

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Just..........don't..............shoot..............my...............dog.

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But..........I..............need..............yote.............bait.

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Ahh-ohh.  I smell a lock and possibly a bannination.




So, Mr. Knitter, er, I mean Friedguy.  How about a few of your rounds (trades, of course) to see how your 'loads work on coyotes?



I'm sure that a totally softer projectile would turn a dog into minced-meat.
 Afterall, a good howler is a dead howler.
 

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Paper patching would be a no-go.  Only GC for this diameter.

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http://img141.imageshack.us/img141/910/im001099bn2.jpg

This mold likes to be HOT. Here it is preheating on the edge of the pot.
The gray bottle to the left is anti-seize to lubricate the sprue cutter and alignment pins. The baggie to the right of the pot has remnants from one of my wifes scented candles (citrus pine) that I use for fluxing.

http://img300.imageshack.us/img300/2748/im001100ef0.jpg

Here is the mold with a fresh pour cooling. With this particular mold, allowing the iron to cool too much causes wrinkly bullets.

http://img300.imageshack.us/img300/4679/im001101zj8.jpg

Fresh cast bullets. These were dropped straight from the mold into a five gallon bucket of water. I had to be careful to not let the water touch the molds as it would have cooled them too much as well as many other potential issues.
Excuse the blurry pictures, this particular camera does not have a macro setting.

http://img149.imageshack.us/img149/5982/im001105nd8.jpg

Size reference. As you can see these are tiny (imagine that) and difficult to work with.

http://img407.imageshack.us/img407/1629/im001113se7.jpg

Here are a few sized, lubed and gas checked. Final average weight is right at 62 grains (55 advertised) with straight wheel weight alloy. Note the lack of lubrication on the top lube grooves. This particular bullet is designed as a 'silhouette bullet and lubrication is supposed to be applied by hand before entering the chamber. Again, these are tiny and applying the gas check is tedious work.

http://img149.imageshack.us/img149/2970/im001114rt3.jpg

Here you can see the OAL when seated to the first lube grooves. I also applied a fairly firm crimp at this point to help prevent set back.


For some reason the pictures I took at the range were data corrupted.
I loaded 10 rounds ranging from 18.0 grains of H335 to 24.0 in 0.5 grain increments. I chose H335 because I have over 20#'s on hand and will be the easiest for me to go with.  My goal for this session was to look for leading and determine the maximum pressure before issues arose.
I shot them out of my 16" Barreled AR as this will be the gun to see these the most for training and general plinking.
The 18.0 grain charge cycled the bolt just fine and accuracy was around 2" @ 50 yards.
No signs of leading were found after the 10 shot string. All rounds fed and cycled flawlessly.
This story remained the same until 22.5 grains of H335. At this point the group spread to about 4" @ 50 and slight leading was evident. I continued on to 23.0 grains of H335 just to see (after cleaning the barrel of course) and found that none of the first three shots were on paper.
One of the old timers of the range came over to see what I was doing at this point and we discussed the possibility of the bullets exploding due to too much spin. I do not know if this is what actually happend, but you could see a little grey cloud about 10' in fron of the muzzle after each shot. Very interesting.

I settled on the 20.0 grains of H335 to begin further testing from as these had the better accuracy of the groups fired. I intend to load up about 100 and go for an extended range visit to see how much leading may build up over time.

As a side note, no signs of lead were found in the gas tube upon cleaning and inspection. I do not feel this will be a major issue but I have been wrong before!


ETA: Pics fixed?

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Can we get an update Friiguy ?

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What types of updates are you all looking for?

Sadly since this thread started I haven't done much experimentation. I dont even have a spot to cast or smelt.

I have run over 200 of my favorite load through my AR over a couple sessions and found no signs of leading or degradation in accuracy.

 

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I have a place where you can cast.

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What types of updates are you all looking for?

Sadly since this thread started I haven't done much experimentation. I dont even have a spot to cast or smelt.

I have run over 200 of my favorite load through my AR over a couple sessions and found no signs of leading or degradation in accuracy.

 

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Just wondering what load you settled on and the accuracy your getting.

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So this topic is 2-3 years old but i thought i would bump it. Good info in this!

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The Mihec mold:

http://i940.photobucket.com/albums/ad248/MBuechle/MiHec_226-065_1.jpg

What I achieved with my first attempt:

http://i940.photobucket.com/albums/ad248/MBuechle/556_cast.jpg

That is a 50yd. target.  18 gr. of H4895.  95-3-2 PB-Sb-Sn, water dropped.  16" Armalite.  Action cycled perfectly, no lead in barrel, 1980 fps.

I've been told that .5gr. of Dacron stuffing to keep powder immobile will tighten the group up.  I've got some loaded this way but am waiting on warmer weather to try.

I've also cast some up with copper added to the alloy, toughening it, which should allow more speed.  Again, waiting on weather.

Standing on the shoulders of giants here, the load came from Larry Gibson over at Cast Boolits.com as did the Dacron idea.  The copper alloying also from Cast boolits, there's quite a long thread on it.  If you're a caster, it's a must visit site.