I just made this bullet

[md80captain]

First attempt, looks good enough. .309 160 grains.

[tallburnedmidget]

Looks good to me, but I'm no caster. Please go fire them and report back, I'm looking forward to the results

[md80captain]

I'm waiting on powder. Weighed a few and they are +or- about 2 grains. I don't expect precision here, but who knows. This is from a custom mold, notice no lube grooves. These are going in my 8.5" AR and probably not past 1500 FPS. I will gas check for higher velocities in longer barrels.

[twcrowe12]

Are you baking in a pan? Most of the boolits look good but I'm seeing a few with flat spots. If memory serves those caused some accuracy issues. If you bake in a wire basket after being careful not to over-apply the PC those flat spots should go away

[md80captain]

Are you baking in a pan? Most of the boolits look good but I'm seeing a few with flat spots. If memory serves those caused some accuracy issues. If you bake in a wire basket after being careful not to over-apply the PC those flat spots should go away

I did the dry tumbler application method. Screened off the excess then poured onto some non-stick foil on the toaster oven grate. I think the "flat spots" you see are where the bullets stuck together. The object here is cheap plinking ammo, I'm not expecting much accuracy. Just looking for a quick and effective way to make bullets that won't lead the hell out of my barrels. I may try a different method later when I run gas checks and push these out of my Garand on O3A3. For now though, this is quick easy and I think, good enough. BTW, these are going to be used in an 8.5" AR pistol.

[twcrowe12]

That's how I did mine for a while and I was getting flat spots like yours. Turned out I was actually adding too much PC to the tumbler, which allowed the coating to run a bit when it baked. I used some wire mesh I had laying around so no more aluminum foil costs for me ha.

[psychbiker]

You gonna gas check them? I got my propane tank I'm bout to cut in half for my smelting pot and going to break in my lee mold this weekend. Gonna try alox first.

Cant decide if I need to gas check or not if I stay under 1500 fps.

[oldpapps]

"Cant decide if I need to gas check or not"

Some believe and the theory would back them up, that no gas check installed will give less accuracy.

I haven't found that to be true but it could be that I just can't hit all that well anyway

If the bullet to barrel fit is suitable and from what you have listed, it is, I would expect your little red bullets to do just fine to well over 1500 FPS.
As for feeding a Garand, I've been having problems with the coating being soo slick that after the 2nd or 3rd shot, I've pulled bullets in the clip. What a mess. Your bullets have a much longer shank than the ones I'm using, so you may well not have that problem. Oh, mine, 130 grain with no gas check, do very well out of my 03A3, over 2600 FPS with 44.0 grains of 748. And I'm not pushing them. I'm thinking more and more that a Lee FC die would be a fix for the Garand loads....

Let everyone know how things work out.

Load with care and enjoy.

OSOK

[md80captain]

You gonna gas check them? I got my propane tank I'm bout to cut in half for my smelting pot and going to break in my lee mold this weekend. Gonna try alox first.

Cant decide if I need to gas check or not if I stay under 1500 fps.

I'm thinking with the powder coat no gas checks under 1500 fps. I am planning on using gas checks for the -06 at 2000+ fps. I got a bunch of aluminum ones from a seller on Ebay for cheap, but have not tried them out yet. Will post results when I get a chance.

[popper]

I've pushed PB to 1900 in the BO & a 308MX, good accuracy, bout 1 1/2" @ 50, standing & leaning over the bags. Ouch.