New Mosin / New Mould
Posted: 23 Jul 2016 15:56
Back at Christmas I got a new to me 1933 Tula HEX receiver 91/30. The stock was in fairly bad shape finish wise but the bore is good and bluing just needed so minor touchups and bolt needed a good polishing. While I was at it I cork bedded the action and refinished the stock to a blonde finish instead of the traditional red shellac finish.
The mould I picked up is the Lee .312" 185 gr. RN. I plan on shooting this one in my Mosin rifles as it's a pretty close match to the Lyman 314299 but much cheaper. The bullets were cast from Wheel Weights + about 2% Tin and quenched straight from the mould. The next day they were sized to .314" in my RCBS Lube A Matic using Lars 2500+ and Gator checks. I going to push these with something along the lines of 28 to 30 grs. of IMR-4895 and about 3/4 grs. of Dacron filler which seem to improve accuracy over not using a filler at all with the slower burning stick powders,but that project is a little down the road. But for right now I'm going to work with some of my Alliant 2400 loads and a few other powders I have on hand to see how they do.
Part of the Lee 185 gr. mold block.
A few of the bullets I cast up minus the lube.
Cases were once fired PPU brass I got at the LGS they get from the local gun range. I full length resized the case this time around and trimmed them to proper length and resized the case neck using my NOE .312" expander plug. The throat is pretty deep on this rifle so I couldn't seat the bullet out as far as I wanted so I seated it half way on the middle driving band for this test load. I used 19.0 grs. of Alliant 2400 and Winchester LR primers.
I was able to get out after the July 4th holiday and shoot my Mosin 91/30 HEX receiver rifle I had reworked a couple months back and try out the new Lee .312" 185 gr. RN bullet I had cast up. For this test I loaded up 25 rds. as I have installed a MOJO rear aperture sight on the rifle an the original factory post so I knew it would take a few rds. to get it on target an leave the rest to chrono and do some accuracy test. I set my target up at 50 yds. which is a far as I can shoot in the back yard range,below is the final one of two five shot groups from today’s shooting and I had another target with the shots in the orange square area once I made the final sight adjustment but was unable to retrieve it before the weather moved in.
After firing those 25 rds. the bore was nice and shiny with only a few burnt powder residue specks here and there. I'm pretty pleased with the initial results an will be trying a couple different loads in a few weeks as well as a couple more of the 2400 loads in larger increments as I have room to increase it.
The mould I picked up is the Lee .312" 185 gr. RN. I plan on shooting this one in my Mosin rifles as it's a pretty close match to the Lyman 314299 but much cheaper. The bullets were cast from Wheel Weights + about 2% Tin and quenched straight from the mould. The next day they were sized to .314" in my RCBS Lube A Matic using Lars 2500+ and Gator checks. I going to push these with something along the lines of 28 to 30 grs. of IMR-4895 and about 3/4 grs. of Dacron filler which seem to improve accuracy over not using a filler at all with the slower burning stick powders,but that project is a little down the road. But for right now I'm going to work with some of my Alliant 2400 loads and a few other powders I have on hand to see how they do.
Part of the Lee 185 gr. mold block.
A few of the bullets I cast up minus the lube.
Cases were once fired PPU brass I got at the LGS they get from the local gun range. I full length resized the case this time around and trimmed them to proper length and resized the case neck using my NOE .312" expander plug. The throat is pretty deep on this rifle so I couldn't seat the bullet out as far as I wanted so I seated it half way on the middle driving band for this test load. I used 19.0 grs. of Alliant 2400 and Winchester LR primers.
I was able to get out after the July 4th holiday and shoot my Mosin 91/30 HEX receiver rifle I had reworked a couple months back and try out the new Lee .312" 185 gr. RN bullet I had cast up. For this test I loaded up 25 rds. as I have installed a MOJO rear aperture sight on the rifle an the original factory post so I knew it would take a few rds. to get it on target an leave the rest to chrono and do some accuracy test. I set my target up at 50 yds. which is a far as I can shoot in the back yard range,below is the final one of two five shot groups from today’s shooting and I had another target with the shots in the orange square area once I made the final sight adjustment but was unable to retrieve it before the weather moved in.
After firing those 25 rds. the bore was nice and shiny with only a few burnt powder residue specks here and there. I'm pretty pleased with the initial results an will be trying a couple different loads in a few weeks as well as a couple more of the 2400 loads in larger increments as I have room to increase it.