Made a bullet mold for .223 rem

[BigBore45]

OK. So I have another thread going for shooting cast out of an AR-15. Long story short was not happy with my bullet mold, accuracy or velocity.

Well I milled out a Lee 55 Gr. Bater mold into an 82 grain. Here are some pics of the bit I used. my finished bullet on the scale and a side profile.

The bit is a jewelers bit that is .221 diameter.

Finished cast bullet is .226 after polishing the mold up a bit. It's not super smooth as if it was it wouldn't release the bullet well.

Tomorrow: First test load is 20 grains of IMR 4064 with a COAL of 2.26.

 

[LoonWulf]

Nice looking bullet you got there, im interested in how these shoot. Ive been considering getting into casting and one i wanted to try was heavy .223s.

 

[Walkalong]

Very cool. Nice job.

 

[BigBore45]

That load was way to much. crony read 2170 FPS out of my 18" barrel. I used quickload and hadnt the slightest idea where to go with it so i picked that out of one of my manuals and took 2 grains off.

I changed powders after i got the quickload bullet matched with my readings. I went to H-380 because it seemed to have more pressure at the 8" barrel point to cycle the action.

I loaded 15gr. of H-380 and Clocked 1540 FPS out of 5 rounds the deviation was only 30 FPS. pretty tight i though for a reduced load. Also Cycled the action every time through a whole magazine of 20 rnds. Accuracy seems ok at 50 yards. about 1" i only have a 4X scope on this ar-15 so after this testing im going to mess with the COAL a bit as it seemed to be a bit long at 2.260. very close but one kinda jammed into the lands from a bit of coating built up. So going to rework to 2.250 and quick test the 15 grains of powder again before moving on to 100+ yard accuracy tests.

 

[spitballer]

Nice! I've though about casting for my .223 bolt, but never followed through with it. Good to know I'm not the only one interested in tinkering with smaller rounds (which are probably tougher to get right than bigger ones). Amazed that you can get repeatability with your configuration, I'd be inclined to use a long barrel like the old timers.

 

[Hondo 60]

BigBore45 - what metal are you using to cast 'em?

 

[BigBore45]

BigBore45 - what metal are you using to cast 'em?

WW with a bit of foundry 15-16 BHN.