My question was not meant to be "why would you shoot cast bullets before jacketed ones", but rather: why would you shoot cast bullets in an expensive military autoloader (for which ammunition is plentiful and inexpensive)? If you find such a rationale, why would you then shoot match bullets? If your purpose is to drive out leading, wouldn't you just shoot regular FMJ? Especially if you're obstensibly shooting lead to lower your costs anyway?
I suppose that is a fair question. But few people realize how cheaply you can shoot if A. you use lead bullets and B. you buy your components in bulk. Would you believe that I bought BLc2 surplus powder not too many years ago for $3.00 a pound in a 100 lb drum. And lead bullets can often run as little a a penny a piece. So monitarily it can sometimes be way less expensive than even buying mililtary surplus ammo and usually with much better accuracy.
Generally I have a very low opinion on a lot of suplus ammo I have shot and beating its accuracy with cast bullets is often times no big deal.
Also some of us like the challenge of concocting a good cast bullet load that beats the pants off some jacketed bullet loads.
And lets not forget the recoil factor. With cast bullet loads even going close to 2,000 fps. (yes it is possible without leading) the recoil is way lower than when shooting full power jacketed bullets. The lower the recoil the longer most people will want to shoot despite all the he-man hot air that you often read about in regards to people shooting full power loads and claiming it never bothers them. Take a look at their scores at the end of the shooting session as compared to the beginning and you will see that recoil affects everyone wether they realize it or not.
One must also not count on Military surplus ammo to always be available in the future or at consistantly low prices either. Case in point. Many years ago ammo for the 7.62 x 39 was very scarce. I managed to find some new unprimed brass and by using a cast bullet load was able to push the bullet almost as fast as its jacketed military original. Much later in time when very, very cheap surplus ammo became available at 8 cents a round delivered I temporarily suspended shooting lead out of my various rifles in this caliber, that is until I had a new custom mold made that had a bullet designed especially for the Ak. I could not resisit trying it out and found that it also shot great in other caliber military rifles like the 7.7 Jap, .303 British, and 7.65 Argentine.
Well another problem cropped up. I did not have what I considered to be enough empty brass in all of these calibers so what did I do? I made brass in all of the calibers above except the 7.62x39 from shortened surplus 30-06 cases in which I had hundreds of spares. But thats another story for another time.
P.S. my shooting match bullets was never intended to drive lead out. As I posted above I seldom get much if any of it. My mission was to test the accuracy potentional of some new jackted loads that I made up for match shooting. I often take many types of loads to the range with me and test them all wether they are cast, match jacketed or even hunting bullets and hunting loads.
I suppose that is a fair question. But few people realize how cheaply you can shoot if A. you use lead bullets and B. you buy your components in bulk. Would you believe that I bought BLc2 surplus powder not too many years ago for $3.00 a pound in a 100 lb drum. And lead bullets can often run as little a a penny a piece. So monitarily it can sometimes be way less expensive than even buying mililtary surplus ammo and usually with much better accuracy.
Generally I have a very low opinion on a lot of suplus ammo I have shot and beating its accuracy with cast bullets is often times no big deal.
Also some of us like the challenge of concocting a good cast bullet load that beats the pants off some jacketed bullet loads.
And lets not forget the recoil factor. With cast bullet loads even going close to 2,000 fps. (yes it is possible without leading) the recoil is way lower than when shooting full power jacketed bullets. The lower the recoil the longer most people will want to shoot despite all the he-man hot air that you often read about in regards to people shooting full power loads and claiming it never bothers them. Take a look at their scores at the end of the shooting session as compared to the beginning and you will see that recoil affects everyone wether they realize it or not.
One must also not count on Military surplus ammo to always be available in the future or at consistantly low prices either. Case in point. Many years ago ammo for the 7.62 x 39 was very scarce. I managed to find some new unprimed brass and by using a cast bullet load was able to push the bullet almost as fast as its jacketed military original. Much later in time when very, very cheap surplus ammo became available at 8 cents a round delivered I temporarily suspended shooting lead out of my various rifles in this caliber, that is until I had a new custom mold made that had a bullet designed especially for the Ak. I could not resisit trying it out and found that it also shot great in other caliber military rifles like the 7.7 Jap, .303 British, and 7.65 Argentine.
Well another problem cropped up. I did not have what I considered to be enough empty brass in all of these calibers so what did I do? I made brass in all of the calibers above except the 7.62x39 from shortened surplus 30-06 cases in which I had hundreds of spares. But thats another story for another time.
P.S. my shooting match bullets was never intended to drive lead out. As I posted above I seldom get much if any of it. My mission was to test the accuracy potentional of some new jackted loads that I made up for match shooting. I often take many types of loads to the range with me and test them all wether they are cast, match jacketed or even hunting bullets and hunting loads.