Some time back a real nice guy offered to send me some cast "boolits" to try out. By some time I think it was dang near a year back now!
It took a while but a few weeks back I finally found myself some powder suitable for reduced loads and was able to load up some of the cast boolits you sent me. Finally!
IMR 4198 wasn't exactly my first choice but it worked. Through google I was able to find some pictures of older reloading manuals on another forum so that's where I got my data. Started with 1/2 grain over the minimum and loaded half, the other half got one grain over that so I was nowhere near max but max wasn't the point.
Anyway I just wanted to share! I'm still consider myself a new reloader and I'm nowhere near ready to start casting but these were fun.
My Ruger Scout loves the 175g SMK's and from the tiny bit of experience I've gained it appears it is open to some cast experimentation as well.
I figured my homemade steel would handle reduced cast loads just fine, turns out I didnt give them enough credit.
COM impacts are from the Lyman 311041 these actually tore up my homemade steel target! A few impacted pretty close to previous hits and bulged the back of the target.
The group in the neck area is from the heavier 311284. It rang that steel pretty well but wasn't nearly as destructive on the target.
Best photo I could get of the penetration achieved by the 311041 on steel.
I'm still waiting on my order of Unique so I'm stuck with only using what I can find published data for (I'm to chicken to attempt making my own loads based on burn rates).
I see Ranch Dog has released three new molds for short necked .30 calibers. Pretty neat to see cast stuff coming out specifically for .308's and the like. I'm tempted to by a mold but unfortunately I have no idea how long it'd just end up sitting on the shelf before I was ready to try casting.
I'm not sure if he's a member of this forum or not but to the guy that sent me the boolits to try out a big Thank You!
