Cast in a 22 Hornet or others?

[Canuck Bob]

This is a direct thread from Earl's sage rat thread, thanks Earl.

I am considering shooting cast in a 22 Hornet and maybe a 223. The rifle is a Handi with the 1-9 twist barrel so moderate velocity and heavier weights are probably no problem. The 223 is a CZ lefty and 1-12 twist.

Any experiences, loads, and accuracy notes are welcome, both good and bad.

[earlmck]

My hornets are both 16" twist, Bob. I'm guessing your faster twists are gonna' be somewhat different. I'll be very interested to hear of your experiences.

Years ago I played around with cast in both .225 Winchester and .219 Improved Zipper (virtually identical cartridges) with 14" twist. I had forgot I even did that shooting because it was 30 years ago but I just looked at my reloading notes and see that I got quite decent plinking accuracy (2" groups) with the 50 grain Lyman .225415 bullet and 14.5 grains of H4198 and IMR 4198 at just over 2000 fps. And these were not cast of Linotype but rather some 50/50 solder added to wheelweights to give about 4% tin for some hardening and better casting.

I'm guessing that wouldn't be a bad load in the .223 -- 13 to 14 grains of 4198 and a hard bullet.

[Richardx]

Here is an article by Ed Harris on cast in .223 http://www.hensleygibbs.com/edharris/ar ... n%20AR.htm

[J35]

This is a direct thread from Earl's sage rat thread, thanks Earl.

I am considering shooting cast in a 22 Hornet and maybe a 223. The rifle is a Handi with the 1-9 twist barrel so moderate velocity and heavier weights are probably no problem. The 223 is a CZ lefty and 1-12 twist.

Any experiences, loads, and accuracy notes are welcome, both good and bad.

I have a lot of experience with a 12 twist Hornet and the Lyman 415, I have two DC molds and both

drop 53 gr with WW +2%.

After much experimentation I found HS-6 and 296 gave the most consistent results in my rifle, using Win brass and Rem.5-1/2 primer.

I tried 10 powder's from 231 to AA-2015, and six different primer's over a number of years.

I found my rifle is temperamental as to bullet diameter and seating depth, in this rifle .224 shoot's

better than .225 ,.226

Best advice is try what you have and go from there, you have to start somewhere.

---------J

[Rusty]

Look over on the castboolits forum for information and you'll have weeks of reading to look at everything.

The Lee Bator mould is something you might want to look after too.

[mikld]

I have fired about 100 cast 45 gr. bullets in my Handi .223. I used WC820 and Unique as powders and got some good results, accuracy wise @ 75 yds. (1" or so). My work-up was interrupted by a 1911 that caught my fancy and I spent a year getting used to/playing with it.