What alloy do you guys use for casting .223 Rem bullets? I have a good half ton of clip-on wheel weight ingots and maybe 500 pounds of the stick ons. I cast .311s for my Garand out of the wheel weights with no leading problems (at around 2000fps). Would the same work for my AR? It's a 1-9" twist 16" barrel. I'm thinking that with proper sizing and lube (along with a gas check), wheel weights might be OK - I've just never cast for a direct gas impingement rifle, so I don't know what kind of gunk I'll be putting into the tube, but if the Garand is any indication, it won't be much of anything.
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Alloy for .223
- Thread starter Hardcase
- Start date
I don't know what it will do in an AR, but I shot straight lyno in my #1 Ruger back in the eighties using, I think 4227, @ around 2300fps and RCBS' .22 mold with MOA accuracy. If I was trying to get it to work I'd try heat treating WW bullets. My #1 had a 1/12 twist and a hard bullet might work better with the more aggressive twist. Just a thought.
oldandslow
New member
hc, 1/4/14
I cast and reload .223/556 for my LMT-CQB 1:7 twist AR using wheel-weight equivalent alloy ( 2.2% antimony, 0.4% tin and the rest lead). I use a NOE 70 grain round nose mold which drops at 72 grains. I would heat treat at 465 degrees for an hour and then water drop increasing the BHN from 9 to 16. I gas check and size to 0.225" through a Lee push-through sizer and then pan-lube. I load with 20 grains of IMR-4064 as it was the only powder I could get. I used a RCBS single stage press and a Dillon 650 to load the cases (make sure you chamfer the inside-neck so you do not shave the boolits while seating). No crimp used. I did use an Lyman M-die to slightly open the neck. You have to use a COAL that feeds well with minimal boolit nose dinging while being chambered. I started at the max length the mag would take and went down until finding the optimum COAL which fed well with little nose deformity (2.190").
I've got 900 trouble free rounds through my AR with no leading of the chamber, barrel or bolt. The only problem was that with the reduced velocity compared to a FMJ load (2000 ft/sec compared to 3000 ft/sec) the action would not cycle reliably with a normal carbine buffer spring. Replacing the spring with a Wolf reduced power buffer spring from Brownells solved the short-stroking problem.
Casting and reloading for .223/556 involves a lot of steps and time. Accuracy was similar to my FMJ loads (2.4 MOA). I did it for about a year when FMJ bullets were not available during the recent hoarding of components. Now that FMJ's are again available for about $0.09 I have stopped using cast boolits (the cast boolits cost approx. $0.02 each).
I tried bumping up the velocity to 2200 ft/second but accuracy fell off and the boolit base would separate from the nose after leaving the muzzle.
good luck- oldandslow
I cast and reload .223/556 for my LMT-CQB 1:7 twist AR using wheel-weight equivalent alloy ( 2.2% antimony, 0.4% tin and the rest lead). I use a NOE 70 grain round nose mold which drops at 72 grains. I would heat treat at 465 degrees for an hour and then water drop increasing the BHN from 9 to 16. I gas check and size to 0.225" through a Lee push-through sizer and then pan-lube. I load with 20 grains of IMR-4064 as it was the only powder I could get. I used a RCBS single stage press and a Dillon 650 to load the cases (make sure you chamfer the inside-neck so you do not shave the boolits while seating). No crimp used. I did use an Lyman M-die to slightly open the neck. You have to use a COAL that feeds well with minimal boolit nose dinging while being chambered. I started at the max length the mag would take and went down until finding the optimum COAL which fed well with little nose deformity (2.190").
I've got 900 trouble free rounds through my AR with no leading of the chamber, barrel or bolt. The only problem was that with the reduced velocity compared to a FMJ load (2000 ft/sec compared to 3000 ft/sec) the action would not cycle reliably with a normal carbine buffer spring. Replacing the spring with a Wolf reduced power buffer spring from Brownells solved the short-stroking problem.
Casting and reloading for .223/556 involves a lot of steps and time. Accuracy was similar to my FMJ loads (2.4 MOA). I did it for about a year when FMJ bullets were not available during the recent hoarding of components. Now that FMJ's are again available for about $0.09 I have stopped using cast boolits (the cast boolits cost approx. $0.02 each).
I tried bumping up the velocity to 2200 ft/second but accuracy fell off and the boolit base would separate from the nose after leaving the muzzle.
good luck- oldandslow