Garand and PC lead

C

chris in va

New member
Just...what if.

Say I take the Lee 312-155-2r I use in my CZ carbine, size it down to 308, powder coat it and use it in my Garand at normal velocities.

What would happen? Profile too blunt for the feed ramp?
 
Where have you been.....I already do that. I gascheck it and lube it with a Qtip and use it with the right alloy out of my 721 in 30-06 at 2600 fps with no leading.

I also use it in .308. My next thing will be to try PC on em instead of tumle lube applied with a Q tip.

721 has no gas tube. The bullet will work and if you allox with a qtip there is only lube in the groove area.
 
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I believe the OP asked about a specific cast bullet with powder coating, in a Garand, not a q-tip lubed nekkid cast bullet in a bolt action Remington...

I'd also like to have info. on shooting PCed bullet in a Garand as I have an M1 and am a bit leery about shooting cast or cast/PC bullets in a gas gun...:confused:
 
Lots of folks shoot cast bullets in the Garand, but I think they pretty universally use metal gas checks so pressure doesn't gas cut the part of the bullet base passing over the gas port. I don't see how powder coating would stand up to that much better than plain lead, but I can't claim to have tried it. At least with the Garand, the gas port is small and very far forward where the gas pressure has dropped significantly.
 
chris in va said:
Just...what if.

Say I take the Lee 312-155-2r I use in my CZ carbine, size it down to 308, powder coat it and use it in my Garand at normal velocities.

What would happen? Profile too blunt for the feed ramp?
Click to expand...
Just wondering as I am new to using cast bullets; don't you need to size the bullets a bit bigger than 0.308"? Something like 0.309"? Is it because of the coating thickness? How much does the coating add to the bullet diameter? Thanks.

-TL
 
you would cast your bullets at .309 with a standard mold, the coating would bring it to about .310 usually, maybe more. but it doesn't matter, because your going to be running your cast bullets through a sizer anyways. and yes, it is recommended to shoot .001 over your bore size to reduce leading by means of hot gases passing around the bullets base. also, it will be more accurate if it's big enough to fully squeeze into your rifling ensuring a straight flying bullet as it leaves the barrel.

but along with your mold, you will also need to buy a .309 sizing die. or .310 if your lug your bore and find it to be bigger than .308, although doubtful in a quality gun like a garand as long as it's not shot out

powder-coating GREATLY reduces any lead fouling. mine holds up to 1800fps w/o gas-check so far. I am sure I could go faster too. check out cast.boolits forums to see what people are shooting with PC, they are really pushing the limits
 
Thanks for the info. So you size down the bullets after the coating cures? Can a Lee lubrisizer do the job, or it will need a special sizing die?

-TL
 
I didn't know lee had a lubrasizer? but yes, anything that sizes your bullet will do the job. you size after coating
 
I size my PCed bullets with a Lee push through die, mostly before and after. I keep a bunch of bullets unlubed but sized and lube them as per the use (I'll often use Carnauba Red for my Magnum loads or 45-45-10 for my semi-auto pistols and low to mid velocity handgun ammo). I'll use these already sized bullets for PCing and size the same as lead bullets after PCing (like .358" for 38/357, .432" for .44 Spec./Mag., .309"-310" for 30-30, etc.). This has worked for mebbe 1,500 rounds through my guns...
 
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