Crankgrinder
New member
There's one. It would be 7.62 tokarev for me also had it been more available. Can't find that stuff nowhere around here.
your thoughts... what "could" be the most efficient cartridge, yet still acceptable..
- Thread starter Magnum Wheel Man
- Start date
I'd vote .40, just because it can be loaded a variety of ways from mild to wild and never really eats much powder. One could cast lead bullets anywhere from 125-200gr+ in TC, SWC or WFN flavor. I think the most efficient most potent load I've tried was a 180gr with 6.0gr of Unique that would average just over 1200 fps from a 6" barrel, that's just shy of 600 ft-lbs or nearly 100 ft-lbs per 1.0gr of powder, and you can get the 175gr SWC smoking too but either way there's a lot of good choices.
In hardcast bigger is better and the .40 is good sized, but the old .45 ACP would be hard to beat too when speaking of purely hardcast if you desired to shoot heavier bullets, .45 Colt too but the ACP would be more efficient powder wise.
In hardcast bigger is better and the .40 is good sized, but the old .45 ACP would be hard to beat too when speaking of purely hardcast if you desired to shoot heavier bullets, .45 Colt too but the ACP would be more efficient powder wise.
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cougar gt-e
New member
I agree, the 7.62x25 tokarev. Uses less lead, with bullets in the 70-90 range. Uses the same powder as a 9mm to go waaay faster, or cut the powder in half and have sub-sonic ballistics but still easily able to drop small and medium game, wild dogs and even wild people. (Being similar to a.32acp ballistics) But limiting power to 12-1300 fps with cast lead would be better ballistically and keep from leading the barrel.
It also helps to have a bottom shelf lined with tins of Tok...
Unfortunately, mil surp ammo is corrosive primed and not easily reloaded, but 5.56 brass can be reworked.
It also helps to have a bottom shelf lined with tins of Tok...
Unfortunately, mil surp ammo is corrosive primed and not easily reloaded, but 5.56 brass can be reworked.
Wreck-n-Crew
New member
For me it doesn't matter anymore (other than finding powder and I find it a lot now) that and I started casting my own and we know how expensive those bullets can be. I used some free Wheel weights and purchased a little lead in ingots. Still the cost is so much cheaper than buying bullets. The money offsets the powder enough that I can now load full charges.
Here are some of the 9mm's I cast...
Well being a big fan of coated bullets and the no smoke/no lead problems and not having to worry about velocity/pressure because I can load them to FMJ velocities, I decided to coat my own as well. Here is a sample of some .45's I coated today....
Jim Watson
New member
These Internet Ballistic Fantasies can be hard to parse.
So we have another severe Panic with shortages of ammunition and components, but no repressive gun control by Her Majesty Hillary the First that would make loading and shooting academic because then you would only get out an illegal gun in a case where it was life or death, even if you would be living in the Gun Owners' Gulag afterwards.
I'll go off the wall and suggest .45 ACP, a keg of Bullseye, and a shelf of bullet moulds. You have to assume a stash of primers and a source of lead for about anything.
Two guns would be helpful, one a 2011 with high cap magazines loaded with full power defensive ammo, say a 200 gr HP at full steam, and a couple of boxes of medium game loads with heavily loaded 230 gr SWCs.
Practice ammo would be a 200 gr bullet of a style easier to cast than the HP and the lightest load that would function the gun.
The other would be a revolver. I would prefer DA like a S&W 625 because the moon clips would help me recover my valuable brass six at a time; but you could make a case for a sturdy SA like a Ruger. You can get 150 grain .45 moulds to conserve lead, and a revolver doesn't care how light you load your scarce powder as long as the bullet clears the barrel. .38 Special ballistics are feasible.
Of course if budget or legislation limits you to one gun, get the revolver.
For ever more extreme circumstances:
Naturally your practice shooting will be into a backstop from which you can salvage the lead for reuse.
Do we want to think about making our own powder? There is a lot of internet stuff about black powder and you can even find literature on other recipes than the usual potassium nitrate, sulfur, charcoal blend.
If so, that revolver ought to be a convertible to .45 Colt so you could load worthwhile amounts of black.
Save those fired primers, too; you might get around to the Head Synthesis for making your own potassium chlorate.
So we have another severe Panic with shortages of ammunition and components, but no repressive gun control by Her Majesty Hillary the First that would make loading and shooting academic because then you would only get out an illegal gun in a case where it was life or death, even if you would be living in the Gun Owners' Gulag afterwards.
I'll go off the wall and suggest .45 ACP, a keg of Bullseye, and a shelf of bullet moulds. You have to assume a stash of primers and a source of lead for about anything.
Two guns would be helpful, one a 2011 with high cap magazines loaded with full power defensive ammo, say a 200 gr HP at full steam, and a couple of boxes of medium game loads with heavily loaded 230 gr SWCs.
Practice ammo would be a 200 gr bullet of a style easier to cast than the HP and the lightest load that would function the gun.
The other would be a revolver. I would prefer DA like a S&W 625 because the moon clips would help me recover my valuable brass six at a time; but you could make a case for a sturdy SA like a Ruger. You can get 150 grain .45 moulds to conserve lead, and a revolver doesn't care how light you load your scarce powder as long as the bullet clears the barrel. .38 Special ballistics are feasible.
Of course if budget or legislation limits you to one gun, get the revolver.
For ever more extreme circumstances:
Naturally your practice shooting will be into a backstop from which you can salvage the lead for reuse.
Do we want to think about making our own powder? There is a lot of internet stuff about black powder and you can even find literature on other recipes than the usual potassium nitrate, sulfur, charcoal blend.
If so, that revolver ought to be a convertible to .45 Colt so you could load worthwhile amounts of black.
Save those fired primers, too; you might get around to the Head Synthesis for making your own potassium chlorate.