complete novice needing guidance

[Nemesis]

heres what i have in my mind. i have an old '43 Rem. 03A4 with the 2 groove barrel. now, i love shooting this rifle...however i would like to shoot it more often, and cheaper... .30-06 isint cheap. i have been giving some thought over the past months and months, tinkering with the idea here and there, of turning it into a handload only rifle, running nothing but cast bullets...goals: cheap, the fun of loading ammo, accuracy, and the fun of shooting.

now i have done some poking around and i have figured out that non-gas checked rounds are typically good to about 1400 FPS tops, after that you start to get leading issues.

my first question:

Leading...how big of a problem is it? can you run harder lead alloys at higher velocities without GCs and not have leading issues?

i am thinking about using a Lee mold, casting 200 Gr rounds.

i would like my velocities to be somewhere around maybe 1800-2000 FPS...is this even possible?

 

[pop-gunner]

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/

 

[Biggfoot44]

Cast bullets are interesting, using both senses of the word. Every rifle has its own likes and dislikes.

In general your goal is possable. You may have to try different molds , alloys , sizing diameters , lubes , etc

Shooting such bullets at 1100-1400fps are more likely to find good combinations sooner and more easily.

If you are starting out handloading in general , use jacketed first to get comfortable with the processes of actual loading , and load developement.

 

[Mason-Dixon]

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/

+ 1 Just about everything you could want to know is on that site.

 

[SOMDSHOOT]

oh Goodie, someone else from Indian Head. I am in the process of getting back in to casting and loading here myself. I have been a member on CB for several years now and there is a lot of good info to be found there.

Most of my interest is in muzzleloading, but, the rifle / handgun info is excellent as well there. CB is mostly filled with "experimenters" and they do post a lot of detailed findings.

I'm just waiting for my molds to arrive this week and I can start my casting again, so, if the fire whistles start blowing in Indian Head this week, don't worry about a thing, it's just my garage burning down from me getting back in to the art of casting lead, it's been awhile ( about 2.5 decades )