Testing the Lee C324-175-1R Cast Bullet in 8mm Mauser 

At one time I converted some 270 Win to 8x57, it worked fine but was a considerable amount of work and left me with brass with the wrong head stamp. I came across sufficient proper 8mm brass after that so I have not done any more.

I just happened upon 8 pounds of green dot. It’s fairly similar to 700x as far a the shape of the granular design. Green dot is what 19 on the burn rate chart and 700x is 12 so there’s that. Been reading the forums about green dot and 1 forum post explains that it’s not good for 9mm loads. Apparently in that guy’s testing he was seeing dangerous pressures. Idk I have the Lyman pistol & revolver reloading handbook second edition copyright 1994. And it has 4 different loads for 4 different castings. Currently I’m trying out Lymans #356242 and it seems to be working well. My brass doesn’t show any signs of over pressure. Idk so far I seem to like green dot it’s been treating me well. But I’ll definitely keep your suggestion of 14.0 in mind James.

I do believe I have used 14 grains of Green Dot in cast loads in the 308 Win with good results.

No problem, thanks for the comment.

Excellent point there, Possum, about those unusual Lee molds. I, too, am lucky enough to own both of those and had forgotten about them. I must have owned them for over 5 years and never even tried them yet, i am ashamed to say. Thanks for reminding me. Hope i get to try them one day.

This being a commercial rifle with what is probably a "low mileage" barrel seems to have a pretty short throat. The resistance you can see when I close the bolt is the bullet being pushed into the leade, something that would certainly be a no-no with jacketed bullets but has never caused me issues when shooting lead bullets.

I've shot a lot of similar loads with the 13 grain Red Dot charge and have never experienced any unburned blowback of powder. I do prefer the 16 grain of 2400 load but 2400 is a lot less common around here than Red Dot is. Also the Red Dot responds better with these mild Dominion/Murom Berdan primers.

Not sure why you are having problems posting comments. YT is just weird sometimes. Many of my cast bullet loads are just fair performers, mostly that is because I dont focus enough on working up specific loads for specific rifles as much as I should. Too many different ones to try!

@@314299 That is true, seems as though Lee has a Target loading for best accuracy with their molds, as you stated, it's about spending the time to find out what that is. and there are published data on other mold designs from other manufactures that already prove to work. I'm currently working with the 314299 casting from a NOE mold I recently perched, I have IMR-4227 and I'm going with that powder, we will see the results. anyway, good casting and loading to you - Dave

Ouch! I think the "Dominion" brand Berdan primers used for this ammo cost $30/1000 tax included. But that was nine or ten years ago....

It might help, but then again it might not. Glass bedding and free floating often help accuracy, but I have encountered the opposite outcome. I once glass bedded and free floated a Rem 700 .222 and the result was a rifle that shot worse. Eventually I replaced that stock with an unaltered factory one which had the fore end bearing and the rifle once again shot great.

These are seated long as I dont like having the gas check below the neck of the case. They are long enough that they are into the leade when seated, as you can tell by the final effort require when chambering the rounds. While this is a no-no with jacketed bullets it generally works just fine with cast.

No, I don't have that particular mold.

Sounds like the correct bases. I got mine at a local shop, they came in a set of two for large ring 98 action Mauser rifles.

Red dot was always a commonly used 12 gauge target powder around here, but Unique is certainly more versatile.

Yes, there are fewer and fewer of them to be found on the shelves.

Yes it is. Not everyone gets that connection.

Yeah I bet not, it took me awhile to put that together. I've been watching your videos since the Stevens 87b video(that seems deleted)

Pretty sure they would work fine as they are such low pressure.

I have been using large pistol primers in place of large rifle primers. Gotta be careful I noticed that the pistol primer sits deeper in the rifle case. And if the charge is stout enough it will indeed push the primer out of the pocket and flatten out. Looking like a over pressure situation otherwise they have worked just fine for me in 7.62x39,308,30/06,35rem

I have tried large pistol primers in these sorts of loads and they seemed to work OK. As others have mentioned the pressures involved are not huge and should be in the range of what pistol primers will tolerate.

The problem with using any sort of pipe/tube for bullet jackets is that you can end up shooting the lead core out of them and leave the "jacket" stuck in the bore.

@@314299 sure, but don't you have many dies to make it pointed?

The Lyman 323470 is a Lovern style mold and with the multiple rings and short nose is quite good at centering it self in the bore and has hardly any unsupported nose to "slump" if bullet fit is not perfect, this seems to make it perform well in a variety of barrels.

Yes, I've had the 13 gr Red dot load shoot into sub 2", it depends on the rifle and the cast bullet shot. These loads are harder to shoot good groups with than higher velocity loads as the bullet spends more time in the barrel which amplifies any problems with trigger press and follow thru.

@@314299isn’t that the truth I personally had to lay prone and when i say prone I mean as flat and as close to the ground as I could get. Just to eliminate any follow through issues. However when I did that I was stacking shot after shot into a dime size group at 75 yards. I also will try to keep the powder at the back of the case. Seems red dot and any fast burning powder has issues with powder position in the case.

@@Johnny-jr2lq There is where the "16 grains of 2400" load shines, it does not care if the powder is against the primer or not. Unfortunately it seems that 2400 is not currently available on the market.

I ran these thru a .325" sizing die to crimp on gas checks and apply lube, the die barely touches the bullet so I would say they are .324 to .325 diameter.

I already have.

@@314299interesting what’s your thoughts on it. You don’t have any content on powder coated loading. Just the standard cast a lube with gas check.

It might but the objective is to do some shooting and use the Berdan primers that I have no other use for.