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Old 03-31-2019, 09:48 AM
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Sitting Bull Sitting Bull is offline
 
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Default Cast bullet education needed

Hey guys, I have a Marlin in 35Rem that I am thinking of using cast bullets in order to bring the cost of shooting down. I have never shot cast and really know nothing about it other than it's not healthy(poison) and what I have read on the net. I will not be casting my own but rather buying pre made gas checked. Jet bullets in Wetaskiwin has 225gr. RNFP gas checked for $68.00/200 .
a) What can I expect with cast as far as performance, issues and maintenance?
b) What about lead contamination in the meat?
c) What are your thoughts regarding the use of cast in general?
d) How do you decide on the hardness of a bullet?

Thats for the help.

Last edited by Sitting Bull; 03-31-2019 at 10:11 AM.
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Old 03-31-2019, 12:48 PM
yukon254 yukon254 is offline
 
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The 35 Remington is a great cartridge for cast bullets. The main thing with cast is proper fit. You should really slug your bore. One or two thousand over bore diameter usually shoots best.

Lead contamination is a non issue IMO. On game performance with good cast bullets is very good to excellent if the bullets are properly designed. You want a wide metplate, ( nose). I've shot a lot of game with cast bullets out of my 444, including grizzly bears. I prefer cast for that rifle actually. It will exit every single time even on bison. Personally I like a hard bullet, something above 18 BHN seems to shoot and perform well. I cast my own bullets and quench Good luck!
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Old 03-31-2019, 03:33 PM
Pioneer2 Pioneer2 is offline
 
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Default Cast

Another thing to consider is if it's a Marlin with micro-groove rifling a bullet with a GC ,cast hard and 2 thou over groove size.Jet Bullets make great stuff.Go on castboolits.com they are a great bunch and will point you in the right direction.
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Old 04-01-2019, 08:32 AM
YYC338 YYC338 is offline
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You'll also get better accuracy if you clean the bore of all copper fouling before you start to shoot cast.

This website is a very good resource for information:
https://www.montanabulletworks.com/resources/secrets/
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Old 04-01-2019, 07:55 PM
^v^Tinda wolf^v^ ^v^Tinda wolf^v^ is offline
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As stated the copper fouling. I use cast bear load in my 45/70 and I don’t find it to be as accurate even with copper fouling cleaned out well. Hits like a frying pan though
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Old 04-02-2019, 01:08 AM
303carbine 303carbine is offline
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Sitting Bull View Post
Hey guys, I have a Marlin in 35Rem that I am thinking of using cast bullets in order to bring the cost of shooting down. I have never shot cast and really know nothing about it other than it's not healthy(poison) and what I have read on the net. I will not be casting my own but rather buying pre made gas checked. Jet bullets in Wetaskiwin has 225gr. RNFP gas checked for $68.00/200 .
a) What can I expect with cast as far as performance, issues and maintenance?
b) What about lead contamination in the meat?
c) What are your thoughts regarding the use of cast in general?
d) How do you decide on the hardness of a bullet?

Thats for the help.


Hard cast bullets will pass through where jacketed bullets with soft lead cores tend to deposit way more lead into game.
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Old 04-20-2019, 09:40 AM
shootsblanks shootsblanks is offline
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Sitting Bull View Post
Hey guys, I have a Marlin in 35Rem that I am thinking of using cast bullets in order to bring the cost of shooting down. I have never shot cast and really know nothing about it other than it's not healthy(poison) and what I have read on the net. I will not be casting my own but rather buying pre made gas checked. Jet bullets in Wetaskiwin has 225gr. RNFP gas checked for $68.00/200 .
a) What can I expect with cast as far as performance, issues and maintenance?
b) What about lead contamination in the meat?
c) What are your thoughts regarding the use of cast in general?
d) How do you decide on the hardness of a bullet?

Thats for the help.

35rem seems to be a favourite hunting cartridge among long time cast shooters as it handles bigger game better than the 30's

Looks like you already have a lot of good advice, but one thing not mentioned is to bell your case mouths, either with a lee flaring die, a lyman M die, or even just a set of needle nose pliers, this prevents your case from shaving lead and effectivly making your bullet under sized.

Softer bullets expand, hard cast do not preform on game as well in my experience even with a larger meplat. I have had faster kills and better terminal preformance with acww+2% tin (~12bhn) at 1700fps with my 3030 than with water quenched (~22bhn) at 2000fps given similar shot placement and range, but they all died reasonably quickly and left good blood trails.

When i first started casting i had a bunny load and a deer load using the same lee 170gr bullet, i kept them seperate by using different headstamp brass for different loads. Long story short i put a 170gr acww bullet behind a deers shoulder at 30 yards that had the wrong headstamp, it was moving 1100fps and it was not recovered, the deer left a good 25y blood trail and died. i ordered a 125gr mold the following day so i could tell even by feel which cartridge i was holding and prevent that from happening again.

What i am trying to illustrate is that a flat nose cast bullet works great even at below acceptable velocity levels, if you find great accuracy at anything over 1700fps you will be able to effectivly kill any game animal not wearing kevlar out to 200 yards with that big 225gr slug as long as you know your trajectory and are handy with range estimation. I am more confident in a 2moa load at 1700fps than a 4moa load at 2000fps
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Old 04-21-2019, 11:16 AM
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1899b 1899b is offline
 
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Check out The Bullet Barn. I have used their hard casts in my .38-55 as well as .45-70. They are hard cast at 25bhn and I could drive their product fairly fast without a gas check...
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An awful lot of big game was killed with the .30-06 including the big bears before everyone became affluent enough to own a rifle for every species of game they might hunt.
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