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stevephillips1-
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Rum Runner
Mike B.
Rum Runner
if you want some meaningful help… then I tend to believe that you need to give the forum a bit of intel to start with… as to what your initial preferences are…For instance:
1. Do you plan down the line to just stay below 1600 FPS with your cast bullet loads?
a. If so then maybe you do not need a GC version mould to start with…
2. What lube type or types do you plan to use… Traditional, Tumble Lube, or Powder Coat?
a. Each bullet type has its offerings… with Pluses & Minuses… in each process type…
3. Do you plan to replace the jacketed bullets with cast bullets exclusively or not?
a. Switching back and forth between jacketed and cast will most probably necessitate a good cleaning
to remove all the copper residue from the bullet jackets… prior to shooting cast bullets.
Otherwise most individuals tend to see their cast bullet accuracy tend to suffer… from the copper
residue left in the barrel from the jacketed bullets…
4. What is the twist on your TC barrel?
a. Knowing that will help towards giving you weight vs twist maximum intel, & potentially from
selecting a cast bullet weight that is basically to heavy for the twist on your TC’s barrel.
b. What if any is the amount of freebore that is cut into your particular TC barrels chamber…?
I. Knowing that bit of intel will help you choose a cast bullet design that is compatible with your freebore design. Too Blunt of a cast bullet design may not allow the finished cartridge combination to easily chamber without forcing the cast bullet further into the cartridge case… because the cast bullets nose is now in full contact with the start of the rifling…Your answers to the above questions to start with… will tend to help guide those that may have intel in the same areas, with your 256 Winchester Magnum…, & who may want to help guide you to the data, & or provide the intel that you are interested in pursuing…
By the way Wolfe Publishing’s LoadData tends to at the moment have a bit over 80 cast bullet loads in a goodly variety of powders and similar bullet weights… to your preference along with remarks on the load accuracy etc…
I just looked at that particular website… subject under 256 Winchester Magnum, set to cast bullets….
Even if you are not a member at the moment, & thus cannot see the actual powder charge portion of the data it can potentially give you some ideas to start with… as to potential powder and cast bullet types that others have seen previously..Also the powder manufacturers websites can give you some ideas to pursue on the forum with more specific load data questions… in regard to the powders that you may have vs giving you data for powders that are not currently available at this present time…
Once the forum has a bit more intel from you… and where your preferences lie…there can potentially be some meaningful dialogue down the line…
Take Care, & Stay Safe…
Mike B,
Sorry been away for awhile but might be time to look into it. Probably should start a new but thanks for you input. Here goes with your questions.
1. I see no need to go over 1600, planning on FB cast.
2. HiTek or maybe powder coat lube.
3. Moving to cast bullets only.
4. Factory 10″ barrel. I believe 1in10 but too short to get accurate reading with patch. I get approx. 5/8-ish of a turn in what rifling there is, say 8″. As far as free bore, have not measure it yet. Just ordered bullet sizer from NOE to test samples of MO Bullet Co. 85gr. #1- 25.20 casting to get an idea of what I have to work with.
This has been a back shelf project for me for years. Since I’m beginning to cast now, it’s one of my 3 projects for winter.
I have Quick Load and most any powder needed for this case capacity so data shouldn’t be an issue.Rum Runner
First of all are these questions still about the .256 Win Mag in a Thompson Contender?
You may also find when you run Quickload … that you will find that almost all of your rifle powders possibly excluding some of the faster pistol powders like Bullseye & Unique; which may also possibly not burn completely in that short of a 10″ Thompson Contender barrel length when limited to below a 1600 FPS speed limit. (AS even those two powders may have to be limited in max charge weight to keep those cast bullets below your 1600 FPS set limit…)
So unless you are staying with & or limiting yourself to a bulk type of pistol powder like Trail Boss or one of the two mentioned above to get a 100% burn in that short 10 inch barrel… & or planning to make the loads up for your 256 Win mag as light plinking loads to limit the velocity generated to below 1600 FPS.
You may be limiting yourself to a very limited powder set of powder options, or limiting yourself to leaving up to 40 – 60 % of your powder charge unburnt in the barrel, or on the range … to keep below the speed limit that you have set for yourself…
Before you go much further … I might possibly suggest that you go into Quickload, & possibly run some quick numbers after setting the barrel length to 10 inches… and or staying with your purposed plan to only use a non GC bullet…
If you need help on that subject PM me, & I will see what I can do… to help… Unfortunately NOE PM’s do not allow attachments, & the NOE forum is still … from what I can see … also not allowing attachments either.
You may also find that the specific MO cast bullet weight with the specific correct overall bullet length is not in the standard Quickload data base, & may just have to add intel you own bullet data … files … down the line… to cover that deficiency powder coated or not… to get the most accurate data prediction… It is not hard but you might potentially need some help if you have never done it before…
There is also a GC manufacturer that is still I believe making .260 dia Plain base Aluminum Litho plate GCs (when I last looked) that can be installed on those cast bullets with the right equipment… The “B” (Inside cup dimension) (.260) of the Al GC is setup to allow the plain base cast bullet to fit into the Aluminum GCs.
Before you Panic … Al Litho plate GCs are softer than the standard Copper GCs…
You will also need to know … that at this point in the game that those .010 thick Al litho plate GCs start out at oversize in diameter by necessity… & need to be stepped down onto the plain base bullets. As NOE (I believe) still recommends that you only use their bullet sizers as a bandaid … to size down the cast bullets down in .001 step increments… at a time…
Personally I tend to use something similar to a Lyman type sizing dies in a sizing fixture that I made up to set the those Al Litho Plain base GCs in .006 step increments prior to lubing them in the final step… However I do use the NOE sizing dies quite regularly when I need to nose size to get closer to a freebore diameter when testing product…
However that is my choice… when making new product to test… a cast bullet design…
(You most probably have ~500 of those painted bullets from MO in your war bag at the moment…)I will leave it to Your Call on how you want to approach that subject…
I just ran and printed out the 256 Win Mag loaddata to see if there was anything there that inherently stayed below 1600 FPS that had been tested by that set of gun writers…
Take Care & Stay Safe…
Rum Runner
Mike B.- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.