Maybe coulda had something bad happen today, I'm not doing this again either. The cast load I used was by the book, BUT to fill up the case because the powder was sooooooooo low, I used the ole quick grits, well lemme tell ya, They cooked inside the case, the bullet came out, but all the grits expanded and stopped up the case mouth, on one case the bullet stayed in the case and 15 minutes later when I pulled the bullet airpressure came out of the case, the other two cases I am going to let set till tomorow.I think I best stick with the book for awhile. one bullet got lodged in the barrel, luckily I had enough sense to pull the bolt and look cause something didnt sound right.

I've been using quick grits for years and have not had any problems. Was there any moisture in the grits? What kind of powder charge were you using? With a bullet lodging in the barrel with a normal load it makes me think something the powder not to ignite properly.

Everything is was clean and dry, I believe it was just too much grits. The load was 12 grains unique , 155 grain cast, 7.62X54R. 60 or so worked fine, I think I over filled the case, it was to the shoulder and very slightly compressed. there is no doubt they expanded, the case mouths on 2 are so tightly packed I cant get the stuff out with a fine steel point.Oh, this was right after loading too, just minutes from reload to fireing. also the primers on these rounds looked as if the firing pin melted into the primer, some kind of pressure thing I'm sure.kinda like a melted puddle, all the ones that fired ok looked normal.

[ 09-15-2003, 08:37: Message edited by: Bulletman ]

Bulletman--You are supposed to use uncooked grits.

ROTFLMAO, ya know, if ya just add a lil water, jus a lil, you could make a quick little meal. real fast too. like quick breakfast to go for the soldier on the run. I can see it now , ole drill sarg, sayin , line up you grabastic snotballs, I'm gonna shoot ya some breakfast !

[ 09-15-2003, 08:46: Message edited by: Bulletman ]

I would be wary of using any filler (except something like dacron) in any necked cartridge.

I'm going back to tilting the rifle before firing.

Yep, you probably caused a "tight neck" situation through no fault of your own. Shit happens. Trk is correct: no compaction "possibility" should be allowed at any time, fault or no fault. ... felix

I had noticed on some lighter loads a tendency for the grits to compact inside the case. This would take a bit of scraping to get loose. This was always in the shoulder area of the cartridge, and the neck itself was clean. I never had any failures to fire, or hangfires. I can see no way the filler could cause such a thing unless you borrowed some cood grits from C-man. After increasing loads a bit, the problem disappeared. I seem to recall that the 6.5 mauser was the worst culprit. I've never had any of this with the .358 Win, probably due to the slight shoulder radius on this cartridge.

I just looked at the other two cases, those grits are like concrete, even my wife cooks em betta than that ! and these are Aunt jemima brand

bulletman...Yours sounds like a similar situation in the fouling Shot several years ago.

The guy was using cream of wheat as a filler. Over time, it must have absorbed moisture from somewhere(?) and set up as you described with extremely high pressures.

He too ended up picking out the peices with a shapened small screwdriver.

I'm prone to use the polyester filler stuff as supposedly, it doesn't have the same characteristic of absorbing moistue like vegeatble fillers such as COW and grits do./beagle

This is fascinating.

I have never heard of anyone ever using or being advised to use, nor have I seen it written anywhere that grits or cornmeal or any solid is used as a filler. You said you used "the book". Whose?
Why would you be using Unique anyway? Are your fireforming?
If you want a good load call Accurate and have them recommend a cast load using XMR-5744, this is what the powder was originally developed for.

I'm a relative newbie to the art of boolit shooting, but isn't a hard filler best used in a straight walled case and dacron or Kpok for a necked case? Educate me please. And why can't I use ground corn cob? Ross told me NO.

Lar, I use used corn cob media from my tumbler. Works fine. I do suggest, though, that you NOT use new corn cob media. The particles have little edges on them and they're compressable, so they "clump up" under pressure. The used media is worn into smooth balls that won't stick together into a solid mass under pressure.

I use the used media in straight as well as bottleneck cases without problems.

IMHO these food products used for fillers all have moisture in them to one degree or another and most problems can be traced to that factor. I have using 1cc of Precision Shotshell Buffer on top of 49/WC872 in the 30-06 round with outstanding results. There are so many different opinions when it comes to fillers and their use, but at least I know that grex substitute does not contain any H20.

I'm a devotee of dacron (polyester) for my cast-bullet loads. I find it works very well for me, usually giving more consistency and often better accuracy as well. Not always, mind you, but usually. The amount of dacron I use in any case is just enough to keep the powder charge properly positioned, NOT tamped, packed, stuffed, squashed or otherwise heavily compressed. There is still a lot of airspace within the tuft of dacron.

I use cornmeal only to fireform new cases to other uses. For example, 20 grains of 2400 or 5744 in the bottom of a .338 or .375 Ultra-Mag case, topped off with cornmeal and NO wad or projectile whatever, will form the case to .404 Jeffery very nicely. Some preliminary sizing in the .404 sizer is necessary to allow the case to chamber, but the cornmeal load then forms the shoulder and neck perfectly. It's my thinking that there is an "ironing" effect caused by the granular filler which helps with the case-forming.

I've found that it's necessary to point the rifle straight up to get uniform neck length when fireforming, and of course it keeps the loose cornmeal in the case, too.

Regards from BruceB (aka Bren Mk1)

I used lyman reloading book, I thought it was the right thing to do.Unique is one powder they referenced to, so I used it.

[ 09-18-2003, 01:42: Message edited by: Bulletman ]

Bulletman,

Not implying anything with my post. Lyman is the only loading book I do not have.

Well. I guess I have genuinely learned something.

If you want to make a low velocity round, do try out the XMR-5744. I use it with 575 grain cast linotype bullets in my .500. I use 35 grains and the velocity runs about 1050-1100 fps. If I wanted a sub-sonic I would go with 30. They are very, very accurate by the way.

The load was from lyman, not the filler techniques, I actually learned that from other reloaders. Our local store has a limited supply of powder and I had to get the unique,I also have some H335 and h4198 I been using, but they all fill a small part of the case, I need to find something for cast but fills atleast half the case.

Bulletman,

When I had telephoned the Accurate tech line several years ago about the XMR-5744, the guy was pretty excited. I guess they were going to take it out of production but too many people started hollering.
When I told him my application he assured me it was an all position powder and not to have a worry about how much is in the case. I tested that by shooting the .500 after tipping up, nothing at all and actually pointing it down to get the powder behind the bullet. All shot the same way.
This uses a .460 Weatherby case necked up to .50 caliber so with 35 grains in the case, there is lots of room.

Roger

Thanks for ther info, I finally got this round working ok, at 100 yards its about 6 inches but my eyes are fuzzy too, so I cant expect any better unless I scope it. I kept the load at 11 grains, but also experimented with the depth, and that was it, I found a sweet spot, at 25 yards all rounds go in the same hole, at 50 its about 3, which is where I start seeing a fuzzy target, then out to 100 at 6. this was with out any filler too.

I currenty have four rifles shooting one ragged hole groups at 100 yds. Two have scopes and two don't. One is a 30-06 CZ, scoped, shooting less then .500 at 100 yds using surplus 844, which by the way Bulletman is equivalent to H335, the other scoped rifle is a SAKO 7mm-08, also shooting around .500 at 100 yds with 844 powder, a new unisssued Yugo 8mm Mauser with peep sites, shooting a ragged .625 with peep sights, also with 844 powder, and the last is a 30-40 Krag shooting around an inch. I use kapod excusively and had just done a test comparing it to dacron and my guns shoot better and smaller groups hands down with the kapok. I would never use grits, cream of wheat, or corn cob media in my loads or rifles. I would use them maybe in fireforming but that is it. There is no doubt in my mind or my shooting that my kapok loads, or dacron for that matter, shoot alot better then not using a filler and tilting the rifle up before shooting. Ask Felix about how my 30-06 is shooting. The one thing I don't like about dacron is that sometimes it leaves plastic in the bore or on the case mouth. Kapok leaves nothing. I've been using kapok for over 20 yrs in more guns then I care to list here with no problems what so ever. I've even used kapok in pistol rounds that are fired from revolvers like 357 and 45 long colt and you would be amazed at how clean the cylinder throats are.

Joe