Fred,

I have excellent results using cast bullets in my Krag carbine which has a very good barrel.

What I'm using is a bullet from Buffalo Arms Co, .311 dia, RNGC, 173 grain hard cast.  I'm using 17 grains of 2400.  See it here:    (You need to Login

One thing I've learned when shooting lead bullets in a barrel tinted with copper wash from jacketed bullets, is clean the copper out first!

Bullets driven hard need to be hard.  At a minimum, you'll need at least 15 Bhn(Lyman # 2) and preferably 22-24(Lino of queched WW)

TL