My cast bullet experience has been with large caliber black powder rifles, pure lead and Bee's wax and beef tallow lube.  My better shooting Krags have bores that slug at .309-.310", minimum, at the muzzle.  I am considering buying a Lee mould that casts 185 gr. round nosed .312" projectiles.  I would appreciate feed-back on bullet alloy, gas-checks, lube and success members have had with readily available Lee moulds.

Have you considered paper patching?  It was still state-of-the-art when our Krags were made. No gas checks, sizing, groove or pan lubing. Just get a mould that throws .308 plain base bullets at your desired hardness ( and with paper jackets, wheel weight alloy is as hard as you need up to @ 2400 fps) and patch out to .312 - .315. Finger lube the patch with a Vaseline / Beeswax mix (also waterproofs). It's fully in keeping your black powder and beef tallow experience.  :)

Just a thought.

Are you considering the Lee C312-185-1R mold?  I cast that with wheel weights and add a gas check while sizing it to .312 diameter for use in my Martini-Enfield rifle.  1.5" three shot groups are possible at 100 yards when I really concentrate.  That bullet will also roll groundhogs quite handily.  That Martini-Enfield, by the way, measures .304/.312 bore/groove diameters.

I am still trying that same bullet in my Krag sporter which is more like .300/.310 bore and groove.  I size the bullets down to .311 for that Krag.  Initial results look promising.

If you don't plan to size your bullets you might want to see what is the largest diameter bullet that will chamber in your Krag without getting hung up in the neck area.  On my other Krag sporter I can't chamber a cast bullet big enough to really fill the barrel grooves which are a whopping .313".

I roll my bullets around in a margarine tub with liquid Alox and set them on their bases on wax paper to dry overnight before loading.

I am still experimenting with 2400, Red Dot, and IMR SR4759 powders to see what works best. 

I shoot that same bullet (the Lee C185-312-1R) cast from pure WW and run through the sizer at .312 to seat the gas check. The sizer barely touches the bullet. I tumble lube with LLA and shoot over 19.0 gr of SR4759. As Gunboat stated, I too get 1.5" groups at 100 using peep sights.

Slug your barrel first and then choose bullet diameter. You want the bullet at or 0.001 over bore diameter. I've tried this same bullet in one of my 1917s and it does well. The Lee C200-308 shoots better in my '03A3.

The Lee 185gr. .312" RN bullet is a good one that casts about .303" on the nose-bearing section. This could offer some difficulty in a .300" Krag bore, but probably not, if seated fairly deeply - thanks to the usual long Krag throat.

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Bullet on right is Lee 185x.312"

Parashooter, not to derail the flow of this thread, but did that bullet in your picture sized to .312 and fired in a .303/.313 barrel show symptoms of leading when fired for real, not a squib load?  Will the gas check keep it from leading even if the bullet is not .001" over groove diameter?

Thank you gentlemen for your responses.  It looks like I've contemplated too long.  Little did I realize there appears to have been a buying frenzy on Lee moulds and the C185-.312-1R is a back order item.  You gave me valuable information.  I guess I will start by collecting wheel weights.  I will also look into paper-patching. I can borrow several moulds and experiment and wait for sanity to come back to the market.  Has anyone used aluminum gas-checks which seem to be suddenly replacing copper?

gunboat57 wrote on Jun 11^th, 2013 at 2:04am:

Parashooter, not to derail the flow of this thread, but did that bullet in your picture sized to .312 and fired in a .303/.313 barrel show symptoms of leading when fired for real, not a squib load?  Will the gas check keep it from leading even if the bullet is not .001" over groove diameter?

I suspect you may have fallen prey to the popular myth that undersize cast bullets cause leading via some "hot jet of flame" squirting past the naked alloy in the grooves. I'm afraid that one's as thermodynamically bogus as the idea that undersize jacketed bullets cause erosion in the grooves by "gas cutting effect." (Essentially, the amount of heat in any escaping gas isn't great enough to melt bullet alloy during a very brief trip down the barrel - much less barrel steel. The vast majority of hot gas remains behind the bullet.)

The true causes of lead fouling are complex and poorly understood, as are the demonstrable benefits of the gas check at higher velocities. I haven't had any leading problems with cast bullets in medium military rifle cartridges when loading them to appropriate velocity for the bullet's configuration. Short, light bullets with a high ratio of lube to bearing surface can be driven faster without leading than long, heavy bullets. Hard alloys help avoid leading at higher velocity, but sometimes produce less accuracy than softer alloy at less speed.

Thanks for that explanation, Parashooter.  Leading might be more a function of friction than melting.  That gives me hope that even my Krag with the .313 grooves might work well with the C312-185-1R GC'd boolits I have.

Butlersrangers, I've only used copper gas checks so far.  You might also ask over on the Cast Boolits forum.  Shooting cast in Krags has been a topic there a few times.

I'm new here, but will post a few links to you after I get my mandatory post count in.
Mike

OK, here goes...
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Go to Swede Nelson at Night Owl Enterprises for your molds.  Superior quality is worth the price.  Get the 312299 or 314299.  He will have it to you before you put your coffee cup down!
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[quote author=487D766C62180 link=1370911357/10#10 date=1370964784]OK, here goes...
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Go to Swede Nelson at Night Owl Enterprises for your molds.  Superior quality is worth the price.  Get the 312299 or 314299.  He will have it to you before you put your coffee cup down!
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I ordered a 314299 from NOE and it arrived so fast I could not believe it.  Very nice design and workmanship.  I have not cast from it yet, but, it won't be long.

gunboat57 wrote on Jun 11^th, 2013 at 1:12pm:

. . . That gives me hope that even my Krag with the .313 grooves might work well with the C312-185-1R GC'd boolits [sic] I have. . .

You may be overlooking the importance of fitting bullet to throat diameter. If a cast bullet doesn't fit the throat, particularly a long one like the Krag's, it can yaw before engraving off-axis on the lands. This can result in significant instability.

Please consider spelling "bullet" conventionally. The intentional misspelling always makes me a bit queasy, mostly because I worry that anti-gun zealots will use it to ridicule us as ignorant bumpkins. We don't need that.

I like the 314299 sized to .311. I use it in about anything .30-.31 caliber, usually with 2400 or 5744.
   Just my 2 cents.

I have many Noe molds and believe you're getting what you pay for.  I had one Lee mold before getting my first Noe, that was enough.

Well, how did it work?  I think you made the right choice on that mold.  I have not touched my Lee 185-312 since I got my Lyman 314299.  I got my advice from Madsenshooter and Char gar a while back and it was good advice.

I have experience with the NOE 311299, Lyman 314299 and the Lee 312-185 in the .30-06. and the Lee 312-185 is one of the best bullets in my 03-A3. along with the NOE 311299. The 314299 has to big a nose diameter to work  well in my rifle. That said I would think the Lee bullet would be worth a try in the Krag. Another bullet that should not be neglected would be the Lyman 311284 that was designed with the Krag in mind.  :D

I'll second that re: NOE moulds. An old Lyman/Ideal Loverin design can be depended on to work well also- if you can find one that is not out of round (and if you do find one, cherish it). Then again there is the old stand-by 311284, but only if it fits your throat and the bore riding section actually rides the bore (top of the lands). Meet those requirements and the 311284 may well be the only bullet anyone could need for the Krag.