I went to the range today with a bunch of cast bullet loads. Thank you all for the great advice.
Last weekend I went to the local gun show and picked up some 155 grain and 175 grain 0.311 cast bullets designed for gas checks from the folks who sold me the 115 grain bullets.
I used my 0.311 Lee Lube & sizing die to seat Hornady 30 cal gas checks on them and size them with Javalen lube. They had a Brinell Hardness of 20 and according to the folks who made them so did the 115 grain bullets.
According to the Lee Cast Bullet Hardness method, that means I should load them so that the powder produces a pressure of about 25,700 psi.
Using the Lee Reloading manual and the .308 Winchester cartridge values that meant that
155 gr bullet = 31 grain of H4895, 2050 fps
175 gr bullet = 32.9 gr of H4895, 2150 fps
115 gr bullet = about 24 gr H4895,
?
The Winchester .308 case is fairly close in size to the 7.62x54R case.
I also loaded up some 115 grain bullets using
5, 6, and 7 grains of Hodgdon Tightgroup.
I spent several hours prior to going to the range, really cleaning the barrel of the rifle to get out all lead from my last episode and any copper that might be in the barrel.
I was amazed!!!!
Both the 155 and 175 grains formed reasonably tight (fist sized) 5 shot paterns on the paper at 50 yards. Low, but that I can correct with the sights.
The 115 grain with the H-4895 was so-so.
The 5 grain and 7 grain Tightgroup with the 115 grain bullet was not as good as the heavier load, but very respectable!
Now I can work on fine-tuning things.
Thanks a lot for the advice. The 5 grain pistol powder loads sounded like I was firing a 22 on the range.
Today was a lot of fun!