Shooting cast bullets in mg42

[K98dkmauser]

has anyone shot cast bullets through their mg and if so how well did it work

[amafrank]

I think cast bullets through a high velocity machinegun is a bad idea. You get enough heat to lead up shooting semi or singles....why would you ever want to plug the pipe up solid by shooting lead full auto?

If you are talking about a gun that is not an MG as in one of the semi's that guys are building than I still think its a bad idea. Chances are that in order to develop enough energy to cycle the action you'll have to load them hot enough to lead the bore pretty quickly.

Good luck and let us know how the test goes.

Frank

[K98dkmauser]

how about zinc bullets

[amafrank]

Zinc will foul as bad or worse than lead. There is a reason we have been using copper or copper based plated jackets on bullets since the late 1800's and fouling is one of them. If you want to shoot lower velocity single shot hand loaded guns then lead is the way to go. Its cheap, easy to cast and they make great hunting bullets. If you want to play with machineguns and especially high rate of fire guns shooting high velocity projo's you're pretty much stuck with jacketed bullets. If you have lots of cash you might look into turned bronze projos. They have low friction, less fouling potential and great sectional density but the cost is high for material and machining. If you are dead set on using cast bullets in a machinegun then you might look at paperpatching them but even at that you'll be seeing molten bullets spewing out the muzzle after a burst. Then you'll have fouling on the booster and all other muzzle parts as well as in the barrel. When the fouling builds up to a certain point your chamber pressure will go through the roof and you are looking at damaging the gun and possibly the shooter. For MG's its pretty much jacketed all the way.


Hope that helps.


Frank

[Chuckm]

I have an Article by J. Curtis Earl about using Cast bullets in various MGs. He did the article in the 60-70s when the "cost of ammo was up to .07 cents a round" and he wanted a cheaper form of ammo for his business.

He worked up loads for 30-06, 8mm, 7.62 NATO, .30 carbine, 9mm and .45 Auto. All in full auto weapons

I can send you a copy if you contact me off line.........................Nevada67 AT sbcglobal.net

Thanks,

Chuckm

[K98dkmauser]

ok i found that the neck of a 30-30 case is .324 so i figured i could cut the neck off the case put in a paper patch bullet mold poor some lead or zinc into it and i would have some jacketed bullets. what do yall think