'Beagling' expands the range of caliber that can be cast with the same mold

Reloading is good for keeping costs Re= I started reloading when I was burning through rounds shooting competitively in the International Defensive Pistol Association.

It became something more for me, not just a way to make high-volume shooting more affordable. Every true sportsman knows the satisfaction that comes when eating a steak from game he harvested. If you’ ve never dropped a deer with a round you designed and loaded yourself, there’s something more that you are missing.

When tendinitis ended my competitive revolver shooting, I did not get rid of the reloading press. Instead, I doubled down and took up casting my own bullets for hunting cartridges. If you have been on the fence when it comes to reloading, perhaps my proven system of reloading cast hunting bullets for the 30-caliber family of rifles will tip you over the fence.

There is something ballistically magicalinthe mathematics of 30 inch diameter bullets 7.62 millimeters, if you prefer). How else to explain the dominance of that caliber in the hunting world? No one can say what percentage of North American big game is taken each year with a 308 Win, 30-06, 30-30, 7.62x39, 7.62x54R, 303 Brit., 308 Win Mag, 30-40 Krag, 300 Blackout, or 300 Weatherby Mag. But surely it’s the majority.

Nitpickers may point out that the diameter of the 308 Win is slightly different from the diameter of the Russian and British rounds 312 or larger depending on the wear in the barrel). This is where the advantage of casting your own bullets comes in. I hunt with a 308 Win, 303 Brit, 7.62x54R, and a 30-30 using the same mold to cast the bullets I handload in all four cartridges.

I get solid hunting accuracy with all of them. Depending on the rifle, the bullet leaves the muzzle at between 1,700 and 2,100 feet a second. The variance in velocity is all about finding the sweet spot for optimum accuracy with a particular gun.