OK, I have ben handloading and shooting for longer than I care to remember, but I have never reloaded or fired a "cast" rifle bullet. I do not have a clue as to what to look for or where to start.

I have a Ruger Mini-30, 7.62x39 with a custom .308 dia bore barrel. I would like to give Beartooth bullets a try for whitetails out to about 175 yards. Looking at the .308 bullets available I think the 135gr SP GS might be just the ticket? It comes in three different dia. .309, .310, .311, which one of these do I need and will this bullet perform well at 7.62x39 velocities out to about 175 yards.

Thanks

The .310" bullet should be a proper fit for your measured .308" bore.

With somewhere around 2000 to 2300 fps, these would certainly be adequate for whitetail out to the 175 yd range.

The .310" bullet should be a proper fit for your measured .308" bore.

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Like I said, I have no clue, but why the larger .310 and not the .309?
Is there anything special or out of the ordinary I have to do to load these bullets.

Thanks

Well for one thing the throats on the Mini-14 are pretty large to allow shooting of surplus ammo. I know that Marshall has used that exact bullet, in his Mini-14, and also killed a deer with it. He annealed the nose of the bullet a bit and it worked great.

With cast bullets, a bit oversized doesn't hurt, but undersized sure does.

Be sure to clean all the copper out first. Good luck.

He annealed the nose of the bullet a bit and it worked great.

Mike, enlighten me. Brass won't melt with a propane torch, but cast bullets get red, then melt quickly. I've read of this from time to time, but I never saw a "recipe"

How would I do this?

It is pretty touchy. Think it's covered in one of the "Tech Notes" articles in the forum, a search should find it. Probably best to use some Tempilaq (?) or some other material to indicate the exact temperature.