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Throttle back: shoot kinder, gentler ammo in your semi-retired old warrior
Nowadays shooter interest in old battle rifles is higher than it has been since the 1950s and early 1960s when so many were available at bargain prices. Not only is WWII a hot historical item, but so are many facets of American military history. Add to that the amazing assortment of old military weapons appearing out of the former Soviet bloc again at bargain prices, and we have many people actually firing these old guns. I have jumped on that bandwagon, but I shoot mine mostly with lead bullets.
Now, why would anyone want to shoot lead-alloy bullets out of battle rifles? I can think of many reasons. Some were meant for them. They are cheaper. Cast bullet loads are milder and reduce recoil. They will reduce wear and tear on valuable old guns. The list could go on and on because you can rationalize anything if you try hard enough.
Personally, I do it because of the sheer joy of handling all aspects of the ammunition myself, or maybe it's because I don't have much else to do. (That's a joke!) Anyway the fact remains that when I started out to amass a collection of old battle rifles ranging from trapdoor Springfield .45-70s on one end to Model 1903A3 Springfield .30-06s on the other, I immediately also stocked at least one suitable mold to go with each. As mentioned above, some old battle rifles were meant for lead-alloy bullets. Examples would be those trapdoor Springfields, or the more than 1 million Remington Rolling Blocks in the many black-powder chamberings for which that rifle was made. It shouldn't be much of a surprise lead bullets shoot so well in black-powder cartridge rifles. What did surprise me was how well cast bullets shoot in a wide variety of more modern types intended for high-pressure smokeless powder loads. Examples would be the 1903 Springfields, 1917 Enfields, SMLEs, Mauser 98s, Krags and so forth.
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