Sent my first CBs down range!

[Silvercreek Farmer]

Or reloads period for that matter! I got so tired of waiting on my order of commercial CBs (I know, but you have to start somewhere) and brass (almost 3 weeks now) for my 30-06, that I decided to pull a few factory rounds and load up some CB's that another member sent me to try. They were Lee .309, 120 grain lubed with LLA and gaschecked. I think I over expanded the necks with the M die before I realized the seating die included in the Lee Deluxe Rifle set does not crimp. The first round would not chamber so I skipped expanding on the rest and ran the first round through the sizer again (unloaded first) to get it to chamber. Got just a touch of shaving , but not too bad. I used 11.4 grains of Red Dot (no filler), and guessing around 1600-1700 fps. Ended up with a 2 inch+ group at around 40 yards. Recoil was very light (less than a .223). Not spectacular but a start for sure! The Red Dot was pretty sooty but I did not find any lead at all from my from my few shots. I was so stoked, I immediately cleaned, deprimed, neck sized, and loaded my 5 rounds with Lyman 170 grainers, LLA, GC on top of 13 grains of Red Dot (virtually no shaving this time). Dark by then, but I'll be trying them as soon as I get home tonight. I'm hoping the 170 grainers will be a little more accurate out of my 1-10 twist (seated closer to the lands, too) and give a little more recoil so I feel like I am shooting more than a .22!

As far as the neck expanding goes, if I get it right, should I be able to chamber the rounds with out crimping? Or will I need a crimping die? As of now I don't plan on hunting with my CB's just target practice, but I do worry about jamming a boolit down in the neck when chambering a round (I could be doing it now for all I know). If it does happen, I don't think I need to worry about an overpressure situation with these loads, do I?

[popper]

Expand the neck with the M die and get a taper crimp die to close it back down to chamber, not much of a crimp. The stock M die doesn't have much expansion, it is still set up for J-B. You can get an R1(303 cal) plug for it that may work better. I wasn't impressed with the Lee die set, I get an RCBS which works fine, you can partial NS with the RCBS. You shouldn't need GC for the lighter loads, use PB. I shoot PB 170 from 30-30 at 1/2 full J-B load and get 1" @ 50 and no leading. Have you slugged the bore yet? My 308 needs a .310.

[Silvercreek Farmer]

Pics

http://i174.photobucket.com/albums/w92/mlindsay527/Feb272012019.jpg

[Rooterpig]

Cool deal! Always alot of fun. If you learn/ improve one small thing every time you load and shoot, you end up with a tack driver .

[Silvercreek Farmer]

Thanks guys. I just did a little calculating and, wow, my initial "lite" loads were almost on par with a .357 mag out of a pistol as far as KE goes...

[Sonnypie]

Glad you are having some fun with them.
I tried red dot myself, but I got better results and consistency with Unique, so I finally bought a jug and made a commitment to Unique for my CB loads.
Mostly, the 120g bullets are intended for plinking and youth loads. I've driven them to around 2000 FPS, but get better accuracy in my rifle at lower velocities.

http://i1195.photobucket.com/albums/aa382/Sonnypie/P2020269.jpg

http://i1195.photobucket.com/albums/aa382/Sonnypie/P2020271.jpg

There were some statisticians arguing about 2 shot groups on another forum. Bunch of puffed up belly bumpers.
I posted that 2 shots does not constitute a group. It is merely a pair. Then posted the above "group". A 50 shot group. Testing 12g load of Red Dot.
What is important to note is... it's 4.5" X 4.5". Now, hold your paper plate to your center of mass... Or hold your fist (about 4.5" X 4.5") to your center of mass.
Paints a picture doesn't it?

I have a bunch of new loads to play with as I drill down to my favorite pet load with 170g CB, and Unique powder.

My most comical load was playing with IMR 4895. I loaded several 20 rnd boxes of test loads. The lowest was 15g of powder. I almost couldn't get through them all. I was laughing too much....
I called them my BLOOP loads. They didn't fire. They BLOOPED. And the bullets dropped about 3-4 feet in 100 yards.
BLOOP! And spent about 3 minutes laughing. Then BLOOP! And crack up again.

Yep, you can have a lot of fun with cast bullets!

I don't use an M die. I tried several avenues. But I have settled on neck sizing, and have chamfered my cases so I can load without shaving the bullets.
Since I single shot from a bench rest, I don't fuss with crimping on cast bullet loads. Why distort bullets I worked hard to get just the way I want them?
You will want to make you a dummy round with the bullets you decide to load.
No primer, no powder. Just a case and a bullet set to zero. Let the chamber set the length (seat the bullet) in the case with the bolt closed. Then crimp the case to hold it.
Use these dummy rounds (http://i1195.photobucket.com/albums/aa382/Sonnypie/30%20Cal%20Cast%20Bullets/P3010298.jpg) when you need to set your seating die.

You only need to crimp if reloading for a semi-auto, or a tube fed magazine.
I do use a crimp on full power jacketed loads. For crimping I use Lee's Factory crimp die. (http://s1195.photobucket.com/albums/aa382/Sonnypie/Lee%20Collet%20Crimper/)

And I use their collet die set (http://www.titanreloading.com/rifle-reloading-dies/lee-collet-2-die-set/3006-springfield-collet-dies-) for sizing and seating. I took the B.S Plug and inverted it for the RNCB's.

[Silvercreek Farmer]

Backed up to 50 yards and tried the 170 grainers last night. Got about a 1.5 inch 5 shot group, reloaded, and duplicated it. Time to go 100 yards...