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TXGunNut
01-13-2013, 06:23 PM
I learned a few years back to focus on one or two CB projects at a time and there's one project that I've been excited about for some time. So far I've developed CB hunting loads for my 45-70 (Guide Gun), 35 Rem and 45 Colt and have been successful with them in the field. My 32 WS project is well in hand but I'm too puny to take it to the range this weekend to test the work I've done on it. Decided I'd straighten up my loading bench, wound up loading some BP 45 Colt rounds while I was there. [smilie=1: Gradually it occurred to me that it was time to move Project Thutty-Thutty to the top of the list. I had some RD 311-165 boolits cast up and a NOE 311-041 mould standing by. I had sizers in .311 and .309 (don't ask :roll:) gas checks, M-type and RCBS Cowboy neck expanders (another oops), a good supply of once-fired cases and a few pounds of LR powder. Within an hour or so I had LLA drying on those RD boolits and 50 cases sized, trimmed and even uniformed the primer pockets before I tossed them in the cleaner.
I've had at least one 30-30 in my collection for quite a few years but until recently didn't consider loading for it. Decent ammo was cheap & easy to find, why bother? I saved my brass and even scooped up a few on my October range trips but didn't even buy a set of dies until a couple years ago. For some reason I rescued a clean old 336 off Cabela's used gun rack and it joined a very clean Trapper in my safe. Pretty soon a Redfield scope showed up and the wait began.
I guess the wait is over. If all goes well I'll have the boolits sized & checked with a 2nd coat of LLA drying on them when I toddle off to bed tonight. Might even have the cases out, may even expand the necks....naw, no need to rush this. :roll:
No idea what I'll do with that .336 when I get a load figured out. Everyone knows a lowly thutty-thutty isn't good for big game hunting, won't even kill those pesky little deer we have in Texas. :mrgreen:

Shuz
01-14-2013, 11:31 AM
Let the fun begin! Good luck in your trials. I'm having a ball with my 2/ea 336 Marlins in .thurty-thurty. Great cast boolit guns!

TXGunNut
01-14-2013, 11:02 PM
Thanks. I can't believe how much I'm enjoying this project. Even got a kick out of the perfect fit of the gas check on the boolit shank...free brass, free lead, free lube (w/sizers)...what's not to like?
Like you I'm a big fan of the 336, since I started buying them my Winchesters have mostly become safe queens. I can't resist picking up a 336 on the used rifle rack, sometimes I can't put it down.
Any favorite loads?

Shuz
01-15-2013, 11:23 AM
My favorite load with both .30-30's is the RCBS 30-150FN and 34g of the old H-4831 and a CCI 200 LRP. Velocity is in the 1750fps area and SD in the low 20's based on the gun. I've been also working with some Tubal 2000 that was gifted to me by a member of this board and it shows promise with the RCBS 30-150FN and the 311291HP'd and the 311265HP'd. (Tubal 2000 is "similar" to H-4198 from my experience with it in my guns.)

popper
01-15-2013, 11:59 AM
30 gr LR behind that RD. toughen with Cu, 1-2% Sb, .5% Cu. how does the CB expander do? mine likes .311, is 181 gr with GC.

Threepersons
01-15-2013, 05:50 PM
My newest project is a 1894 Win. 30-30. RCBS 150CM, Plain base. Sized to .311
18 gr. 4895. Average groups about 2in. at 50 yards. Open sights and old eyes. The rifle
was made in 1972 and has good bore.

Cast some boolit this morning 15 bd. I'll load them up latter today. Way to cold
to test gun this week.

If anyone has experience with Flat base boolits in 30 cal. please share your knoldge.

shooting on a shoestring
01-15-2013, 09:55 PM
For the OP...I've had good results (3 to 4 inches at 100 yds) with my iron sighted 94 and 336 with 18 grs 2400 and the Lee 150, and the Lee 170. 26 grs of 4198 was also a goodun. The Saeco 315 is under trials and looking good.

My Lee 150 is high mileage.....so I used a 5/16 drill bit and remove the gas check shank. The boolits look good as bare bottoms but haven't got to load them yet. Will probably use Herco and start looking for 1500 fps or so.

TXGunNut
01-16-2013, 11:31 PM
30 gr LR behind that RD. toughen with Cu, 1-2% Sb, .5% Cu. how does the CB expander do? mine likes .311, is 181 gr with GC.

Agreed on the LVR powder, seem to recall pushing j-words w/ 748 but my 32WS didn't much care for it behind boolits. I was very pleased with the RCBS cowboy expander in my .32 but haven't gotten that far in this project, it's the next step. I wanted to get the boolits lubed & checked so I could set up the exander. May have them loaded by this time tomorrow, we'll see.

Gunnut 45/454
01-17-2013, 02:23 AM
I had Lee make me a 170 PB mold hoping it would shoot well in my 300 Blk. Never got good accuracy so I loaded up some light loads in the 30-30 shot them out my Win 94 got about 1.5" at 50 yards and about 2.5 at 100 yards with 8 gr Reddot. Nice lite plinker.

jbc
01-17-2013, 10:46 AM
I hope you have better luck with your noe 311041 than i did. I bought mine before i had a 30-30 to shoot it in and now i have a marlin and a winchester and the boolit wont fit either. The mold casts better than any other i have but the bore ride portion casts .305 and wont fit any 30 cal. i have seen or tried. Hopefully yours works out better, keep us posted!

geargnasher
01-19-2013, 12:43 AM
Start with 22 grains of RX 7 and work up.

Gear

TXGunNut
01-19-2013, 12:21 PM
Loaded a 20 RD boolits over a stiff charge of LVR, will try them this afternoon. When seated fully to the top of the crimp groove they are just a few thousandths off the lands, looks promising to me. Haven't even degreased the NOE 311041 mould but have high hopes for it as well. For some odd reason I've been kicking around using that boolit for 30-06.

TCFAN
01-19-2013, 02:37 PM
jbc
I don't have a NOE 311041 but I do have several other molds that have the nose ride part of the boolit to large for my Marlins.What I did was to contact buckshot and about his nose sizing system and that solved my problems with over size boolit nose.It is a extra step in the sizing process but is worth it..........Terry



I hope you have better luck with your noe 311041 than i did. I bought mine before i had a 30-30 to shoot it in and now i have a marlin and a winchester and the boolit wont fit either. The mold casts better than any other i have but the bore ride portion casts .305 and wont fit any 30 cal. i have seen or tried. Hopefully yours works out better, keep us posted!

jbc
01-19-2013, 02:45 PM
Thank you sir, I am going to play with alloy first and try to get it working but if I fail in that attempt Buckshot will be my next option. I have set it aside for awhile just to get over the initial disappointment of having cast and gaschecked several hundred before I realized the problem I had. Live and learn I guess. More than likely I will have to nose size because the gascheck shanks seem to be dead on with the lyman#2 I am using so if i get .005" shrinkage with alloy the shanks would be quite small.

TXGunNut
01-19-2013, 03:26 PM
Start with 22 grains of RX 7 and work up.

Gear

I really like RL7 in 35 Rem and 45-70, can't recall using it in anything smaller. Odd. Lyman manual recommends a CCI 200 primer for that powder in 30-30 but other than that it seems like a good choice for the 30 WCF. Hmmm.
Thanks, will certainly give it a try if the LeveRevolution powder doesn't work out. I have a charge that seems to be working under RD's 32 cal boolit, looking for around 2100 fps.

northmn
01-19-2013, 08:41 PM
I have shot a few deer with a 30-30 using a Lee 312 mold at 185 grains. It is listed for the 31 caliber military guns but I size it to 310 and use a flat nose punch to give it a flat nose. Got a nice fat doe at about 140 steps from my tree with that load and the deer was laying on its belly when I found it. Midwestern deer are a bit bigger than Texas deer so she might have run about the size of a large Texas buck. A little over 150 pounds. I just happen to like the heavier bullet in cast. I shot one deer through the shoulders and it went down on the spot but did not blow up a lot of meat. These bullets just seem to kill the deer without a lot fanfare. Another very popular bullet for the 30-30 is the RCBS 180 grain FN. I also use Re7 and get about 2000 fps out of my 24" barrel. Now using a 35 Remington but its the rifle not the caliber as I liked that 30-30 load.

DP

TXGunNut
01-20-2013, 02:01 PM
Agreed about the relative deer sizes, a S TX deer generally won't weigh over 100 lbs on the hoof, here in N TX they get quite a bit larger in the right habitat but seldom approach the 200# + deer I've seen in the midwest.
I'm a big fan of the 35 Rem myself, shot two nice hogs on it's first CB outing last month and neither went more than a couple of steps. This project involves that pretty little rifle that followed me home last April, sweet rifle and interesting project but it won't replace my 35 Rem or my Guide Gun....yeah, right! Already thinking it needs sling swivel studs.
Another RL7 endorsement. Interesting. Have you tried LeveRevolution?

TXGunNut
01-21-2013, 09:58 PM
First CB outing for the 30-30 Marlin was very disappointing, most but not all rounds were within a 6" circle. I was using a charge weight of LVR that is showing promise in my 32 WS, I think it was a bit warm. Slight cratering of the primers and a bit of expansion above the web of the case. Rifle did not exhibit any heat-related stringing and shoots very well w/ j-words so I'm thinking I'll drop the charge 1.5-2 grns. Also giving the bore a good scrubbing. Trigger is a bit heavy, may need to address that as things progress.

jbc
01-22-2013, 07:56 AM
First CB outing for the 30-30 Marlin was very disappointing, most but not all rounds were within a 6" circle. I was using a charge weight of LVR that is showing promise in my 32 WS, I think it was a bit warm. Slight cratering of the primers and a bit of expansion above the web of the case. Rifle did not exhibit any heat-related stringing and shoots very well w/ j-words so I'm thinking I'll drop the charge 1.5-2 grns. Also giving the bore a good scrubbing. Trigger is a bit heavy, may need to address that as things progress.

Really looking forward to your results with the LVR powder as it is one of the few that is available around here right now. I picked up one pound and loaded a few, and if they show promise I am going to pick up a few more. Now if only I could find some primers for sale I would be set :(

kbstenberg
01-22-2013, 08:24 AM
1+ for TXGunNut. Larry Gibson did a writeup on LVR which is in the stickies. Which lead me to the powder.

TXGunNut
01-22-2013, 11:46 AM
1+ for TXGunNut. Larry Gibson did a writeup on LVR which is in the stickies. Which lead me to the powder.

Yes, Larry's been a big help to me on this project as well as my .32 WS project. LVR powder likes to go fast and RD's designs seem to like going fast as well. May have overdone it a bit.
Been working on the bore last couple of days, seems I overlooked giving it a good scrubbing when this ol' girl followed me home back in April of last year.:roll: Has some kind of fouling that appears to be lube and lead and I haven't even gotten to the copper yet.

newton
01-22-2013, 06:57 PM
I've been messing with mine lately. A M94. I've got the hinting load down, but have tried my plinking load for accuracy. Both loads use the lee 170 grain boolit. With a check it weighs in at 180. I cast them hard. I use 30 grains, as is fitting for a 30-30, of varget. No leading to speak of yet. 1920 fps. I can hold them in a 3", or better, with open sights at 100 yards.

My plinking load is 8 grains of unique for 1250 fps. I have high hopes for it as my previous load of 9 grains herco was a real shooter. What's interesting is that the herco load runs 1350 fps.

Good luck with your testing. These guns sure are fun to play with. I played some with a 30.06 last year, but not near as fun as the 30-30.

TXGunNut
01-22-2013, 08:41 PM
Varget? One of my favorite powders but didn't notice any published loads. Only other powder I've tried was 748 under j-words and it liked that.
Turns out I did clean the rifle when I bought it. Bore is now clean again and it appears machining marks may have been causing the fouling. Ran a bit of bore paste thru it in an attempt to smooth it up a bit. I have about 100 CoreLokt bullets that I have no plans for, may use them to break in the bore.
And yes, Newton, 30-30's are fun.

newton
01-24-2013, 12:06 AM
Yea, I forget where I came up with that. But if memory serves me, it was a discussion I read about original factory loads. And the discussion was that the 30-30 is so named because of the 30 grains of smokeless powder. Then they talked about varget having quite a bit of the same characteristics of what the round was originally loaded with.

But in the end I do know that I found it somewhere. I usually do not expirementing much without having a baseline to go off of. I can say it works. I know that Sierra publishes a load with varget and their 170 grain FN. 30 grains runs their jacketed at around 2000. My boolits are running around 180 grains. I know that guys sometimes use jacketed data as a starting point when there is not any other data. I see no pressure signs with this load and it really is right where I want to be with a hunting load.

TXGunNut
01-24-2013, 12:30 AM
Varget is a short cut 4064 designed to meter better for volume reloaders. Anywhere you see 4064 you can use Varget, after reducing the load a bit and working up, of course. 2000 fps is very close to my target velocity. Thanks for the history lesson, seems it still applies.

newton
01-24-2013, 09:35 AM
Ah, well I learned something also. Like I said, this is all based on memory. I could very well be thinking of a different round. I just started casting and reloading 2 years ago. Loading cast just a year ago. And when I got into it I went all the way. I started loading for all my guns at once. But now I am settled down and starting to get more intimate with each one. But 4064 does ring a bell in all of this so maybe that's what the conversation was based on.

All this talk makes me want to go load up some more of those rounds and go shooting.

1Shirt
01-24-2013, 12:10 PM
Have always found the 30-30 to be one of the easiest rifles to load cast for. As an all around paper puncher, and plinker, I like the 150 Lee FN over 16 gr of 2400, or 11 gr. of Red Dot (not a recommendation, just what works for me). I have shot blt weights from 90 to 190 gr in my Win 94, and in a 340 Sav. Unless I am loading near max loads I only neck size to increase case life, and only FL size when I have 5-6 loads thru. Have some 30-30 brass that I have loaded in excess of a dozen times shot thru a lever. I do inspect brass closely however. Easy on the pocket book powder wise.
1Shirt!

TXGunNut
01-24-2013, 10:36 PM
You're a quicker study than me, Newton. I reloaded almost 30 yrs before I poured my first hot one. Your numbers check out so I think your recollection is correct. My first Varget loads were SWAG'd from a magazine ad for the then brand new powder so I remember it well. I worked up a great load for it but when they got around to publishing loads mine was a tad over max. That old rifle really liked them, tho.
Good points on the powders, 1Shirt. More of a factor every day, it seems. I'm working on a hunting load for a pretty serious hunting rifle but a lever action plinker has been on my mind as well. I pick up all the brass I need for the 30-30 but saving 50% or more on powder is an opportunity I will seriously consider. I have a 94 in .32 that would make a great plinker but I've had dismal luck getting cheap brass (sized-up 30-30) to work well in it. Hornady brass is excellent but it's in the same $ neighborhood of 45-70 brass IIRC, not exactly plinker territory. Mebbe I should trade it for another thutty-thutty, another 94 maybe? Mebbe I'll stumble across a clean pre-64 and shoot the heck out of it....ticking off the collectors would be half the fun.

newton
01-25-2013, 10:50 AM
I have always found that if someone is really interested in something then they can learn it real quick. I had to make myself interested in some area's while in school just to keep me learning. That's the beauty of guns and reloading. So much to be interested about.

I am one of those people too, the kind that believes a gun is meant to be shot not just looked at. I have a friend who has a NIB M94 32-40 John Wayne collector gun. He mentioned the other day that he is seriously thinking of selling it. He is strugling because he wants it, but can't stand for it to just sit around.

I told him he just needs to start shooting it. He said he cant do that because then it would loose its value, (well over $1500 with all the things he has with it). I wish I had the money to buy it. I'd shoot the fire out of it, and enjoy every round.

Trapshooter
01-25-2013, 09:02 PM
I've been re-reading Frank Marshall's articles from Fouling Shot, and he talks at some length about a 311284 with the tip flattened, loaded with a bunch of 4350 for "Texas Heart Shots". Anyone try that bullet / powder combination in the 30WCF with any success?
Thanks
Trapshooter

NMLRA Guy
01-27-2013, 09:59 PM
Back in the 1960s, I became a deciple of Harrison of the NRA Technical Staff. He was a crusty curmugeon but knew something about cast bullets and wrote a four issue series about the subject. On his recommendation, I bought a mould from Lyman. It was 311291U. I cast bullets of linotype and loaded them in a Winchester Model 70 .30-06. I used the Lyman tong tool to do the primining and an old cartridge case with a nail soldered on as a handle for a powder scoop. About 12 grains of 4759 and you could just about cut cloverleafs with three shots at 75 yards. THis was using a Weaver K4 scope...the cross wires were often bigger than the groups. THe bore ride was just that...a nice slip-fit in the bore. I used Alox/Bee lube. THen a friend got a Winchester 94 commemorative in .30-30 and we went to work with it. Groups were larger with his factory open sights but measured about an inch or slightly more at 75 yards. THese were all three-shot groups. We had similar results with a Rem 03 A3 and iron sights. 35 grains of 4064 in the Model 70 was an good load at longer distances but never tried either one at game. Alas, I ruined that mould and now have another .311291U, but never tried it.

TXGunNut
01-27-2013, 11:43 PM
Thanks, NMLRA Guy. Welcome to the forum. Looking forward to hearing more about your experiences.

Maximumbob54
01-30-2013, 12:13 PM
These are Ranch Dog 165's loaded above H335:

http://i1176.photobucket.com/albums/x333/Maximumbob54/2012-12-15_13-45-33_476_zpsd98ef0b6.jpg

And they get used in this:

http://i1176.photobucket.com/albums/x333/Maximumbob54/2012-12-24_09-11-52_766_zpsd982755c.jpg



Does that inspire you to hurry up any?

TXGunNut
01-30-2013, 10:20 PM
These are Ranch Dog 165's loaded above H335:

http://i1176.photobucket.com/albums/x333/Maximumbob54/2012-12-15_13-45-33_476_zpsd98ef0b6.jpg

And they get used in this:

http://i1176.photobucket.com/albums/x333/Maximumbob54/2012-12-24_09-11-52_766_zpsd982755c.jpg



Does that inspire you to hurry up any?

Yep! Looks very familiar right down to the color and figure in the forestock. Wish the buttstock on mine had that figure as well. Rifle is clean, rounds are loaded but I've been down with sinus crud and bronchitis for weeks now. This weekend is looking good, hope to get a few rounds downrange.

popper
01-31-2013, 10:41 AM
Hope you get out and test some. That crud is terrible.
I was using a charge weight of LVR that is showing promise in my 32 WS, I think it was a bit warm What charge were you using? I've tried 335, 4895 & varget, LVR has been best in my newer 336, sized 311. Unique isn't bad, 2400 appears better for plinker loads.

TXGunNut
02-01-2013, 12:13 AM
I am using 34.5 LVR in my M94 in 32WS. Worked up from 34.0 @ Larry's suggestion. The boolit I'm using in my Marlin is a RD design so I decided to use the same charge. I think RD boolits like to be cast fairly hard and pushed fairly hard as well. LVR seems to like to go fast as well. Seems I may have overdone it a bit; somewhat different design and totally different rifle. I've loaded 33.0 grs into some 30-30 cases and I'm hoping to get a little range time in this weekend. Still plenty warm but hoping it will settle down a bit.
And yes, the crud is terrible. This is the second time in as many years that I've apparently come down with the p-word following a bout with the crud. Didn't dare go to the doc, everyone there has the flu. Glad I keep a nurse or two on speed dial.