My new 30-30 mold

[44man]

I cast some from my hard lead and they are still kind of fat, just a little hard to chamber in the marlin at the last bit. I don't understand because I made the cherry boolit size.
I then made 75-25 boolits and they fit nice.
One of our members sent some nice boolits from the Lyman 311041, very soft, about 7 BHN. They shoot good with no leading. I tried them with 4759 and 3031.
I shot some today with both boolits but I used Varget with mine. I shot 50 yards.
Varget has a lot more recoil but it is too cold to fool with the chronograph. The left is the soft Lyman, then my hard boolit and the 75-25 shot an honest 1/2" group. About the best I can do with the fat cross hairs on the old 4X scope. I just might not have to do a thing more.
I used Felix lube. My boolit is 186 gr with larger GG's then the Lyman.

[plainsman456]

They show promise.

How does the hard ones shoot at longer ranges?

[runfiverun]

that's how i do it too.
manipulate the alloy just enough to get the nose where i want it.
those targets right there show why.
i would say you are done messing about,and can get some 100 yd groups done.
and piddle around with some other loads.
you can waterdrop the alloy and mess with that a bit, it will let you soften the alloy just a titch more.

[44man]

that's how i do it too.
manipulate the alloy just enough to get the nose where i want it.
those targets right there show why.
i would say you are done messing about,and can get some 100 yd groups done.
and piddle around with some other loads.
you can waterdrop the alloy and mess with that a bit, it will let you soften the alloy just a titch more.
I did water drop the 75-25. This gun will be for fun only so if it does OK at 100 it will be good enough. It will be a CAN gun. I don't know if I will ever shoot a deer with it but I do wonder how the alloy will work.
Things are warming up so my hill will be muck. It either has to dry or freeze so I can go down the hill.
I really like Varget but have just a little left. Any powder now is hard to find, went to Powder Valley and the list of out of stock is crazy. I use Varget in my single shot pistols and the 6.5 Swede.

[runfiverun]

once you got the alloy/fit thing down it's pretty hard to mess up accuracy.
i use aa-2230 a lot in my 30-30's it's a bit on the fast side for the cartridge but it has allowed me to go up and down the scale from 23 to 27 grs.
2400 works well too, so does I-4895 it's a click faster than varget.
i have been burning up some old 4831 burn rate stick powder in my 30-30 lately with the 311041 cast from 75ww/25 soft stuff waterdropped.
the case holds 34 grs and gives me 1800 fps and is super soft,clean,quiet and accurate.
i don't know what brands of powder you have around there,but you should be able to find something in the h-322 through the 4064 burn rate and make up a very acceptable load.

[44man]

322 is on the list to try, I have a lot left from my IHMSA days. I must have 7# left. Most will be summer stuff to see what I find.
I have a lot of powders but not enough left in each can for a lot of shooting without buying more.
Even the brass I have was from other shooters, I did not buy any.
I loaded some more today to try 100 yards. I need to get my lazy behind to the casting pot!

[runfiverun]

i just went through the last 4oz's of this and that thing.
i run off a bunch of stuff for powder i have just had kicking around forever.
i know they aren't gonna be the best loads, but they are loaded and will do what i need done.

try starting at @ 23 grs of that h-322 and coming up, i use the aa-2230 like i mentioned at 24.5 grs.[i have gone up to 27]
mainly because it works well and the powder dump is set there for my 223's.
how's that for lazy :lol:

[44man]

OK, good but this is going to wait. I went down and shot 100 yards today and it was COLD and damp. I had to put my hunting coat and a warm cap on.
The best was 3-3/8" centered on the bull. I do have to work some loads.
I also tried the 75-25 in the .500 JRH, BFR and the best I could do was 3" at 100. Not as good as my hard WW boolits. The base band is very narrow, it must skid. I forgot how it kicks, needed a pad under my elbow! [smilie=1:

[runfiverun]

oww a little carpeting or sumthin there.
remember this is a lever gun and not a bench rifle.

you need to keep the front rest back near the reciever..
usually if i see things open up from 50-100 i put a little more speed under the boolit..
don't be afraid to push the 30-30 up around 2-k or more, some of them just like it up there.

[44man]

That is what I am thinking. The problem is finding data for the heavier boolit. Everything stops at 170 gr so I have to work careful.
Yeah, the .475 and .500 will do a job on an elbow and from a .44 shooting Creedmore you can get a nasty rug rash.
The 30-30 feels like a .22. I love lever guns as much as a SA.

[44man]

I found a problem. I failed to lube the inside of the necks the last batch I loaded and the expander felt hard to remove.
I checked the run out on the loads I have left and found .008" to .010" run out on the necks with wobbly boolits. I sized the fired ones with necks lubed and run out is down to .001" and so are loaded rounds.

[Wayne Smith]

Yup, you stretched those necks. Probably unevenly, too given the runout. May have to trim after shooting them.

[runfiverun]

i have taken to cheating a bit with mmy 30-30.
i tinkered around with my dies some,and found that my 30 cal neck sizer is [of course] for thicker brass.
if i n/s my 30-30 brass in it it squeezes my necks down to a 308 i.d. giving me
.002 neck tension on a .310 boolit, it doesn't even hardly touch the expander ball on the way out.
if i n/s my 308 brass in it and want to use a larger diameter boolit i need to use a different expander for the best fit.
for my 358 rifle i use a 38 special taper crimp die to n/s the cases.

like you have said a jillion times, spend a little time thinking,and measure some stuff.
there is a better solution to many of the things we just do because...

[44man]

Yeah, I knew better, just got lazy. After posting a thousand times that the expander will bend necks I did it anyway!
I need a trap for a brass thief. I shot 12 yesterday and put each back in the box. I took them out and put them in my little plastic tub with the JRH empties and poured them in the tumbler. I counted 12 when I put them on the bench, sized and when I went to prime I have 11. I searched the floor and bench, even checked the tumbler again---it is GONE.
This is the second time from this same box, just a Fed plastic factory load container.
I know a ghost comes through now and then but this is crazy.

[runfiverun]

must be the same one that filched about 200 pieces of my 44 mag brass.
and my boy's forty-niners hat.
i think it replaced the 44 brass with 4,000 pieces of 9mm to make it up.
shrugging.
really,,,where did i get all that 9m brass from? i surely didn't buy it.

[44man]

I went into a box of brass and found 200 to 250 30-30 cases, don't know where they all came from either! :drinks:

[kir_kenix]

I went into a box of brass and found 200 to 250 30-30 cases, don't know where they all came from either! :drinks:

Isn't that great! I love that feeling when I finally sort through a bucket of brass and find some treasure I didn't even know I had. Last time through a bucket I found about 50 .375 H&H and a couple hundred 10mm. I was extatic to say the least.