GrizzLeeBear
01-27-2008, 10:53 PM
I got a 100+ plain base boolits in amongst a batch of misc. 30 cal. boolits from my dad a while back. Looking at the Castpics website I believe these are Lyman 311241 boolits. I thought it would be neat to make up a cheap plinking load for my 1912 Chilean Mauser (rebarreled to 7.62 Nato in '61). I have been using Trail Boss in my GP 100 for Bullsye shooting with very good results and thought it might make a good powder for such light loads in a rifle since it is so bulky you wouldn't have to worry about double charging like with the fast pistol powders. IMR lists 9.0 grains of TB with 160 gr. boolits in the 30-30 and I have read several places of guys using up to 13 gr. in the .308. I have also read guys that have called IMR & they said to fill up the case and then take 75% of that as your MAX. load. I filled up a 30-30 case to the base of the neck and got 11 gr. Using the IMR max. of 9 devided by 11 I get about 82% of a full cast as maximum, so it looks like IMRs recommendation of 75% of a full case is about right, with a little safety margin.
I took a .308 case and filled it up to the base of the neck and got 17 gr. Take that times .75 and I get +/- 13 gr. max. With the plain base boolits, I'm only after about 1050 fps. to keep it subsonic and eliminate leading, so I figured on about 10 gr. as a starting place. I had 8 primed cases leftover from my last batch of reloading and loaded them with 10 gr. of TB and the 311241's. the 10 grain fills the case about 60% full, so no chance of a double charge. At the range I fired 3 rounds at 50 yards and got a group about 1 1/2". Moved the target back to 100 yards and shot the remaining 5 shots and got a 3" - 4" group. The load shoots a fair bit high and right of where my normal 1700 fps. gc boolit load shoots. While not great, I think there is potential here, given the Mauser battle sights make it tough to get a real precise sight picture. Maybe just a tiny bit of leading near the muzzle. Don't have a chrono, but the load cracked pretty good, so I think it is supersonic. What was really neat was that the recoil was like a .22!
Looks like it will be worth some time working up & down to see if I can find an accuracy sweet spot & call my dad to see if he has this mold!
I took a .308 case and filled it up to the base of the neck and got 17 gr. Take that times .75 and I get +/- 13 gr. max. With the plain base boolits, I'm only after about 1050 fps. to keep it subsonic and eliminate leading, so I figured on about 10 gr. as a starting place. I had 8 primed cases leftover from my last batch of reloading and loaded them with 10 gr. of TB and the 311241's. the 10 grain fills the case about 60% full, so no chance of a double charge. At the range I fired 3 rounds at 50 yards and got a group about 1 1/2". Moved the target back to 100 yards and shot the remaining 5 shots and got a 3" - 4" group. The load shoots a fair bit high and right of where my normal 1700 fps. gc boolit load shoots. While not great, I think there is potential here, given the Mauser battle sights make it tough to get a real precise sight picture. Maybe just a tiny bit of leading near the muzzle. Don't have a chrono, but the load cracked pretty good, so I think it is supersonic. What was really neat was that the recoil was like a .22!
Looks like it will be worth some time working up & down to see if I can find an accuracy sweet spot & call my dad to see if he has this mold!