new guy gets confused with his 30-06

[LAKEMASTER]

im looking at molds for my (hunting gun) and im really confused about bullet dia.

theres people on ebay selling molds with .311 dia for the 3006 but all the lee molds classify them as .309

so if i buy a 3006 mold with a 311 dia, do i need to re-size it to 309?

im really interested in the ranch dog molds NOE sells but they havent responded to my email yet. lee wants way to much $ to make a 6 cavity mold with the ranch dog bullets.

it looks like the ranch dog bullets are .311 so im feeling like im SOL.

[wmitty]

What you want is a mould that drops a boolit that fits the throat of the rifle as close as possible. Do a search for throat diameter and it should give an explanation of why and how to measure the throat. Short answer is you want as large a boolit as will chamber.

[Yodogsandman]

The very general "rule of thumb" is to use a boolit .002" over groove diameter. Say if your groove diameter is .308", a .310" boolit would work. A .309" would use a .311" boolit.


The best way to figure out what you should use is to do a pound slug of your chamber and size your boolit to fit the diameter size of the area between the end of the case mouth and the beginning of the lands. This way the boolit won't be bending and squishing around too much during acceleration when firing. The boolit will conform to the groove size when sized to the chambers freebore area when fired. There's a real good sticky on how to make a pound slug using a soft lead slug. Check it out...

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?218414-FYI-This-is-how-I-do-a-pound-cast

Noe is overwhelmed by Emails right now, you just have to be patient. There's a very simple reason for this, they make great molds! You would do well to give them a good look.

[wmitty]

Look at the sticky on "chamber and throat relationship" and "how I do a pound cast" by badgeredd and goodsteel, respectively. Both are excellent.

[popper]

Might go to special projects 30XCB thread. Member designed with some of the attributes of the RD design.

[ShooterAZ]

Most people shooting the 30 calibers are sizing boolits to .310 or .311. The Lee mold should cast a bit over .309 so you should be OK there. However, once you start using NOE molds, your Lee molds may not get used much. You might get by sizing to .309, but .310-.311 will probably be more accurate because of the better fit.

[Eddie2002]

I've been using a 100 grain Lee mould that drops at .311 for my 30-06 Remmington 700. I'm using the boolit as dropped over 5-6 grains of Bullseye and am happy with the accuracy at 50yds. Anything past 50 yds will need heavier boolit but .311 seems to fit the ticket for my 30-06. Just remember it is easier to make a larger boolit smaller than a smaller boolit larger.

[Wolfer]

My Lyman 311041 drops at .309 and 177 gr. It shoots quite well in my 3 rifles chambered in 30-06 and as good in my Marlin 30-30 along with my 1898 Krag in 30-40

All of my barrels slug in the neighborhood of .308 I've never slugged the chambers. I tend to shoot first and check for problems after I get them.

[frkelly74]

If it fits, it shoots. To paraphrase a popular saying. What I mean by that is you want to use the fattest boolit that will still chamber easily in your chamber. You can do all the chamber casting and measuring and find out what should work, or you can get some boolits from some of the members here that are different sizes and try them and see if they work, or how well they will work. I personally use .311 sized boolits and have not had any problems with them being too big. The thing to avoid is a boolit too big , and by that I mean you have to force it into the chamber. do not force it. Normally the pressures you will load to in cast boolits will not be any where near the upper end of safe pressures. If they are you are not on the right road. Stay conservative in your load levels and use a fat enough boolit and you will have fun.

[CHeatermk3]

To get a rough idea, shoot a factory round in your rifle and then use the fattest dia. boolit that will slip into the fired, un-resized case.

Of course if you don't have any boolits this can't work for you.

If you want, send me a PM with your addy and I'll mail you some to try.

[Blammer]

didn't you post this same thing in another thread?

[frkelly74]

Who? What?

[LAKEMASTER]

didn't you post this same thing in another thread?

i dont believe i did. i was looking for bullet molds to use for hunting and i asked this question later on.

sorry to confuse

[taco650]

Another thing to think about is that when you load your cast boolits they will get sized down smaller unless you expand the necks accordingly. A good thing to use a Lyman "M" die but I've resorted to putting my .303 British expander in my 30-06 die to accomplish the same thing.

I just got the Lee 309-180R which drops out light (168-170gr). I haven't loaded and shot too many yet but initial results were 4" groups at 100 yards from my old tang-safety Ruger M77. They were sized to 310 in my Lyman 450 and cast from 50/50 COWW's/range scrap. Lube was some home made stuff which started out as RCBS pistol lube but got other stuff added to make more.