Question and observation

[Digital Dan]

Have a 94 Trapper with a bloody history about to start a new career as a cast bullet shooter. Have a decent variety of powders to fiddle with, to include a new bottle of Hodgdon Leverevolution. Lyman 311041 w/gc and an alloy just shy of Lyman #2 in hardness, ballpark BHN12. Anyone have any suggestions for a starting point for charge?

Aside from the Hodgdon stuff I have H335, SR4759, both 4895's, RX7, H4198. Looking for balpark 1900-2000 fps +/-.

Observation: Never quite realized how significant a change in alloy composition is to finished weight for bullets. Lyman advertises the 457125 mould as casting 465 grains with #2 alloy. 30:1 will throw a bullet of 512 grains from my mould. They are kinda shiny. :mrgreen:

Thanks

[Wayne Smith]

Wow, I never checked Lyman's statement of weight. I just assumed my 500+gr boolits were 'normal' and shot them! Case full of black so the powder charge didn't matter.

[WebMonkey]

18.5gn of 2400 puts my Lee 311041 knockoff downrange in that ballpark.
Its in a 308 case though.
Good luck

[Digital Dan]

Wow, I never checked Lyman's statement of weight. I just assumed my 500+gr boolits were 'normal' and shot them! Case full of black so the powder charge didn't matter.

Wayne, one might have inferred I was playing with Lord Black and made that leap with high precision. Back around 1954 I discovered firecrackers. It's been downhill since.

WM, appreciate that but I'm not looking to make that leap at present. Desperation is muted by experience, that with other .30-30s and the same bullet. To be fair, I've not pushed lead past ~1800 fps in the .30-30 with that alloy, and do not have any experience with the Leverevolution powder.

Dan

[popper]

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?312628-Marlin-336W-reloading-with-LeveReverolution-powder, #6 - works for me. GC version drops 185gr. ~2100 fps. Only had 7 rnds of GC to shoot and wasn't too careful about squeezing the rear bag but it did OK. Similar to the 041. Checked the brass this morning, no flattened primers. Poured a big batch of PB & GC this morning, sized & checked em. I'll ESPC most but want to try BLL on the PB @ 100. Got a text late last nite, GS went to the ER for 2nd degree burn from a boiling pot of water. Chest & leg. Pic looked pretty bad but localized.
Edit: It meters like W231. I don't leave powder in my uniflow but had a 'bridge' problem a while back. I was using 231 & then LeverE, got a 'C' shaped bridge that caused an overflow. Don't know if it was ground up powder that gets stuck or what but it got me excited then. Never had the problem with 231 itself.

[Digital Dan]

Thanks Popper, much appreciated.

[W.R.Buchanan]

Dan: You might try 16-18 gr of 2400. This is kind of a universal .30 cal powder charge that works pretty well in just about any .30 cal rifle. it works in my .30-06 and .308 with 311299 and my .303 Brit with 314299, and my .30-30 with 311041 which is what you have.

Gas Checks are a must.

These boolits all seem to deliver best accuracy between 1600-1800 fps from a variety of rifles.

Good Luck

Randy

[Digital Dan]

Thanks Randy, already traveled that road with a Savage 24 just sold, working a M94 and just looking for a bit more snap for amusement and such. You're right though, it's a good load/velocity range.

[runfiverun]

if you want snap.
just lower some jacketed loads to just below starting levels and come back up.
the 30-30 can EXCEED jacketed velocity's with cast boolits.

[Digital Dan]

Well there you have it, thanks!!!!

The ol' thutty-thutty will bark again!