.30-06 mold

[Fixxah]

I am looking to start reloading for my rifles and don't know which mold to try. Midway has a clearance on RCBS #305808, 130 gr. Spitzer/gas check and my use will be target then hunting next year in Maine for whitetails. Any help is appreciated.

Not sure of alloy I should use or powder for that matter. My rifles are Browning. One is an A-Bolt and the other is a BAR. Not sure of twist rate.:confused:

[Newtire]

I am looking to start reloading for my rifles and don't know which mold to try. Midway has a clearance on RCBS #305808, 130 gr. Spitzer/gas check and my use will be target then hunting next year in Maine for whitetails. Any help is appreciated.

Not sure of alloy I should use or powder for that matter. My rifles are Browning. One is an A-Bolt and the other is a BAR. Not sure of twist rate.:confused:

Hi Fixxah,
I use that boolit in .30-06 with from 17-18 gr. SR4759. Funny, I was going to make a post that they were available as I think it's one heckuva boolit. Another one you might want to try is the RCBS 165 silhouette.

[Buckshot]

..............Generally for a hunting boolit you'll want something with some kind of melplat on it. The Lyman 311041 is a good one. There are literally an easy couple dozen good moulds out there for the 30 cals. For general shooting at the range, working on your trigger control, offhand work, or just general target shooting, a slug from 150grs up to about 180grs works great

For hunting thin skinned big game like deer, I would begin at 170grs and go up from there. Again a meplat is good, and weight is good so far as the load goes. Placement on the animal and knowing your load's ballistics, via actual range shooting is paramount. I would work toward a load of about 1800 fps minimum.

...............Buckshot

[Tom W.]

And you might like Ranch dog's mold. I haven't loaded any that I have cast yet, but they look really nice...

[DLCTEX]

Lee's 150 gr. (WCWW)is working well in my 30-30 ahead of 27 gr. of R7. The bore rider nose just lightly engraves the rifling when chambered. I am loading them as cast by using a .311 die in the lubesizer for lube and gas check. DALE

[compass will]

My buddy shoots an older 30-06 with a mannlicher stock. I think it's made on a Mauser and imported back in the 50's.

Anyway, I was casting with a .312 X 185 grain mold by lee made for the .303 Brit. I was trying to use it in a .308 and it shot real bad. Gave him a hundred to try. They shoot better then jacketed in his 30-06! He was getting 1" groups at 100 yards. Some groups would all be touching then a flyer would come up 3/4" out of the group.

[Bret4207]

RCBS 180FN would be a fine mould to try. Save the spitzers for target work, not hunting deer, although they work well on small game usually.

[randyrat]

I would go for the heavier bullet. Your much better off going 1800 ft/sec with a 180 gr than a 130 gr. You won't get any more speed out of the lighter bullet do to the limits. I really like the accuracy from a gas checked 180 gr out of the 30 cal. long nose (able to load long),heavy enough to kill anything, stable with softer flattening lead, no need for hardening alloys to make your bullet brittle. Just use WWs and a little tin if needed and you'll get most of what your looking for. Loads= study some load manuels and you'll find as many loads as there are recipes for chicken soup.

[Shiloh]

I just traded my Lyman 311299 for a 314299. My mold cast a .310 boolit with a .298-.299 mold.
Undersized in my 3 .30 cal rifles. Know that I am taking about MY particular 311299. Other molds cast a proper boolit.

I also have a LEE 90639 180 gr. rounded nose mold that casts a boolit of proper dimensions. Rudimentary experiments show this boolit may have potential. Time will tell, but cold weather is on the way. This years load development is limited at best.

Shiloh :castmine:

[missionary5155]

Good morning Ah 30-06 : My favorite caliber after 45-70 and 44-77 and 12 bore ( Round Ball) and ...
Slug your bore... especially the chamber area... you NEED to fill that chamber FIRST to seal off the gasses.
So having done that... Get a mold .002 over chamber size. I recommend a Boolit at least 170 grains and I prefer 180+... If you think you need more than 1800 FPS get a gas check design... BUT you can launch HARD BARE boolits to 2000 fps with some work and experementing... and good lube..
There is no deer, antelope, black bear, and other associated critters that will shake off 180grains of lead at 1800+ fps hit correctly. This is all REAL easy...
Then to get special down the road there is paper patching pure lead at REAL FPS... READ the Paper Patch Thread and the FUN begins !

[jhalcott]

I'm one of the "meplat" crowd! A nice flat point does a lot more than a spire point on game, in MY experience. A pointed bullet thru the heart will certainly kill deer. It's the larger wound channel that I like. I've used the 311041 and 311291 to shoot through deer, Also a couple other bullets in .30 and .35 caliber and others. I have "altered" the round nose and spire points to flat noses. The difference is quite dramatic. The loads were identical EXCEPT for the nose design, Flat nosed bullets nearly always resulted in VERY short (if any) trailing after the shot. Deer shot withRN's or spire points, generally ran more than 50 yards. Most were crop depradation permits and several could be ,and were ,shot the same day.
Is your browning short chambered? My A bolt doesn't like cast as much as my Rem700. The A bolt seems to have a shorter,tighter chamber than the 700,Both are 30-06. I have only put a few cast thru the Abolt with less than great results.

[docone31]

My -06 really loves the Lee C312/185 .303 British mold.
It casts at .312, and I size to .311 with gas check. I use the Lee starting data for jacketed loads. I also size to .308 and wrap to .311. Wrapping, both my .308s like it, and my -06 became a tack driver.
When I first started casting, I went with light boolitts. I was wrong. I now go with as heavy as I can get with gas check. All my chambers will take .311, so I size to that.
So far, with watch quenched wheel weight, no leading, no unburned kernals, no flat primers.
I wipe a little lube after loading the case, on the paper.

[Fixxah]

I have only used Remington ammo for hunting and target over the years and saved all my brass from day 1. I gave away a few hundred a couple of years before I got back into shooting. Down to a little over 200 cases to start out with.

There are orders coming from Midway with Wilson case trimmer etc., but I have never slugged a bbl. or measured chamber. I assume I need to spend more cash to accomplish this.

When I bought my Hornady LNL I got some .30 cal. bullets and when my dies come there will be another hundred. Loading these copper clad rounds is just to get me started with rifle reloading and I realize that I need a lot of help either way.

Thank you all, I need all the help I can get. John

[docone31]

John, with the j-word bullets, I have been getting pulled milsurp. They have been great in my rifles. I can get 1000 for the price of 200. Not too bad all things considered.
Frankly, I do not like shooting pure castings. I am getting bored looking like a fool at the range. I paper patch now.
Slugging the barrel is simple. Get a fishing sinker a little bigger than bore, and shove it down. You get good measurements.
Lead in a bore can be real finicky. I got a few molds, and sizers, and read the forum. I found out my numbers on here, and I have run with them ever since. A lot of us have walked the long mile on this and they are more than willing to help out. They sure helped out me!
Hang around, there is a lot of wisdom here. Some of us are getting real results.
I like my paper. I have it down to a rythym. Lee is going to modify my dies for me to fit the rifle.
I enjoy casting. I sit down and pour lead for a while. I then use up the castings as I need them.
Great luck. You will learn a lot here.

[Fixxah]

How do I slug my semi-auto BAR, I can't access the chamber end?

[MT Gianni]

You will have to slug starting at the top and getting a "feel" for the movement of the sinker as it flows down the bbl. Tape the rod and use a bore guide. That is the only way I am aware of for an auto.
For a bolt or lever pour a cartridge case mostly full of hard lead, leave a space in about 1/2 the neck. Pound lead wire or a smaller sinker for an impact slug. I would not trust holding the chamber closed on a BAR to do this. Gianni.

[Russel Nash]

I'm just tagging this thread for later.

I was about to start my own thread here on the exact same subject. Then I saw this thread.

You guys must be mind readers or something.

[Fixxah]

I'm just tagging this thread for later.

I was about to start my own thread here on the exact same subject. Then I saw this thread.

You guys must be mind readers or something.

And you my friend must be a Highlander.:wink:

[Russel Nash]

^^^


There can be only one.

:-D

[WickedGoodOutdoors]

I am looking to start reloading for my rifles and don't know which mold to try. Midway has a clearance on RCBS #305808, 130 gr. Spitzer/gas check and my use will be target then hunting next year in Maine for whitetails. Any help is appreciated.

Not sure of alloy I should use or powder for that matter. My rifles are Browning. One is an A-Bolt and the other is a BAR. Not sure of twist rate.:confused:


130 grains is a bit light for Maine Deer. It would however be great for those Cambridge Deers that tend to be light in the loafers.


Give me a shout when your comming to Maine Deer hunting maybe we can form a hunting party.


http://www.huntingsociety.org/CityDeerHunter.gif

[Bret4207]

How do I slug my semi-auto BAR, I can't access the chamber end?

Don't worry about it. Just measure the case mouth of a fired factory load. That will tell you the largest boolit you'll be able to fit and still function. Start there. It's always easier to size down than up.

Get the gun clean before you start with cast.

[Wayne Smith]

Fixaah, you mentioned in your first post that you are just starting loading. While you have all good advice here and I wouldn't dream of adding to it, I do have one point. You are attempting to climb two learning curves at once. Each one of them is fraught with mistakes.

My advice is to first learn to load with those condom bullets we all tend to look down on. They are consistent and uniform and you don't have to worry about them as a variable. You don't have to worry about throat size or bore condition (within reason) or wonder about leading. Learn to become comfortable loading one round at a time, finding the best load for your rifle, and stepping through the pitfalls of reloading.

Once you have done that consider getting set up to cast and a boolit mold or 10. Plan to think a lot about hardness of alloy and boolit design. You may become familiar with a website called Mountain Molds. Group buys will drive you to the poorhouse. Your wife will begin questioning your sanity more so than before and wonder why you are at the range all the time rather than just most of the time, and why you spend so much time over the casting pot.

Yes, boolit casting is a hobby and addiction in and of itself. Believe me, if there weren't guns suddenly, some of us would find something to cast just to keep casting!