Casting for 30/30

[shootrj2003]

After some study have decided to ask,what mold for my Marlin 336 with micro gruv?I was going with a Lee in .309 150 gr.is resizing an absolute?I prefer to keep it simple but accuracy IS necessary, and my shooting cast in cartridges is limited to my Marlin 45-70 and limited there as well ( I play but no 1" groups yet!lol) minute of whitetail but improvement would be great.i have years of shooting but only cast is muzzleloading Flint's and percussion ,cast and cartridges is new stuff ,but I have lots of lead and powder but no desire to burn it up before accuracy is attained,any help?

[waco]

Hard to beat a 165gr Ranch Dog

[Green Lizzard]

Size at .311, plain based stay below 1300 and 1200 is better, gas check stay below 1600 with middle burn rate stuff, stay below 2000 with slower powder, save on cleaning supplies and range time and headaches

Bill

[jimkim]

Go with a heavier GC FN boolit. I like the RD 311165 RF, Lyman 311041, and the RCBS 30-180-FN. I use the fattest boolit that will function in my 336. For a general purpose round I load them between 1500 and 1700 fps. For deer I use 170gr jacketed data. I don't really worry about leading since I use Best Lube which I got from Gunarea(Roy). I have yet to have ANY leading with it.

Sent from my VS880 using Tapatalk

[Bazoo]

I run that bullet sometimes and I get something like 2" groups at 70 yards. I ain't shot paper at a hundred yet. My load is 32.5 w748, standard CCI primer, ww+sn, BAC lube sized .3095. Except it's out of my winchester 94. Same load and the 31141 does as well and I'm happy.

[MT Chambers]

In the Marlin microgroove bl. I have had problems with accuracy, the 311041 just doesn't do it, I need molds that I can size to .312"

[charlie b]

The Lee molds typically cast bullets from WW that are the diameter advertised, .309. They require no sizing for 'normal' rifles.

From post above it sounds like the Lee mold will be under size so I'd pick a different one.

FWIW Accurate Molds can be specified for diameter you want so you could use them without sizing once you know the diameter you need.

[shootrj2003]

Is the proper diameter your slugged bore diameter or your throat diameter? And will .311 be too tight in a .308 (30/30) barrel? Perhaps raising pressures? I am guessing lead moves "easier" and forms to the rifling easier than jackets so this is why they can be so oversize? As a general rule,is it normal to use bullets 2-3 thousands over the slugged barrel size,or does the rifling determine this?( I have an 1893 Marlin which may use cast also- Ballard rifling)sorry for the questions .I use liquidAlox in my 45-70 cast is there better lube?

[DDJ]

I shoot that boolit un-sized in my Marlin and it seems to do OK so far at 25 yds. I'm shooting a mild load of 26.5 grns of IMR 4895. I haven't taken it down range yet but I will soon-maybe tomorrow. For the most part this will be my plinking boolit

[Bazoo]

It's common to shoot bullets a few thousands over, sized to the throats. However, there are a few rifles that will shoot just fine when sized to bore diameter. Over sized bullets raise the pressure very little. I believe it was speer that tested this some years back.

Personally I prefer traditional lubed bullets for rifles. BAC is what I'm experimenting with currently but 2500 will be next, both from white label lubes.

[shootrj2003]

Ok,so here it is slugged my bore measured with a Starret micrometer,the Marlin micro gruv bore actually ran from.3075 to .3085 ( that's what the Starret said?!)add .002 and largest dimension would be.3105 so I ordered 100 hunter's supply hardcast at .311 to try out rather than buy a mold first,if they work I have a size for a mold,I am assuming of course from my readings here that this is not too big?I took an impression at the muzzle and that was .3085 to almost .309,I felt these were fair measurements for a 1966 Marlin,any opinions on my findings?
Oh for lead slugs I used repurposed ultramax 30/30 bullets that ran.309,,they started hard but went through the bore hard enough I couldn't push them by hand but with a farrier rounding hammer,no problem !

[sigep1764]

I would think that if you put a 309 boolit through the bore as your slug, you will never know if it needs to be bigger. The slug will not tell you what size the bore and grooves are if it doesnt first start out bigger than the bore. Check the diameter on those repurposed boolits used for slugs. I am betting there is a spot that measures .3085 in one spot on an unused boolit. Find some soft lead, fishing weights will do, oil it up, and drive it through the barrel. Should get a better picture of size.

[centershot]

It's been my experience that the Lee moulds drop boolits that are about 0.002" under size for the Marlin 30-30 Micro-groove barrels. If you use the typical ".303" molds you'll find the boolits too long to cycle properly. I have used the Lee 312-185 successfully by hollow-pointing it to allow an OAL that will cycle through the action. If you use the Lee 30 cal. moulds you'll have to beagle them to increase diameter. Do yourself a favor, go to NOE's website and buy one of their 0.312" moulds.

[rintinglen]

I heartily recommend NOE's 312-440. It is very accurate with 17.5 grains of 2400 or 30.5 grains of WW-748 in my Winchesters.

[shootrj2003]

Well ,once I use the.311's I have a feeling I'll have a better idea where to go anyway at this point,and I won't be buying a mold til then.i will try to reslug when I have a better candidate slug I have a .32 mold(.323) but .32's I have made are hardcast ,can I push a .323 pure lead slug down a .308 hole?I Have .36 ball too

[GhostHawk]

FYI it is possible to "bump up" a bullet so that when you drive it into the bore it is bigger than the bore. Should in fact leave a small ring of lead at the muzzle.

Since for the purpose of slugging a perfect tapered nose is not required, a few taps with a hammer will normally do what is needed.

OR go with a pound cast of the throat/rifling. Its in the stickies.

[Green Lizzard]

Take apart a 00 buck shot shell, lube one then tap it through a clean bore

Bill

[shootrj2003]

As said the slug did not push through easily I used a heavy hammer so I don't think my bore is much over.3085but I will reslug

[shootrj2003]

we are every day using repurposed materials ad substances the idea of paperpatching actually stimulated my mind,what about protecting the base with( in place of poly ethlene plastic,how about Teflon plumbers tape,it is thin,flexible,apparently heat resistant,I originally thought of wrapping it around like paper patch,a 3" double wrap on a .458 Made .459 HOWEVER it's lubricity in a wrap around made me wonder if the bullet would just shoot out of the wrap leaving it behind( maybe in the barrel?)however it occured to me that a cross piece loaded into the case around the bullet would not have this tendency.any thoughts sorry just came to me!

[Patrick L]

I shoot the Lyman 31141 out of my Marlin. I have both the original GC and the PB clone we ran here a few years back. I typically size to . 311, but I have also shot the PB one unsized and lubed with liquid alox, just to try it. All worked great, very accurate and pleasant to shoot.

[Hickory]

Hard to beat a 165gr Ranch Dog
This is, if not one of the best boolits for the 30-30, the best boolits for the 30-30!

[yeahbub]

I have tried paper patched and tumble-lubed, paper patched and Teflon-wrapped, and Teflon wrapped bare lead. Both PP types worked very well, so much so that there was nothing to be gained by wrapping the PP'd boolit with Teflon tape also, so I gave that up. Teflon wrapped bare lead varied between great and abysmally bad, leaving the barrel thoroughly leaded by a cast boolit with zero lube. Nasty. Getting the tape to stay securely on the lead was an iffy thing. I got better results when I started wrapping at the heel and worked my way up with plenty of overlap as I went around the boolit, but even then there were failures. PP'd boolits have the texture of the paper for the Teflon to impress into, so that works reliably, but tumble-lubing PP'd in Ben's Liquid Lube or LLA worked just as well with less work and you wind up with a waterproofed patch too. My preference is for Ben's LL because it's less tacky than LLA when dry. Another advantage of PP is that the range of usable alloy hardness is expanded from soft lead to quenched WW's. My experimentation was done in a micro-groove Model 375, shooting ammo loaded to data intended for jacketed bullets.

You can PP conventional grooved boolits and size them to the desired finished diameter. The bore-riding noses are bore diameter and will patch to groove diameter or there-abouts, so you'll have to adjust OAL to properly seat it in the throat. The now-full-diameter-full-length boolit can be a real help in rifles with generously large or long thraots, like many a worn mil-surplus boom-stick in which you can't extend a bare cast boolit out far enough to make contact. For rifles with a more snug lead, I have a two-diameter Lyman type size die, so I can size the nose portion to .302 and the drive bands to .311. If you elect to go this route, I'll bet Lathesmith or someone here can turn one out for you, but you'll have to tell him the diameters you desire.