Advise needed: 311008 in 30/30 Win 94

[jmsj]

Hey guys,
I just bought a 311008 mold from 280Ackley and was thinking it would make a great boolit for my 11 yr. old daughter to shoot out of one of my Winchester 94's in 30/30. My daughter has been shooting a .22 since she was 5 yrs old and is wanting to move up to a center fire.
The Winchester 94 is a rifle a neighbor gave me for doctoring a sick horse for him. He kept it for years loose under the bench seat of his pick up truck(really). The rifle had light surface rust and rub marks, the magazine tube was crushed where it got caught in the seat adjuster and the last couple of inches of the bore was pretty rusty. I had always wanted a Trapper so I had the barrel shortened to 16 1/2" and had the gunsmith cut a dovetail for the front sight. I replaced the magazine tube w/ a Trapper length tube and shortened the spring, refinished the metal and wood, made the necessary adjustments and installed a Lyman receiver peep sight.
This gun shot reasonably well but I have not shot it in over 10 years. My daughter saw this gun in the gun cabinet and asked to see it. It fits her fairly well and she asked if she could shoot it. I saw the 311008 mold on Swappin and Sellin and thought it would be great for the homemade Trapper.
I have never loaded cast boolits in a rifle before and am looking for some input here. I used the search and found little info for the 311008. For those of you that use this bullet in 30/30, what alloy, hardening(if any), powder and lube do you recommend. The main purpose for this load will be called predators, coyotes, foxes, raccoons and bobcats.
I would really appreciate a little guidance here. Thanks, jmsj

[NHlever]

That is a fine boolit for your 30-30. I've shot a ton of those over the years usually over7 grains, or so of Unique. It is pretty easy to duplicate 32-20 ballistics, but you will need a gas check design like the Lee 113 FN if you want higher velocity, and I think you might for coyotes. At any rate, you will find that the mold you have will produce boolits that are just plain fun to shoot, and much more potent than they look. If your calling brings in the predators to close range, you will be fine with the 311008, and you can probably go to 10 grains, or so of Unique before you have any leading, or other issues. I have used air cooled wheel weights mostly, or a 1-15 alloy that has a bit of antimony in it from my raw materials.

[jmsj]

NHlever;
Thanks for the reply. I think I actually have the Lee 113 FN mold somewhere. If you have a pet load for the Lee 113 FN, I'd love to hear it. Like Ben's thread regarding plain base boolits, I was trying to get away from using gas checks but I may give it a try also.
I am not looking for a real fast load, just something soft shooting for my daughter to start on that is still able to anchor a coyote/bobcat sized animal at 50 yds. or less.
How fast do you think your 7-10 grain unique loads are going? I have been unable to find any load data for the 311008 in the 30/30.
Thanks again jmsj

[NHlever]

I haven't run them over the chronograph, but Quickload says that 7 grains should give you about 1400 fps, and 10 grains should produce over 1700 fps, perhaps a bit fast for a Plain Base boolit. Using 10-15 grains of A-2400 will produce just a bit more velocity on both ends at very safe pressures. The gas check boolit could be driven just over 2200 fps with 20 grains of 2400. I've shot a bunch of the lighter loads with Unique over the years, but have never shot anything larger than small game with it. Since it basically is a 32-20 factory load there is no reason it sholdn't work for your needs.

(See also the plain base boolit thread below)

[Bret4207]

I've used a lot of the similar 311316GC boolits in the 30 rifle cartridges. In the 30-30 7-8.0 Unique works good. 10.0 gr you need the GC for sure but it'll turn a coyote into a rug pretty quick. Plain old WW works fine. Other powders in the Unique range like 2400 and Red Dot work fine too.

[jmsj]

Hey guys,
I just got around to putting together and shooting some of 311008's loaded with Unique.
What an absolute blast.
I cast up about 300 311008's last month. The alloy was straight WW's and I water dropped them. They were sized .310 and lubed with FWFL. I water dropped them because I planned to see how fast I could push them before they started to lead the bore.
For this first outing I put together three loads using Unique, 7.5 gr, 8.0 gr and 8.5gr, PMC brass and CCI large rifle primers.
I was using my "homemade" Trapper, I had not shot this rifle since 1999. Since I had not shot it in so long I took some time and really cleaned the bore out. It took about ten rounds to settle the bore in and start grouping.
The wind was blowing pretty good this evening, typical New Mexico spring weather. It was blowing hard enough to tear a couple of targets off the backer board at the range behind the house. Even with wind I was able to keep 5 shot groups at about an 1" to 1 1/2" at 35 yds. with all three charge weights. In most groups there were 2 or 3 touching. The 8.5 gr. groups were the smallest, grouping at about 1". This is about as well as I can shoot anymore with iron sights in the late aternoon/early evening. I think I might be able to tighten up these groups a little with less wind and shooting earlier in the day (darn these middle aged eyes).I did not clean the bore for the entire session and there was no leading that I could see and after 75 rounds and group size stayed about the same. One thing I did notice was that at 7.5 grains the bore looked sooty. As the powder charges went up the bore looked cleaner. With the 8.5 gr loads the bore looked like it had not been shot other than the lube star at the muzzle.
I am going to try a few loads with more powder and see where accuracy drops off or leading begins. I was thinking 8.5, 9.0 and 9.0. And after this I'll try 2400.
My 10 year old daughter was the reason this whole adventure began. She came out to the range with me and shot about ten rounds. She says she didn't think loads kicked bad at all and that she enjoyed shooting the little "homemade Trapper".
I wanted to thank NHlever and Bret4207 for your advise on this load. When I get around to loading and shooting the heavier powder charges I'll let you know how these go.
Thanks, jmsj

[chsparkman]

jmsj,
I know this is an old thread, but I'm about to try the same boolit for my new(to me) Marlin 336. My question is, how deep did you seat these boolits? I see no crimp groove, so it makes me wonder. I was planning to try crimping just over the forward driving band. Is that what you did? If you could post a picture of one of your finished cartridges that would be very helpful to me.
Thanks,
Chris

[Catshooter]

The load I've used is five grains of Red Dot over this boolit. I haven't chronoed it, but I guess it runs about 900 fps. No recoil and quiet. Very accurate.

I used this load to introduce my grandson to shooting. I couldn't wipe the grin off his face for hours.


Cat

[jmsj]

Chris,
Yeah this is kind of an old thread. I was concerned about bullet set back so I used the the upper crimp groove as a crimping groove. I put lube in the grooves, set the crimp to set just under the upper lip of the lube groove. Then I wipe off any lube that got squeezed out.
One update on the load, I have since made a PB gas check maker for .30 caliber and used them on this load. The best accuracy turned out to be at 9.5 grains of Unique yielding 1750 fps. I went higher but accuracy started to go away. I started another thread somewhere here about a red fox I shot with this load.
Hope this helps, jmsj

[NickSS]

I have used the 311008 bullet for over 45 years in 30-30s and have had nothing but good luck with it. I mostly load it to equal a 32-20 load with either Red Dot (6 t 7 gr.) or Unique (7 to 8 gr) powder. I tought all my kids to shoot using this bullet in either a Marlin or Winchester 30-30. I size the bullet to .312 which works well for Marlin and Winchesters that I have shot it in (7 or 8 different rifles). I have killed all sorts of varmints and small game out to 100 yards or so with complete success. The 32-20 loads Kill a lot faster than any 22 RF or 22 mag I have tried.

[Outpost75]

Here is charge establishment I fired in my 1894 Winchester .30-30 with Ideal #3118, using Bullseye powder and Winchester WLR primers:

#3118, wheelweights, as-cast, unsized .313", Lee Liquiid Alox, W-W cases, WLR, OAL 2.38"

4.0 grs. Bullseye, 1008 fps, 33 Sd DO NOT REDUCE, quiet, plinking accurate at 25 yards, strings vertically at 50 yards
4.5 grs. Bullseye, 1094 fps, 21 Sd not as quiet as 4 grs., but more accurate, still mild report
5.0 grs. Bullseye, 1207 fps, 9 Sd, noticeably louder, distinct "crack!" like shooting a .32-20, accurate
6.0 grs. Bullseye, 1350 fps, 6 Sd DO NOT EXCEED - most accurate inch groups at 25 yards, 2 inches at 50 with open sights.