311465's still going strong

[Forrest r]

The 2012 season (26th year) has started & I’m casting the 311465’s for another year's worth of shooting in a 03-a3. I’ve never did anything fancy with them, just 14.5g of Greendot for a 100yd load & service rifle reduced targets. I was thinking of trying to work up a load with Herco this year since I have 2# of it lying around & no Greendot.

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This single cavity mold has been a work horse since 1987 producing .3125 bullets from scrap range lead that weigh 126g. I bought the mold NIB back in 1987 & cast 1000 to 1100 bullets a year with it. I guess I got lucky with this mold; it always cast beautiful round bullets that fall out of the mold when I open it. This is just one of those bullet molds/bullet designs that has worked so well there’s been no need to replace it 2 ½ decades later.

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[square butte]

Maybe your post will get the NOE 311-465 group buy reved up. You are blessed to have this mold. I've been looking for one for many years. Glad the group buy will get us there - but it's a bit of a wait.

[beagle]

That's my workhorse light .30 bullet in the .30/30 and .30/06. Goes to the heavy end of the spectrum in the .30 M1 Carbine but does well in that too.

I was surprised when it shot as good as it did in the .30/06.

Mine's HP'd...naturally./beagle

[nanuk]

....
Mine's HP'd...naturally./beagle

how is a boolit "Naturally" hollowpointed?

Mould to cold?

drop of oil in the nose?

dropped the mould one day, and got a nasty ding in the nose???

[rintinglen]

I use organically grown drill bits and wind powered drills for my natural hollow-points. But seriously folks, this is a favorite bullet of mine. I have two, a single cavity that is destined to get hollow pointed and a two cavity that that is my work horse. I have loaded thousands of these in 30-30, 30-40, 30-06, and 32-20 cartridges and have had excellent results in nearly every case. Only my Savage 325 doesn't like them much (like Mikey, it hates everything). My other 4 30-30's find it to be a Dandy. 17.5 grains of 2400 makes for a great plinker in the 30-30. Great for introducing new shooters to a "real" rifle without a lot of recoil to induce flinching.

[Forrest r]

I amazed more people don’t shoot these little gems. They’re my favorite bullet in the 30-06 & a 30-30 back when I had a Contender bbl in 30-30. I tried then in a 308 & had excellent results, it’s just been a solid performer in anything I tried it in.

My initial thinking back when I bought this mold was if I ever reloaded 7.62 x 39’s, it would be a shoe in for it. I never did reload for the 7.62 x 39 & have always wondered how this bullet would do in that chambering.

[square butte]

Most people don't shoot them because the mold has been out of production for quite some time and is very difficult to fine - If you do find it, It's gonna be very pricey - not to mention the guys you are gonna have to fight off in front of you.

[square butte]

Most people who don't shoot them and would like to - Should order this mold. Comes in a flat nose profile as well as round nose. What more could you ask for?

[leadshooter5]

Re cast boolits in 7.62x39: Don't do it. Go lay under a tree until this unholy urge goes away. I tried it in a Bulberry heavy barrel for a T/C Encore (.308) and ended up wasting a year of my life. Kalashnikov's Revenge is just one miserable frustration after another. It shoots just well enough to keep you interested...one more mold....one more powder. When you do shoot a good group and faithfully record all the data, you'll find that it can't be repeated. It is the slot machine of calibers.

[Fishman]

I have the Lee "soup can" 115 gr mould but this is interesting. What advantage does the loverin style possess over more common bullet designs? Any trade-offs to be aware of? I'm interested in a .30+ mould that is accurate in many military bolt actions. Is this the one for me?

[runfiverun]

it's a throat thing.
i have a 155 gr nei copy that fits nothing but my savage 30-30.
it would however shoot faster and more accurately than a jaxketed boolit.
i have a friend who's 0-3 eats them like candy, and if i pour them with a harder alloy i can use them in my 7.7.
if they weighed more like 220 grs they woould be great in the argie too.
if i ever get around to trying lead in my 303's they will be first or second on the list.
the lighter version might just do well in the 30 cal rifles.

[Dannix]

When lubing the 311465, do you lube just the last two lube groves?

Also, I usually order my molds .001 over what I want to shoot at, and size down .001 when lubsizing with my starsizer. For a two-diameter boolit like this, what approach should be taken?


(Pic courtesy of Swede)

[Forrest r]

It depends on what I’m using them in as to how many lube grooves I fill. I guess it runs hand in hand with why I like to use a Loverin style bullet, especially the shorter ones.

Because of the many lube grooves with this style/bullet design it allows me to be able to use the multiple lube grooves as crimp grooves. The small front (head of bullet) of the bullet aids in centering the bullet in the chamber of the bbl.

I’ve always simply used a test case that has been slightly over expanded in the neck are of the case & no primer in the case. I’ll put a sized/lubed in the test case, chamber the round & use a wire to push the bullet forward in the oversized neck of the case until it moves all the way forward into the lands & grooves of the bbl. Them I simply mark the wire & remove everything from the bbl. Them I reinsert the bullet into the test case & install the wire to the depth it was marked & see where/which lube groove the bullet should be crimped at.

When the seating depth of the bullet is established I’ll lube all the lube grooves under the crimp groove. With the nose of these bullets being fat & short they do a good job of centering themselves in the throat/leade area of the chamber of the bbl’s. I also like the short nose design because it allows me to reload the bullets to be seated into the lands & grooves & still allow them to be mag length.

The other thing I liked about the 311465 is that it’s a short bullet that body is only in the neck of the case when they are reloaded this way. I never worried about any of the different lubes I’ve tried/used over the years contaminating the gunpowder in the case unlike other longer bullet designs because the end of the bullet is never hanging/floating in the open area in the case of the ammo being loaded.
I’ve had good results be loading these bullets this way in several different calibers/bbl’s over the years.

[square butte]

Thanks so much for posting your wire trick with regards to seating depth. I will venture to say that this one trick might be worth all my time here since 2007. Excellent info sir. Just plain common sense thinking that somehow elluded me till you told us about it. I am looking forward to the NOE group buy for this mold - in part due to some of the reasons you mentioned. Hats of to all on this great site.

[largom]

Thanks so much for posting your wire trick with regards to seating depth. I will venture to say that this one trick might be worth all my time here since 2007. Excellent info sir. Just plain common sense thinking that somehow elluded me till you told us about it. I am looking forward to the NOE group buy for this mold - in part due to some of the reasons you mentioned. Hats of to all on this great site.

Check out the "O.A.L. Gauges" made by Hornady, as well as their Bullet Comparator tool. These tools will allow you to determine your boolit seating depth for any boolit precisely.

Larry

[rintinglen]

I normally use lube in the bottom 3 grooves, but I would also like to point out that liquid alox tumble lubes work very well in this boolit.

For a while I was loading in excess of 400 rounds a month of 30-30 ammo while working a full time job. Traditional one-at-a-time lubrizing was too time consuming. Instead, I'd run them through a lee .310 push through sizer, heat treat them, and then tumble lube and let them dry.

[HARRYMPOPE]

I have a 311465 Erik Ohlen did for me.It was one of his first HP's.It has been good but not great for me.My buddy has one he swears by so it may just be my particular mold relating to he fit in the rifles i use.

Of the 311465-466 and 467 the 3311466 has been my favorite.The 311416 is the light GC i really like.For no GC the 3118 or 31133 is the real gem.