.30 cal. NOE Don Eagan Design

[Ben]

Look what arrived in the mail yesterday.
I got in on this group buy with Al at NOE about 2 1/2 months ago, he predicted that he'd run it in early May.

He is ahead of schedule !

Thanks Al,

Ben

[texassako]

Mine came in yesterday's mail. I can't wait to try it out.

[Ben]

Please share your results.

Ben

[dkf]

I ordered mine the other day. I almost ordered the 1 pb 1 gc mold but just got the both gc. I will be watching to see how you guys do with the pb boolits. If it works good I'll bore out on of the cavities to pb. It would be nice just to coat with hitek, size and shoot vs messing with gas checks.

[Ben]

As quite a few of you may be aware, I really enjoy shooting .30 cal. plain base bullets.

I got outside after lunch and cast some plain base bullets from the .30 cal., NOE, Eagan mold.

The cast bullets have been sized, lubed with Ben's Red and rolled in Ben's Liquid Lube.

Here are the " numbers". They look good to me.

[35 shooter]

The more i look at these Eagan boolits, the better the design looks to me.
Is this mostly a target boolit? How does it do for hunting? Will this design with it's long tapered nose take a bit of speed without slumping?
I'm very curious about this one. Something about it just looks right to me!

[Ben]

Many years ago, Donald Eagan made these molds in nose pour configuration ( many different designs , not just the one that I currently have).

Some real good reading on the subject in the link below :

http://www.castpics.net/subsite/HistMolds/Eagan.pdf

He was also on the " cutting edge " of his knowledge of chambers and chamber dimensions.

To answer your question, the bullet was originally desined as a g/c target bullet.

Would it work on game, we'll let everyone else chime in and offer their views ?

Ben

[35 shooter]

Many years ago, Donald Eagan made these molds in nose pour configuration ( many different designs , not just the one that I currently have).

Some real good reading on the subject in the link below :

http://www.castpics.net/subsite/HistMolds/Eagan.pdf

He was also on the " cutting edge " of his knowledge of chambers and chamber dimensions.

To answer your question, the bullet was originally desined as a g/c target bullet.

Would it work on game, we'll let everyone else chime in and offer their views ?

Ben

Thanks Ben and i will do some reading and research on this one.
Just looking at it reminds me of a Speer Magtech or Grandslam. Good call on getting the pb and gc boolit in the same mould...i love Noe's option on that.

[Ben]

Best of both worlds.

Ben

[dkf]

I don't know how a 200 gr .30cal bullet going over 1500 fps is not going to kill deer. Especially if you make some soft points.(which I want to try with this mold)

[TXGunNut]

Wow, looks interesting. What are ya'll going to load these into?

[dkf]

30-06 for me.

[madsenshooter]

Don Eagan catered to the castbullet benchrest shooters and had some really good designs. One of his customers was a 90 year fellow who was national champion more than once. Whenever I went to his home range at Washtenaw Sportman's Club in MI, he always told me that Don Eagan made the best bullet molds and that he'd visited Don's shop a couple times. Sadly that old fellow is gone now, but maybe he and Don are having some good conversations.

I have the original Eagan mold this NOE mold is based on, thanks to drawings done by frnkeore. Only problem I had with the original mold is the vent lines are too big for pressure casting with a ladle. I get lots of little fin bones I have to pick off. It will shoot very good and seemed to like to go around 2175fps.

My Avatar is another of Don's designs, his MX3-30G, a fully tapered bullet. It'll throat up very good in my Garand with the gascheck even with the neck/shoulder junction. I have the cherry and had Bernie Rowles of Old West cut me a few molds. Now I see why Don made the vent lines as he did. I have a lot of problems with trapped air in the Old West molds, likely a problem inherent in nose pour designs that have a conical nose. I get about 50% good and those air pockets aren't always easy to see or feel. Changing to base pour along with NOEs venting ought to eliminate those problems. Can't wait to see how it works for you Ben, mine aren't here yet. I got the larger sizes that were available, hopefully the .314 size will eliminate some jump to the rifling in my Garand and my Mosin should appreciate the .316 version.

[94Doug]

Boy, now I can't wait to get mine. I too ordered one with both Plain Base and Gas Check cavities, although I went with 4 cavity Brass as it just seemed like the thing to do at the time.

Doug

[JeffinNZ]

BEN: You appear to missing the gas check.

[texassako]

Wow, looks interesting. What are ya'll going to load these into?

Finn M28-76 Marksmanship rifle(7.62x54r) for me, you saw it that first trip to NTSA. It has sort of turned into my perpetual test bed for different bullet designs and powders.

[Ben]

I want to see some test targets soon..........

Ben

[TXGunNut]

30-06 for me.

hmmmm....this is all new to me. Looking forward to the range reports as well.

[35 shooter]

Wow, just looked at the b.c. rating on this boolit. The pic was a bit out of focus on the Noe site on my computer, but looked like an estimated .4448.
I'll be watching the results on this one. It is an interesting design!

[Dan Cash]

Paper patch that bullet and push it 2200-2400 fps and it looks like a real long range killer.