It Works! - Lazy Man's Plinker Small Game Springfield 1903 30-06 load

[Dimner]

It works, and it works far better than I ever expected!

We all read tons of small game / plinking load questions for our springfield 1903's or other bolt action rifles. It seems like alot of people load up a 150 or 180gr boolit at a very low velocity and go on their way.

Me? I'm cheap. I want to spend the least amount of money, powder, lead, primers, etc... to achieve this goal. So I want to use something smaller than a 180gr bullet. I want less powder and less lead. But also, I'm looking for a low velocity accurate plinking and small game load. It's got to be quiet enough to not spook the woods and it needs to hit a squirrel at 50 yards every time. Being honest, I'm not inventing something new here. You can find the base for what I came up with in Ed Harris' Cast bullets for military rifles - Small game/Gallery load - But I needed to tweak it to my cheapness, laziness, and accuracy expectations.

So I set out on this quest and have been working on it off and on with another project I'm working on. Well, yesterday, I confirmed the results (because results have to be repeatable) at the range.

Easy to cast
Easy to lube
Cheapest primers I can find
Very little powder
No gas checks
Brass untrimmed
Straight up wheel weights

There are some things I need to work on to make this even easier. Need to test the bullet not being resized and need to test how consistent the velocities are when I do not hand measure the loads. I'm getting 5-7 as standard deviation values, I'm thinking the time savings is going out way the small amount of consistency I give up. Also, will be reducing steps in brass prep. As long as accuracy is the same, I will skip any step I can.

Lazy Man's '06 Plinker Load

Summary - Useful load for shorter range small game hunting or plinking. Very low noise and good accuracy.
Powder - TrailBoss
Powder Charge - 8.2 gr and 7.5 gr gr for accuracy, 7.3 gr for hunting (better trajectory and less noise)
Bullet - Lyman 3118
Alloy - Straight Clip on Wheel Weights
Lube - Ben's Liquid Lube, 2 light coats
Bullet Sized - .311 push through sizer
Brass - Have tried with success: R-P, FC, PPU, Winchester
Brass Length - untrimmed 2.484 - 2.489
Primers - S&B LR primer
COAL - 2.870"
Crimp - None
Brass Prep - Tumbled, Full length sized, Mdie mouth flared, Primer pocket cleaned, Mouth chamfered
Bullet Prep - Weight sorted, culled defects, two light coats of lube

All groups were shot with a 2 groove Springfield 1903a4 30-06. Weaver K4 fixed 4 power scope. Shot from a bench and using front rest and rear bag @ 50 yards.

Description: A4 3118 Trailboss BLL 7.3gr
Temp: 59 °F
BP: 29.98 inHG
Shots
# FPS FT-LBS PF
5 1168 0.00 0.00
4 1159 0.00 0.00
3 1164 0.00 0.00
2 1156 0.00 0.00
1 1157 0.00 0.00
Average: 1160.80
StdDev: 5.07
Min: 1156
Max: 1168
Spread: 12


Description: A4 3118 Trailboss BLL 8.2gr
Temp: 66 °F
BP: 30.12 inHG
Shots
# FPS FT-LBS PF
5 1274 0.00 0.00
4 1264 0.00 0.00
3 1267 0.00 0.00
2 1256 0.00 0.00
1 1263 0.00 0.00
Average: 1264.80
StdDev: 6.53
Min: 1256
Max: 1274
Spread: 18


I'm obviously not the best shooter in the world. Someone could load up 10 different 5 shot groups and show much better (and less) holes in the paper. But the squirrels, raccoons, and occasional grounded grouse wont care a bit.

[Earlwb]

I think it is pretty good. Actually the varmints would care, as since they get shot, they won't like it.
You are pretty much creating or duplicating a .32 H&R magnum or .327 Federal kind of round. Those made pretty good rabbit guns too. The .32's were good varmint and small game guns in their day.

[Scharfschuetze]

Deleted. Double post for some reason.

[Scharfschuetze]

Always a good project, these small game or plinking load in the old Ought-Six.

My 1903 Springfield load has always been the RCBS 115 grain round nose M1 Carbine boolit (COWW alloy) over either Bullseye or Unique for about 1,300 fps. I've bagged my limit of 10 cotton tails with only 12 shots at times with it. Head shoot 'em though as even the light Ought-Six loads will damage a lot of meat if the hit is in the body. In Western Colorado in the 70s one could select his shots and knock off sitting bunnies out to 50 yards or so and the loads (like the OPs targets demonstrate) would easily hold for a head shot.

[leeggen]

I use 3 gr of bulseye with the 93 gr lee pistol boolit in my 1917 06. Larry Gibson and several others have alot of imfo. on doing mouse fart loads or cat sneeze loads. Glad it worked for you.
CD

[Lead Fred]

Yer right on the verge of subsonic also. Opens up all new possibilities

[GhostHawk]

I do the same. I have a 7.62x39 load using the .314 90 grain truncated cone plain base Lee Mold. Over 4.6 grains of Red Dot. It does turn my semi auto SKS into a straight pull bolt like the Swiss.
The good news is brass is a lot easier to find, this round is nice and quiet at the range and hits target dead center at 25 yards when my rifle is sighted for factory loads at 50.

I also shoot the same load in the Mosin with fair accuracy.

[Ithaca Gunner]

I've been doing some-what the same with a LEE 100gr. .32 S&W boolit and Red Dot in the '06 for years. I never thought of using Trail Boss though, sounds like a worthwhile venture.

[JeffinNZ]

I have a similar velocity load for .303 British using that bullet. I used to shoot an area that was heavy in rabbits. Came over a rise one afternoon and happened on a mod of bunnies. By the time the ten round magazine was empty I had 7 rabbits.

[FredBuddy]

Yup. Same boolit, only powder coated.

30-30, 300 savage too.

Only trouble is Trail Boss is scarce.

[3006guns]

Many years ago (late 1960's) a man gave me a handful of 30-06 cartridges with lead boolits. He remarked that he'd been playing around with 32-20 boolits over a light charge of shotgun powder. I had the chance to try them in my 1903 a few days later and found them to be VERY accurate at 50 yards using the battle sight which is calibrated at 546 yards. I was absolutely enthralled..........and did I ever think to ask for the charge? Nooooooooo.........

So now, after all these years and thanks to the OP, I have a new toy to play with!

[Outpost75]

FWIW, in my '03 Springfield the Accurate 31-155D plainbased bullet with 7 grains of Bullseye shoots on at 50 yards with the battle sight. Velocity is subsonic, about 1050 fps. VERY accurate and reasonably quiet.

Attachment 177934

[Jack Stanley]

Many years ago (late 1960's) a man gave me a handful of 30-06 cartridges with lead boolits. He remarked that he'd been playing around with 32-20 boolits over a light charge of shotgun powder. I had the chance to try them in my 1903 a few days later and found them to be VERY accurate at 50 yards using the battle sight which is calibrated at 546 yards. I was absolutely enthralled..........and did I ever think to ask for the charge? Nooooooooo.........

So now, after all these years and thanks to the OP, I have a new toy to play with!

I can help you with the charge weights for that battle sight 03 . seven and a half grains of unique and a 155 grain bullet and nine point two grains with a 170 grain bullet . I use the Lyman 311466 and 311291 respectively .

Jack

[3006guns]

I can help you with the charge weights for that battle sight 03 . seven and a half grains of unique and a 155 grain bullet and nine point two grains with a 170 grain bullet . I use the Lyman 311466 and 311291 respectively .

Jack

Thank you.......made a note!

[Mauser48]

I like the lee c309-113 on 10 grains of 700x l. Basically the same boolit as that lyman.

[3006guns]

Talk about frustrating! I found a lovely lot of tumbled/sized/primed 30-06 brass in my stash and married ten rounds of it to some 113.5 grain 32-20 boolits and 7.3 grains of Trail Boss. Next we grab my wonderful 1903 and..........

It's raining.......sigh.......well, maybe in a couple of days. Really want to try this load as we have bazillions of Robertson's ground squirrels up in my area. They're real pests and a .22 is the normal medicine. When you can find ammo...........

[DerekP Houston]

great, now I've got a new mold to add to my list of "christmas goodies". I like the idea of using a light weight bullet in my 30-06, will keep my search for that lyman mold saved.

[Mauser48]

great, now I've got a new mold to add to my list of "christmas goodies". I like the idea of using a light weight bullet in my 30-06, will keep my search for that lyman mold saved.

It's on clearance at midway

[DerekP Houston]

It's on clearance at midway

lmao you enabler, lyman 115 gr 32-30 mold en route now . Guess I'll have to bust out the 30-06 this winter!

[mrrch]

I've been shooting the Lee 93 grain boolit with 700x and it works great on tin cans so far.