200 grain "The load " type load for hunting?

[Wilderness]

I can certainly understand the motive for using a powder you already have to come up with a low velocity, low recoil practice/plinking load. Makes perfect sense. But I'm not comfortable using such a load in a 30 caliber to deer hunt because there isn't likely to be much expansion at all. My personal threshold for acceptable deer cast loads is 2,000 ft/sec muzzle velocity. Not saying that anything below that won't work but I don't like learning where the cutoff point is on live animals. I guess you could do a lot of water jug shooting with successively lower velocity loads to watch for the velocity threshold where expansion stops or diminishes a substantial amount. I'd rather just load to 2,000 + ft/sec and hunt like I had a 30-30 factory load in my hands.

This is getting pretty close to a solution for hunting. I have been shooting pigs with hollow point 175 gn cast bullets in .30-30, MV about 2200 fps, and I'm talking a couple of thousand or more, not just one a few years ago. I have found both the velocity and the hollow point necessary for consistent results on hogs. You can make your bullets into HP with a Forster hollow pointer, although mine come straight from the mould. For a soft alloy you will need to drill out about 6 gns of metal. For a harder alloy like I use, a bit on the hard side of #2, a 10 gn hollow has worked well.

In my Ruger .308 I have run the hard 175 gn bullet up to 2400 fps with 4350. It shot well at 50 metres, but groups opened at 100 metres, I believe on account of the 10" twist. Your .308 may have a 12" twist and thus handle the 2000 fps plus loads better.

I recently ran some comparisons of hard HP, soft HP and soft solid bullets on pigs, after using just the hard HPs for years. This was with 2100 - 2200 fps loads in .30-30. The writeups are on the Cast Bullet Association Forum in the Hunting section.

https://forum.castbulletassoc.org/ca...-cast-bullets/

Having never shot a deer, I have no idea how this might translate for your situation.

Most of my shooting is inside 100 meters, 150 at a pinch.

[LAKEMASTER]

Sounds like I should make the plinking load and use it at the range. Worry about the hunting load when it comes to it. Thanks guys. Ask if you bring up good point

[Screwbolts]

OP: if you were to look in the Lyman 3rd edition, Cast Bullet handbook you would find 700x powder listed in the 06 section with many different boolitz.

It does require that you look.

[Larry Gibson]

I can certainly understand the motive for using a powder you already have to come up with a low velocity, low recoil practice/plinking load. Makes perfect sense. But I'm not comfortable using such a load in a 30 caliber to deer hunt because there isn't likely to be much expansion at all. My personal threshold for acceptable deer cast loads is 2,000 ft/sec muzzle velocity. Not saying that anything below that won't work but I don't like learning where the cutoff point is on live animals. I guess you could do a lot of water jug shooting with successively lower velocity loads to watch for the velocity threshold where expansion stops or diminishes a substantial amount. I'd rather just load to 2,000 + ft/sec and hunt like I had a 30-30 factory load in my hands.

I'm with 35 Rem on this one. I also prefer to use the top end cast bullet loads for hunting as they will kill quicker and more assuredly.

[LAKEMASTER]

It certainly does, that's where my Idea came from. The 3rd addition is my go to for plinking loads with all the fast powders

[Screwbolts]

Lakemaster, Many, many moons ago I was the proud owner of a double cavity 311284 that at some point in it existence one of the cavities had been reamed out for a plane base 311284. I still own an early Ideal 308284 SC mold. In the early years of this century, I using a PB version of the 311284 un sized and lubed with LEE's LA, loaded in a 303 brit case and motivated by 14 gr. of IMR 4759 (grains, NOT GRAMS ) for nearly 1400 FPS on my crony harvested a 2 year old Holstein steer helping my yougest brother.

The round was fired from a M4 SMLE that had already been sporterized before ending up in my possession. from a distance of 25 yards out in the pasture the boolit entered the forehead of said steer and probably to manys surprise here it entered and it didn't bounce off. I used to have that boolit for display but just checked and it has been reprocessed. Any how the steer instantly dropped after all 4 feet came up off the ground at the same time. While Bryan and I were cutting the carcuse in half we momentarily looked for the boolit. It had completely pernitrated the skull and we stopped looking after the 4th vertebrae in the neck. On delivering the carcuse to the meat cutter I asked Jim to be on the lookout for the long lean 311284 that he would find somewhere in the rights front quarter. When I picked up my portion of this beef animal, Jim proudly gave me back my Boolit. Jim had found the Boolit with the nose rivited and bent against to match the blade of the shoulder bone. Close to 40" of bone and soft tissue before lodging against the bone.

Magnumitus runs ramped in many here. I believe a well placed shot is of the most importance.

Work up your load and have fun.

Being you have Lyman #3, look in the front of the book for Frank Marshals articles and his experience with the 311284 in his 06 and 30/30, the long lean wind bucking machine as he called it. No it isn't perfect but it is still effective.

Ken

[centershot]

Sounds like I should make the plinking load and use it at the range. Worry about the hunting load when it comes to it. Thanks guys. Ask if you bring up good point

No. It's March, almost April. Start your search for your hunting load NOW! It might be November before you get it figured out! The plinking load isn't generally very time consuming but trying to persuade a lead bullet to behave at 2000 fps can be!

[Larry Gibson]

"Magnumitus".......Hardly. Loading a 178 gr 311041 to 2000 fps out of a 30-06 or 308W hardly creates a "magnum" load in either. No one has said the OPs projected load wouldn't kill. If minimal power was all that was needed, we would all hunt deer with 22 shorts. Yes, a 22 short will indeed kill a deer. The problem is in most hunting situations it is not very quick killer. The deer or other game can go a long distance before it dies a protracted painful death. Same with small caliber cast bullets at minimal velocity as in under 1400 fps impact velocity. I've seen the sad results of such loads too many times before I learned. Sorry, but such loads are not my cup of tea.....

Yes, under certain, very controlled conditions such as hunting over a bait station, a minimal load can be effective depending on precise shot placement if one can guarantee that placement. However, for much other hunting such a guarantee of precise shot placement is not probable. Thus, when hunting with those methods in such conditions I've learned the hard way to use top end loads.