What would you do?

[castormd]

Okay, here is the scenerio.
A person, (me) has a brand new rifle. A Remington Baikal single shot.

It is going to be protected by unwritten, personal law that absolutely ONLY home made cast boolits will be fired in such weapon.

The rifle is a .308 Win. caliber.
Now the big question.
If the owner, (me again) wanted a boolit that was deadly on whitetails and paper would he purchase a 150, 170, 190, 200 gr. boolit mould? Would it be round nose, flat nose, semi point? Would it have multiple lube grooves or just one or two? It should be easy on an old shoulder recoil wise, and finally...
I have narrowed the manufacturer down to Lyman or RCBS. Just looking for everybody's professional 2 cents.

P.S. it may in the future get sent away for some sort of hollow pointing program. Thanks in advance.

[Hickory]

You may have to do like a lot of us do.
Buy one or two moulds and test for accucary.
Then buy a couple more moulds and do more testing.
And you'll have fun the hole time.
Oh, by the way, any of the weights you mentioned will work on whitetail deer.

[Thumbcocker]

311291 and/or 311041

[Kskybroom]

+1 On Hickory
I did the same with a 35 Rem TC Contendor (Pistola an Carbine) I started with a single cavity Ideal mould 204gr RN, Bought a couple more. Ended up hollowpointing the Ideal mould. Makes a nice piece to hunt an shoot. It will Never see a J word bullet...

[DLCTEX]

GC180 gr. fn cast with 50/50. Will do in any deer that walks.

[AZ-Stew]

At reasonable distances, any of those weights will do. Use a flat-point. You might even get Buckshot to hollow-point it for you. With a two-cavity mould, you can make flat-point and hollow-point boolits from the same mould.

The lighter the boolit, the less recoil and the less lead usage. Lighter boolits also require less powder, which will also reduce recoil and lower powder cost.

Either the Lyman 311041 or the RCBS .30 cal 150 gr FN would be a good choice.

Regards,

Stew

[runfiverun]

since your only gonna be going @1850-1900 use a flat point soft alloyed boolit
in the 150- 200 range.
some rifles like a long nose fine and others insist on more bearing surface.
if i had to pick only one it'd be the rcbs 170 fn g/c.
cause once you shoot the 308 you'll want the 30-30.

[Johnch]

I would for one , get in on the Ranch Dog 6 gang mould buy for his 30 cal mould
But be quick , the buy closes tonight http://www.ranchdogmolds.com/

I shoot it out of my 308 and it is deadly on deer

John

[Blacksmith]

Not from your listed mould makers, this from NOE, but you might consider the 165 gn. group buy re-run, here is the link:
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=75612

Blacksmith

[buck1]

RCBS 308165 sil.

[MT Gianni]

RCBS180fn, but any of the listed will work.

[crabo]

cause once you shoot the 308 you'll want the 30-30.

What is the reasoning behind this statement? Is it the longer neck on the 30-30? I don't have a 30-30, but I am collecting brass and have ordered the NOE mold. I am also looking at leverguns I don't need, but you know how that goes....

[Ed Barrett]

Unless you want hand lap the bore on your new rifle, you may want to get a box of j-type bullets to smooth up the rifling. The Russian rifles I've seen have had some pretty rough bores, I don't mean military but made for export models. Many years ago I tried to start off a couple rifles on cast. Never had any luck on one until I lead lapped the bore, the other one I put 80 j-bullets through it, cleaning every few shoots. The shooting method was much easier. By the way both the guns were american made.

[Lead Fred]

Ranch Dogs 30-30 mold all the way

[AriM]

RCBS moulds, in my experience, drop the most usable boolits. They heat up a bit too quick (IMO) and don't turn out the quantity that a Lee 6 banger does. That should be a non issue for your gun though. I have a variety of moulds, from cheap Lee to handmade custom jobs. My RCBS still drops the most consistent and usable boolits of all of them. RCBS moulds are works of functional art. Just my opinion.

[runfiverun]

craig, the 30-30 has it all over the 308. usually friendlier throats, higher velocities, lower velocities.
loads easier to work,the longer neck.
levergun cool is just a bonus in my book....
i am stuck with a bolt action savage 340 that you couldn't pry away from me, except maybe by using either a rem 788 or a pre 64 win as a pry tool.

[castormd]

Well, thank you one and all. I just got back from the range with some cast boolit handgun programs in progress.

I did not think about the break-in program but I am now. Somewhere I have about 90 old Speer, 110 gr. rnjhp in .308, and 35 years ago I could not get them to fly out of an 'o6. So I think in lieu of lead lapping, this is what these old bullets will be used for.

I also have about 60 pulled '06 Milsurp black tips, approx 173 grs steel jacketed . Maybe they would serve as a better break in bullet with slow in between cooling shots.

One way or the other it will be a slow process as I have a lot of cast boolit projects in the fire.

Range time is a very valued commodity.

[runfiverun]

high antimonial alloys will also smooth out a bbl.
paper patched same thing only quicker.
as will some valve lapping compound.

[1Shirt]

Well, it it were me, it would be either 311041, or the Ranch Dog 165, and if the 041, would have it in a HP.
1Shirt!