A good boolit for hunting the 30-06 at 2500 FPS?

[pmer]

Are there any boolit designs that would lend themselves good for velocities in the 2500 FPS range for hunting with 30-06. I have a older Model 70 30-06 Featherweight with an unusually short throat. I don't have any measurements at the moment but wondering whats out there that would make a good cast boolit for hunting at faster than 30-30 velocities.

I'm having good luck shooting the 32 Win Spl in a lever action at 2200 FPS but haven't tried going any faster.


OK, I found that other thread about a similar question and been reading that one.

[Moonie]

What are you hunting that needs that much velocity? I hunt with a 245gr .311 boolit @ 1,950fps, should go end to end through just about anything I point it at within reasonable ranges.

[runfiverun]

the faster you go the smaller the meplat you can get away with.

[Char-Gar]

That dog won't hunt. The Model 70 30-06 with it's 1-10 twist is not likely to make you happy if you strive for 2.5K fps. The 32 WS has a 1-16 twist barrel and that is an entirely different animal that plays by different rules.

[45 2.1]

It's all a matter of how you go about it. Several people here run a 180 gr. cast boolit at about 2600 fps in the 308 with a 10 twist with excellent accuracy. The 30-06 gets you there with a little less pressure. However, you need to learn how and your mileage won't be the same as someone else's.

[303Guy]

What are you hunting that needs that much velocity? I hunt with a 245gr .311 boolit @ 1,950fps, should go end to end through just about anything I point it at within reasonable ranges.

How do you load those to fit the magazine? That's a rather long boolit - about what I would like in my 303 but it needs seating below the shoulder. It seems to me that 245gr .311 doing 1950fps is about all one would need for an awful lot of stuff. I even used one like that for turkey (quite a bit slower) and to make it work I gave it a massive but shallow hollow nose. My theory was that the large hollow would expand on small critters but blow off leaving a large meplat for large critters. Never did shoot a large critter with one. I dropped the long and heavy for a flat meplat boolit that would fit the magazine, that being a 208gr .311.

[Shiloh]

Thats pretty fast. IIRC, 2200-2300 is as fast as I have gone in .30 cal. Accuracy was much better at sub 2000 fps.
Good accuracy around 1800-1850.

Shiloh

[runfiverun]

speed is easy.
speed with accuracy ain't.
to get there you have to take one step forward and a half step back at a time.
make up the half step.
and then try again.
i'm in the middle of a half step right now [stuck at 2250 with accuracy] going to 2300 in my 10 twist 308 opens the groups a little.
I might just push on past and see if things come back around.
but with some options I have yet to explore I can get to my goal of 2400 fps.

I have spent as much time [okay more] reading, thinking, and revamping some of my processes as I have shooting and just filling cases trying stuff.

[x101airborne]

You can get there, but it will take some work, as previously mentioned. Paper patching would be the quickest way to get there. My '06 is one I built on a mauser intermediate action and I cannot use real long boolits anyway, and it has a 1-12 twist barrel on it. Even at 2200 fps, I am far from disappointed with it. I could actually back off some and still be quite content. I just like getting under my dad's skin because he is a die hard core-lokt shooter. My brass lasts forever, rounds are cheap, and when dad was having to order ammo (some of it up to 60.00 a twenty round box for the 264 Win Mag), I could make 250 rounds for the '06 for a fraction of his cost. And that just tweaked him.

[Larry Gibson]

As mentioned the 2600 fps is easy.....the speed with accuracy isn't..........

There are some who claim to do both (Obvious from one post above) but most of us with a lot of experience haven't seen both consistent accuracy and velocity at anywhere near 2600 fps in a 10" twist '06. With some specific designed cast bullets and everything done right you might see 2300 - 2400 fps sometimes with accuracy of say 2 moa for 5 shot groups; sometimes less, many times more....... You can chase your tail if you want on that one as many of us have. The caveat "However, you need to learn how and your mileage won't be the same as someone else's. " will always be there when you don't succeed. You won't be shown how it is done but will get a lot of hocus pocus on how it's done but the hocus pocus always changes as you question and will remain a moving target.......finally in the end when you don't succeed you will be lumped in with the rest of us near do wells and the master will vanish into the mist across the rice paper leaving not a trace for you to follow..........

If you go that road then come back to the rest of us who will gladly show you what can really be done with cast bullets in the '06 with a 10" twist. We'll be glad to help.

Larry Gibson

[45 2.1]

Several of the Lyman reloading manuals list Cast Boolit data for the 30-06 in the mid 2500 fps range. Since they publish only loads showing good results you might try those instead of adhering to the above rant.

[Recluse]

OP asked about loads and possibilities for high-velocity cast boolit loads in 30-06.

He didn't ask to be part of a weenie-wagging contest, of which by the way, is getting pretty damned old.

[waksupi]

My .308 (K11 Schmidt-Rubin) seems to really like the 2450 fps range, shooting a Lee 170 gr. It will stay in under 1.5" at 100 yards. I did try pushing faster, and when I got around 2650, my groups were around 3.5". I'm sure they would have shrunk if I would have really wanted to do everything right, but I wasn't all that interested in pursuing a faster load in the rifle. As it was, the 2450 was faster than I wanted for hunting purposes. It was WAY more destructive on deer than I cared for at that speed.

By the way, if the age old argument arises, all involved parties will be gone for ten days each, for a start.

[pmer]

Thanks for all the advice guys. Since I started casting I haven't had the 30-06 out in the field. It has been revolvers and lever actions for deer out here on the farm. So then my thought was to push it faster than the 32 Winchester Special or I could keep using the 32; but maybe that thinking is too black and white.

I have another safe queen that my "mid twos " thought came up about as well. That's a 338-06 that also has a 10 twist barrel. I don't have any 30 or 338 cal molds. You're right, I don't have to go that fast it's more of a want than a need.

The 338-06 is really something with 200 grain j words at 2800, super low SDs.

[pmer]

I suppose we're talking a little tighter fit and a good gas seal. Would a multi lube grove boolit be better than the Lyman 30-30 design. I'm picturing a checked spitzer shaped boolit with a extra lube grove and a heavier front band to help get it spinning?

[GabbyM]

Don't think more lube is the cure to reach high velocity.
I've never had issues with running out of lube. Not even with 26 inch barrels. Have a couple Loverin style bullets which hold copious amounts of lube. They don't seam to go any faster before loosing accuracy than small lube grove boolits.

[waksupi]

I would stay away from spitzer design, and go Loverin.

You are suffering through some growing pains. You MUST forget about jacket bullets altogether when you start shooting cast. The cast do what jacketed try to do. The reason jacketed bullet design is being constantly tweaked, is because they do not perform up to cast boolits.

[1Shirt]

Agree with Larry G. If I were to make a recommendation however, it would be a 311284 HP, in the vol range of 2000-2200.
1Shirt!

[runfiverun]

I wouldn't be picturing too much of a spitzer shape you have to have enough nose strength to handle the acceleration and rotation.
I do better with as much bearing surface as possible.
one lube groove is plenty.
fill everything you can from the neck shoulder junction to the rifling and mimick that rifling start with your boolit shape.
get the centerline of the boolit as near the centerline of the barrel as possible.

[TCLouis]

I would find the grease groove version of Ranch dog's 165 grainer, then look at my supplies of medium to slow burning powders and just keep increasing the load data from a reliable manual until accuracy falls off.

Certainly not an answer to the question you asked, but I always develop loads starting boolit, then powder, then accuracy and then speed

To paraphrase some famous persons saying 'One can not misplace higher speed shots fast enough'

I use RD's boolit because I do not have any of the heavier Lyman, RCBS or other company's molds.
Any or all of them may be a better answer to your quest.

Paper patching is likely a method to reach your goals if all else fails.