High Velocity Lead????

[joecool911]

I am having a Marlin 30/30 rebarreled to 25/35. With an 80 grain cast bullet, looks like velocity could hit 2,900 fps. Any comments on what formulation of lead I should look at? Is Lyman #2 sufficient?

[BABore]

50/50 WW-Pb+ 1/2 to 1% tin. Then water drop the cast boolit. It's not always about the hardness. Hard most times means brittle, high antimony alloys to most. More toughness is needed than hardness. Trying to acheive HV is usually a battle between proper lube and fouling. High antimonial alloys, at high velocity, tend to leave a grey wash in the bbl. When it builds up enough, it will tear up future boolits and destroy accuracy. Your full 2,900 fps velocity will not be impossible to acheive, but you'll have to do some work. Any old boolit won't cut it. The boolit will have to fit the case, throat, and engrave into the bore so it's fully supported at three points. Any slop in the case neck when it expands to seal the chamber will be detrimental as it allows the boolit base to cant. A big throat that's not filled by the boolit will allow the same situation as it exits the case mouth. Fit is everything. Lube will also be real touchy. Be prepared to experiment.

On the positive side, smaller calibers are a little easier to get to go fast. I really didn't have much problem with the 22 Hornet. I'm at full velocity with a casefull of Lil Gun. One thing you will have to do for best accuracy with these little pills is to weight sort them. Being so small, any internal void is going to cause you fits. I only use exact weight boolits from the heavy end of the sample.

[runfiverun]

a slower twist will help too.
it makes it easier for the boolit to engage the rifling and stay engaged through the acceleration.
you can overcome faster twist bbls with lighter tougher boolits slower powders and protection of the base of the boolit.
but you tend to lose the practability of the round, the more specialized it becomes in the velocty/accuracy end.
you gotta give up something to gain something.

[sqlbullet]

Why not paper patch for velocities that high?

[joecool911]

Why not paper patch for velocities that high?

Never have even started to look at that technique. Know nothing about it.

[runfiverun]

there's a spot for it on this sight, it's fairly simple.
you gotta work at it too, and generally the faster loads need a stronger alloy but you do get to use a much softer alloy for the velocities attained.