Lee 150 TL PB in my .308s

[borderman]

The runout on my loaded rounds is unbelievably bad. The boolits are visually crooked. I am just seating the base band in the cartridge neck in order to gain some land engraving so I assume this is the problem. I tried both ends of the Lee seater plug but it didn't seem to matter. Using the factory crimp die did not seem to help. I hope engraving the barrel will straighten them out enough to be usable. I really want this checkless mould style to work. I would certainly be willing to use another seater die if it would help but I want to keep OAL length at maximum for the rifles so the cartridge neck will barely be in use no matter the die. I tried the RCBS competition seater die I use for the M1A - total frustration. The lubed boolits just stuck to the side of the die, no centering at all. So without firing a shot it looks like this boolit may not be usable with my military .308s. I will try to get to the range Monday to find out for sure.

[45 2.1]

The seating die out of a normal RCBS die set is working fine for me. I do have LEE, Hornady and Lyman seaters of which the Hornady is the only satisfactory one of these.

[Maven]

borderman, I had the same problem with run-out as you did, but solved it by seating that CB more deeply. Although I prefer the longer OAL, I don't like the runout. However, I believe the nose of 30-150-TL-PB is wide enough to allow engraving by the lands even when it is seated "short."

[borderman]

Well yesterday's test was truly ugly, 7.5 inches at 50 yards for 10 shots using the surplus for 335. Can't remember the load but it was calculated to shoot in the 1400-1500 fps range. Boolit holes were nice and round but man were they far apart. I also experienced a lot of lead flakes during cleaning. This was with a dacron filled load so I am guessing the diameter is too small. The boolits were shot as cast, no sizing. The lube that was used has never failed before but this is my first experience with a plain based rifle boolit. I have no record of firing this rifle before (my record keeping is improving) so I am going to try some jacketed loads to establish a baseline before trying a different cast boolit.

[Larry Gibson]

Borderman

I'll bet your lack of accuracy has little to do with the runout. It has to do with how fast you are pushing a PB bullet with H335 powder. I'd suggest you drop back and try Bullseye; start at 4.5 gr and work up to 7 gr. Also try Unique; start at 8 gr and work up to 12 gr. You won't get much in the way of accuracy over 1500 fps with the PB bullet.

Are you using a Lyman .31 "M" die? My guess is you are pushing a bullet that is too larger in diameter into a too tight neck.

Larry Gibson

[borderman]

Well Larry I thought a lot about using a fast powder but decided against it on the (probably faulty) theory that initial pressure would be too tough on the unprotected base. But it is certainly worth a try, nothing else is working. Also 335 was not the only powder I tried. 3031 and 4895 were also used with the same lack of success. I quit in disgust before trying the 2400. It will take a couple days to get the fast loads together but I will report back.

[jabshooter]

Greetings folks!
Being the parsimonous soul that I am, I'm thinking of tinkering with a 150+- gr GC CB for my 7.62X54R. Do most .30 molds yield a bullet in excess of .310 using a straight ww mixture?
Thanks for any help.
Regards,
John

[Leftoverdj]

Plain base bullets will take very little pressure and medium rifle powders generally need a higher pressure than that for a uniform burn. Try for the 1000-1200 fps range with something in the Blue Dot or 2400 range, and that bullet will show you what it can do. If you have any of the WC 820(f) around, start at 7 grains and work up.

Jab, the group buy moulds are usually speced fat enough to cast .310 or larger. Production moulds from Lee usually won't. Run a search on "Beagling" to find the details of how to increase the size a given mould will cast by a couple of thous.

[454PB]

Perhaps ramming an unsized boolit into a case without using an "M" die is the cause of your runout. You don't say what the boolits measure, but my Lee .30 caliber moulds throw a .310" to .311" boolit in 50/50 WW/linotype. The combination of a PB .310 boolit and little or no case mouth and neck expansion is the perfect combination for lead shaving, distortion, and runout.

[Bob B]

I resently loaded some lyman 311410 bullets and some R.C.B.S 30-165 SIL,these with out gas checks over 5 grains of red-dot powder.From the bench the 30-165 bullet made several one fourth inch groups at 25yards, the groups shot with the 311-410 were slightly larger.The 30-165 cast of ww metal weighs 176 grains,the 311410 weighs 137 grains.I estimate the velocity of the 30-165 bullet to be close to 900fps.To get over 1200fpsyou need gas checks,paper patches or a very hard bullet. Bob B

[Lloyd Smale]

lots will argue with me here but i think your pushing the enveope with plain based bullets and tumble lube at 1500 fps. Unless you have about a perfect bore and your bullets are sized perfectly for your bore id back off to 1200 fps. Thats my opinion for what its worth. The gurus of tumble lube have better experiences with it then me though.