30-40 Krag and Meplat???

[GunnyJohn]

How important is Meplat or lack of it when it comes to hunting boolits? When I got my Krag and was asking about boolits, I was told that the Lyman 311284 was a good boolit to use. Is it also a good hunting boolit, or is there a boolit better suited for hunting? I plan to use it mainly for deer and bears, but in a pinch elk. Thoughts???

[Char-Gar]

Hunting with cast bullets requires precise shot placement as you can't count on bullet expansion and all of that stuff. Game has been killed for a hundred years with 311284 so it does work. But, a good meplat does contribute to tissue damage and helps skew the odds in your favor. I have a 30 caliber 210 grain bullets with a 25 caliber meplat I designed with the help of Mountain Mold program. I like to tilt the odds as much as possible.

[Piedmont]

If you know exactly what you are doing you can make that 311284 become an expanding bullet at hunting ranges. A 210-220gr. expanding .30 caliber bullet will work fine. If you don't know exactly what you are doing, or take a shot farther than the expansion threshold of your alloy and velocity, you have a fairly pointy ball round at low velocity (for .30 caliber ball). That doesn't work so well. Having a flat point is a nice fall-back position if everything doesn't go right with your velocity/alloy combination.

Once a bullet starts expanding, if it expands, it is much bigger than any meplat you can dream up. A flat point will expand at a slightly lower velocity than the 311284 will. That flatpoint will also shed its velocity faster than the 311284 will.

[BruceB]

It's very easy to cast a SOFTPOINT on any bullet shape.

Once the front end is made of pure lead, the meplat size is irrelevant. That dead-soft nose WILL positively expand.

[300savage]

bruce how does a person go about doing what you suggest if you would not mind explaining.

[BruceB]

Go to the "Classics and Stickies" forum, and near the top of Page Two is a thread titled "BruceB's Cast Softpoints (as of May 2009)".

Also, do a search for "softpoint" and you will find a LOT of discussion on the topic.

A number of members have used their cast softpoints on game with very good results. A hard rifle bullet is basically a "solid", as they're termed in African hunting. Softer alloys often will expand on game but offer their own difficulties in the rifle barrel. The softpoint allows us to use a very hard rear portion of the bullet to withstand the stresses of firing, while having a nose that WILL EXPAND to increase the effectiveness of the shot.

Does a Nosler Partition come to mind? That was my intent... to get performance approaching that of those wonderful Noslers.

[300savage]

thank you bruce

[helice]

I have a single cavity 311284 and I too prefer the large meplat. So, when this boolit is sized I make multiple steps. First I seat the check and lube the grooves using a proper nose punch. Then I run the boolits through the RCBS again nose first with a flat nose punch. If I set the die right I can "bump" a meplat on the round nose when the boolit hits bottom in the die. The bumped meplat is about the size of a small pistol primer, sort of like Lee's 30-30, 170 grain offering, but I'm sure you can bump a larger one if you see the need. I find it easiest to do this when the boolits are warm. I have not noticed significant loss of accuracy but I confess that I can't shoot like many on this forum.