Problems seating 20:1 Alloyed Bullets

[guywitha3006]

I had the bright idea that using a powder coated 235 boolit cast from the Lee mold would make an awesome subsonic brush round for Wisconsin whitetails. The coating and casting went fine, but when I tried to seat them in the .300 blackout cases they deformed pretty bad. The powder coat held up well but when I pulled the boolits and the portion that was in the case was sized down well below .308 (I sized them at .309"). It also deformed the tip in to basically a flat should with a tip. When I cast and loaded these boolits with wheel weight they loaded and shot well.

So after all that hot air, is 20:1 alloy to soft to load into a rifle case?

On a side note I planned to hollow point the bullets after they where cast to see how well they expanded. Is it possible to get good expansion from wheel weight or 50/50 lead/WW boolits around 1050-1100FPS? Hopefully I will know before next season as this season opens a week from tomorrow!

[country gent]

What size are you expanding your necks to on the cases? Is it a compressed loading? 20-1 dosnt work to compress the powder charge by very much. Also to heavy neck tensions. Measure the Inside dia of your cases and the dia of the bullets see how much press you actually have.

[RP]

I casted some 247 gr for my Blackout for the same reason and also failed. First problem came on sizing them they deformed the top of the boolit. I over came that problem by removing the stem from my lyman sizer and pushing them out the bottom nose first. Then on seating the boolits I got another deformed nose swelling them so much they would not camber. I have not tried opening up the case more due to time reasons so they slip in instead of pushing them in. But that's about the only way I see it happening. I will be following this for any ideals or solutions.

[Doc Highwall]

I shoot 30:1 alloy and I size the bullets .310" and my neck expander is .309" for .001" neck tension.
It sounds like you are not expanding your case necks enough.

[white eagle]

I shoot 30:1 alloy and I size the bullets .310" and my neck expander is .309" for .001" neck tension.
It sounds like you are not expanding your case necks enough.
sounds like a feasible cause I would have suspected the same thing
you may also want to flair the case a wee bit before you seat them
you may be resizing as you seat

[guywitha3006]

Thanks for all the replies. I expand with the standard expander in the die, did not have a chance to measure it, and then I had been using the Lee expander. Do they sell special expander balls? I guess I never looked.

[Doc Highwall]

Look at the Lyman M-Die.

[GabbyM]

Look at the Lyman M-Die.

DITTO.
Not even a BHN #15 bullet will expand a rifle case. Bullet gives in first. .001 to .002" tension is all you can get. Brass does not have a greater spring back anyway so more variation in bullet diameter to case ID does not increase neck tension. In general at least.

[country gent]

Another trick if your brass is consistent is to use a bushing die and just size what you need to. I did that for many years with 223 and 308 for High power a bushing of the correct size to put neck tension where the rifle / rifle wanted it.

[williamwaco]

Dock Highwall +1

[Forrest r]

Ran into the same thing decades ago loading 30cals (30-06) with cast boolits. I use rcbs dies so I called them & told them what I was doing. They sent me (free/free shipping) a .310 expander ball along with the rod & 5 pins to use. So now I use the standard expander ball/decapper for j-bullets & the .310 expander ball/decapper (303 british) for my .311 cast boolits.

Earlier this year I called rcbs about another ram for a rockchucker press that I've used heavily for decades. While I was at it I asked about another expander ball in .310. They sent me the new parts out for free/free shipping as usual.

87725

Kinda hard to beat rcbs & their customer service.

[Doc Highwall]

I use Redding bushing dies with a bushing that will just barely size the neck smaller then the neck expander that I am going to use so as not to over work the case necks.

[guywitha3006]

I have a .310 Hornady expander and a .308 Forster expander in my cart at Midwayusa. What Lyman M die should I use for the 300 Blackout? I feel like the M die for the .303 British would be too tall for the Blackout.

[GabbyM]

number 30 with a short die body should work out to a .310" boolit. I use a 31 for .312" and up.
If you end up with a diameter in the middle. You can easily polish down the M die plugs by chucking them in a drill and spinning them on emery cloth abrasive. For instance for a .311 get a 31 die size then polish it down.

[Shooternz]

Grafs have some 31 short M dies in stock, I have several bodies and a bunch of expanding spuds and mix and match to get what I need, Buckshot makes the spuds to fit odd sizes. Robert.