Savage 110 30/06 & 311291

[txbirdman]

I recently acquired the above rifle and have been trying to make it into a CB shooter with the 311291. In trying to seat the bullet to touch the lands I found that the throat would engage before the lands with any thing sized over .308. I had sized this bullet .308;.309;.310;&.311. Only the .308 sized bullet would get the nose of the bullet to engrave. I then tried taking a .311 bullet and running it back into a .308 sizing die upside down. By just resizing the front drive band I was able to achieve maximum seating length and the round chambered fine. I shot a 5 shot sample of the 4 different sized bullets plus the .308/311 bullet. All but the .308/311 bullet shot lousey (I was using a charge of 16.0 gr. of 2400). For some reason I only had 4 rounds of the .308/311 which put 3 shots into less than 1" with the 4th shot stringing horizontally to make the group 1.5" at 100 yds.
Has anyone worked with these rifles and is it normal for the throath to be .308? I plan on increasing the powder charge in .5 gr. increments until I reach 20.0 grs once I establish a constant accuracy base for the 16 gr. load. Are there any other tips you guys could give me on this project? I was going to buy some Cerrosafe but I'm wondering if that's necessary in light of what I've found out during the bullet sizing exercise.

[Larry Gibson]

What alloy?

Use your .308/.311 bullet and I'd suggest using a slower powder; 4895. Start with 26 gr and work up to 30 gr in 1 gr increments. Use about a 3/4 gr tuft of dacron as a filler over the powder. Your best accuracy in your 10" twist barrel with 311291 is going to come in the 1750-1850 fps range. Probably between 27-29 gr of 4895.

Larry Gibson

[txbirdman]

Larry,

Thanks for the advice. I've been wanting to try some 4895 for awhile. I did try some 4064 in a previous test with this rifle but got unfavorable results. The alloy was water dropped wheel weights. I'm also hoping to find a deer hunting load for this rifle. The 311041 ahead of 20 gr. of 2400 gave me about 3 inch groups at 100 yds which will probably be okay but I want something a little more accurate.

Thanks again,
Richard

[Larry Gibson]

Richard

My hunting '06 which has a 10" twist also will put the first five 311041s over 32 gr 4895 (w/dacron filler) into 2 1/2 - 3" at 100 yards out of a cold CLEAN barrel. I cast them soft with a 50/50 WW/lead alloy with an additional 2-3% tin added. My mould is a HP with the HP stem shortened so the HP depth is only half way down the nose. They weight 177 gr out of that alloy. Velocity runs right at 2100 fps. If I shoot a second five shot group it opens to around 4" because the barrel begins to flash lead at the muzzle end because of the soft alloy. I use Javelina but tried some of the other "HV" lubes but none helped. Jast a fact to deal with using the softer alloy. The flash leading cleans out easy and I've no trouble cleaning the barrel after five shots. Thus I always use a clean barrel when hunting. First round out of the clean barrel goes in the group BTW. For hunting deer I always figure if I've shot five shots and not got the deer I might as well go home and clean the rifle anyways! I've killed a few deer and several feral goats with that load and perfomance has been excellent. I've not recovered a bullet but the exit holes and internal damage show the bullet expands nicely. My farthest shot was about 160 or so paces if I recall correctly (long time ago and many critters since) down hill on a cagey old billy. Took him through both front shoulders and he made maybe 10 yards before going down. Top of the heart was blown off and the offside leg was broke. 311041 is my favorite .30 cal hunting bulllet.

Larry Gibson

[txbirdman]

Larry,

If I can get mine to shoot like yours I'll be very happy especially with that soft alloy. I got this rifle a little late this year to take a deer with a CB but I'm hoping to next year. Thanks for the info.

Richard

[Char-Gar]

I am going to "assume" your .308 diamter is correct for your rifle. However, I find that very, very tight, and would hope it was a tad larger.

Anyway.. I see no purpose in trying doing your .308 for the first band trick to get the bullets to seat properly. So, the bullets seat in the cases and chamber? When that larger .311 section of the bullet hits that .308 throat it is going to scrape alloy like mad and size down the .308.

You would be better sizing the bullets .308 to start with.

I have over a dozen AMerican 30 caliber rifles and all of them, including a Savage 16 in .308 will accept bullets of .310, with most accepting larger. The one exception is a 1959 vintage Winchester 70 in 30.06 that requires .309 bullets. It does very well with .309 bullets.

[slughammer]

...Are there any other tips you guys could give me on this project? I was going to buy some Cerrosafe but I'm wondering if that's necessary in light of what I've found out during the bullet sizing exercise.

For a bolt gun, you can get a very accurate (and stable) measurement of the throat and chamber neck with a 38 boolit.

Take a brass rod, some masking tape and a cartridge case. Lay the case next to the rod and mark the rod with a masking tape flag about 1/4" shorter than the case.

Clean the chamber with a bore brush and some patches. Add a hint of case lube to the slug and drive it into the chamber using your brass rod. Then from the muzzle end insert a rod (wrapped with tape to protect the lands) and knock out the slug.

This is quick and easy to do. I recommend doing 3-4 so you can see the consistency. Pure lead has the least spring back, but acww would also work well.

The second test you could do requires a little more planning. Take a fired case, don't size it, but trim it square, measure and record the length. Then pour it full of lead to about 2/3 up the neck. Next take a pure lead 30 cal slug, seat it in the case by hand and chamber it. Use your tape wrapped rod (I use 1/4" drill rod) and then upset the pure lead slug into the throat/rifling. Once it is swelled up enough, the bolt will be hard to open. Since the lead is trapped between rod and bolt, I don't trust the dia as much, sometimes they measure a bit big. What this pound slug is great for is to see the length of the chamber and the transfer from the chamber to the throat and into the lands.

There you go, no need to buy any Cerrosafe for a bolt gun.

[ozbornm]

I used to have pretty good luck with 30 cal cast bullets. You can work them up to be very accurate.