Ruger Blackhawk 30 Carbine

[Mark-II]

I just bought this gun, and am shooting commercial loads while I wait for my reloading tooling.

I've picked up a quantity of plated projectiles, but at some point I think I'd like to cast for it.

I'm just target shooting with it at 25metres or less.

What's a good bullet mould? Preferably available in a larger number of cavities so that I can bang out a great quantity of them. I would prefer to not gas check, if possible, and I would be using either wheel weight or #2 alloy, so is a check going to be necessary? I'm planning on midrange loads rather than chasing maximums.

Right now I'm looking at the NOE 311008 and 311115
I do have a Lyman 311359, however it's an old single cavity one, which could get painful in a hurry.

[Old School Big Bore]

I've had an Old Model since about 1971. The thing to keep in mind is that it's a thirty and not a thirty-two, so stay with molds that are designed for .308 to .311 or so and not the .314s. The next thing to keep in mind is that it headspaces on the case mouth and you can't use a roll crimp. Any crimp groove a boolit might have might be a useful indicator of how deep to seat it, but that's all. They can be touchy about case length, so you'll need a trimmer. The standard is the Lyman 311410, but useful boolits run from around 70 to 130 grs; just make sure the heavier ones have a design that will fit in your cylinder. Don't let anyone tell you to only use 100-110 gr boolits. Since you intend to do mostly moderate loads, you will find a lot of useful data listed for .32 S&W Long that will be superb loads in your Blackhawk. Bullseye, W231, up through Unique and Herco are your friends for this sort of load. For factory level loads, LilGun and H110/w296 are the standards. Good luck and do post about your loads for the Blackhawk.
Ed

[Ickisrulz]

I use Lyman 311008 sized to .311 in 32-20 brass. This apparently doesn't work (the 32-20) in the OM Rugers.

Read this:

http://www.castpics.net/subsite2/ByFireArm/Cast%20in%20the%20.30%20Carbine%20Pistol.pdf

[cbrick]

I use Lyman 311008 sized to .311 in 32-20 brass. This apparently doesn't work (the 32-20) in the OM Rugers.

Read this:

http://www.castpics.net/subsite2/ByFireArm/Cast%20in%20the%20.30%20Carbine%20Pistol.pdf

I have the new model BH and shoot 32-20 brass almost exclusively. I have the Lyman 311410 HPPB and that worked so well I honchoed an MP group buy for this boolit in 4 cavity, I have one in PB and one in GC. The PB works so well with my loads I haven't even tried the GC yet.

My load of choice is a standard primer with 10 Gr SR4759. Crimped or not seems to make little difference and my 7 1/2 inch barrel gives me about 1050 fps & shoots well. CWW +2% Sn & it's one of the cleanest shooting revolvers I have.

I also have 311008 in an NOE 5 cav but have been so enamored with 311410 that I haven't done much with that either.

Rick

[Larry Gibson]

I worked with an old model some years back and it favored the 311008 sized at .311 and loaded over 4 - 4.5 gr Unique. Very accurate and pleasant to shoot. I used .30 carbine cases and had no problems with them. I backed off the RCBS FL sizer so the partially sized cases were just a slip fit back into the chambers. Bullets sized .312 would not allow about half of the cartridges to chamber. I also shot a lot of Speer and Hornady .32 (.314) swaged lead HBWC bullets in it. I push sized them through a .311 sizer and loaded them over 2.1 gr Bullseye for a very pleasant plinking, target and small game load.

Larry Gibson

[cbrick]

I've not worked with the OM BH but as I understand it the case head is enclosed on that cylinder and won't allow the use of 32-20 rimmed brass. Not so in the NM BH and the 32-20 brass works like a charm, they are slightly short to begin with so trimming is not an issue. They must be re-sized with the 32-20 die because of thinner brass but so far no issues with brass from sizing. Also I've never tried to reach max loads with the thinner 32-20 brass, I was looking for 1000-1200 fps for ground squirrels and found a nice pleasant load easily minute of ground squirrel at 75-100 yards with the SR4759.

Rick