New to Rifle casting, need advice

[histed]

I've been casting pistol/revolver boolits for about a year now and really enjoying it. Couple of weeks ago BrassMagnet sent me a Lee 309-170 FN mold for my 30-30. Being a fool, and needing more 9mm boolits, I decided that 90 degree heat with 98% humidity wasn't going to stop ME from casting! I ran the 309 mold along side the 9mm 6 cav and ended up with about 200 really nice boolits. Now I have to figure out how to do this with a rifle.

SO... I know I can shoot these without a gas check if I keep velocity down. The plan is to use around 9 or 10 grains of Unique to make a nice plinking round, then get some gas checks, a push through sizer and use 748 to make a hunting load. Two major questions. First, how's the Lee Universal die for belling case mouths? Should I spend the extra for a Lyman M die? Second, I've been lubing all of my handgun boolites with 50/50. I have Lanolin, can get bees wax - so will 50/50 work in a 30-30 or do I need another lube? If so, what do you suggest? Can I pan or tumble or dip? (No lubrasizer in the near future, me thinks)

If there's a link or a sticky addressing this, my apology - I didn't see it. Thanks for you help and advice.

[sghart3578]

I like the Lee Universal die. I use it a lot. I have to flare the necks in my 7X57 brass for my oversize cast bullets. I have to expand the mouth quite a bit and I have yet to see any accelerated case wear. Very economical also as is typical with Lee products.

I also load plinker loads in my 30-30. I use the same Lee mold with 7 grains of Unique, tumble lubed with 45-45-10. For faster loads I gas check then pan lube in BAC from White Label.

Best of luck.

[OverMax]

Why not get started tomorrow.
To flair a 30-30s case mouth. That can be accomplished with a loaded 223 cartridge. By simply using a little pressure on the 223. Bullet first. Then roll up against the 30-30s cartridges mouth. Doing so will flair its case mouth enough to accommodate any cast lead bullet.

To mount a gas check onto a bullet base. Anneal some checks and snap them in place by hand.

To lube a bullet. Take a pre-fired 30-30 brass push its spent primmer out with a dies de-capping stem. (do not resize the brass) Then drill its primer firing channel hole out to accommodate a small headed nail. Drop the nail into the brass as to allow it to expose the nails shank thru its primmer hole below. {proper nail length for the purpose is one that its Head nearly clears the cartridge necks mouth. Seen when its shank is pushed nearly into the case. Its nail Head should be level the shells mouth opening.} This is your lube'ing die.

Stand your bullet up in a pan or old glass ash tray and add your melted bullet lube containing Alox to a proper height as to accommodate all the bullets grooving. Allow the lube to harden. Take that 30-30 brass with its nail held rearwards and push it down onto the bullet/s nose all the way till the brass bottoms out in the pan. Then lift and push the bullet free of the brass with its nail shank. Doing so will pack the grease groves correctly and squeeze the excess lube out. (Kind's like a cookie cutter cutting dough.)

There you go. Gas checked and nicely lubed bullets ready for reloading. All hand done without any special tools or dies.

[histed]

Thanks, guys. I do appreciate the feed back. Thought I might get more on the lube question. sghart - how fast are you pushing these with BAC?

[bangerjim]

To flair rifle carts on the cheep, use a tapered pin punch. I use the Starrett set I have. Select the right size to fit in the neck and tap lightly with a small hammer. Works great.

A REAL neck expander like the Lee Universal expander set unit once set up in your press, is repeatable from shell to shell and is much nicer, but if you cannot afford the small cost of one, pin punches work perfectly.

bangerjim

[histed]

Always something new to learn or try. Muchas Gracias, banger.
Over Max - I did try you flaring method, only use an empty 223case. Took a little practice, but it did work and I'm still not repeating the same flare every time.

[histed]

Well, I took most of the advice given, loaded 20 rounds with Unique. I started at 7 gr and moved up by 1/2 a grain to 81/2, 5 in each load. Bullets were seated to the crimp groove. Never shot cast from a rifle and I was a bit leery for some reason. No worries, though. The 71/2 gr load was the best group at 50 yards - I was stunned by the accuracy! When I find my camera cord I'll post the pic and the group sizes (if it ain't in pics, it didn't happen). Now I need to get some gas checks and try pushing these at hunting speeds. Most of you will understand my excitement at taking a deer with my Dad's rifle using boolits and ammo I created for that gun. Might try making some soft nose like in the sticky. Anyway - thanks for all the help, fellas. And BrassMagnet, if you read this, I couldn't have done it without you. Many thanks - again!

[Wayne Smith]

Blammer will sell you all the gas checks you need, too. Keep it in the family, as it were.

[williamwaco]

.30-30 Winchester
Lee 309-170 FN
Air cooled Wheel Weights
Sized .311
Lyman 50/50 lube.
Hornady gas checks.
Unique 9.0 grains
Thompson Contender 23 inch barrel

Groups at 1.5 inches at 100 yards

LOTS of fun to shoot.

Go for it.

Without the gas checks the groups will be a little larger.

[Outpost75]

With gaschecks 30 grs. of 748 is a good hunting load for a .30-30, but the Ball powders don't like reduced loads, so I wouldn't try less than that, especially in below freezing weather. I load 30 grains of either 4895, 4064, RL15 or Varget in my.30-30s with 160-175 grain bullets cast of wheelweight alloy with good results and seven deer to their credit. With the extruded tubular powders you can reduce charges to 70 percent of case capacity with no worries.

[35 shooter]

Yes the lee universal expander will work for you. And yes...a good 50/50 nra type lube should work well. All you need is a lee sizer die to make sure the checks are seated well when you get some.

williamwaco, wow,nice load! If i ever get a 30/30 bbl. for my encore i'll remember that one.

[williamwaco]

Yes the lee universal expander will work for you. And yes...a good 50/50 nra type lube should work well. All you need is a lee sizer die to make sure the checks are seated well when you get some.

williamwaco, wow,nice load! If i ever get a 30/30 bbl. for my encore i'll remember that one.



OOOooopppps. There was a typo in that post. Check it again. That should have been 1.5 inch.

[35 shooter]

LOL, i wasn't doubting you a bit! Okay, still a nice load. I have a load like that in my 35 whelen with 12 gr. unique behind a 296 gr. boolit...maybe 1350 fps? It's too much fun at the range and i call it my squirrel load.

[histed]

I like 748 (when I can get it) and 3031 for jwords, so its reasonable they's work well for lead. I will be in contact with blammer at some point after I get a push through sizer. williamwaco, I was shooting mine at 7.5 grains without gas checks. Want to load some more and try it a 100 yards, cuz I'm really happy with the 50 yard groups.

[histed]

117548 I finally got everything working - not unhappy with my first attempt. These were shot off sandbags at 50 yards. I'm thinking the groups may shrink as I get better at casting consistent boolits. Sizing might help, too??

[Sneakybuffalo]

I finally got everything working - not unhappy with my first attempt. These were shot off sandbags at 50 yards. I'm thinking the groups may shrink as I get better at casting consistent boolits. Sizing might help, too??

Sizing is one of the most important aspects of shooting cast boolits accurately, so yeah that might help lol. Slug your bore and size .002 larger than your bore.