First keepers

[Cowboy_Dan]

Fired up my Lee 4-20 for the first time today. Brought along my 311041 and my 313249 molds. Here are a few of the products:

139381

The naked ones are from the reject pile, which was small compared to the keeper piles. 45 keepers and 7 rejects on the 041, 41 keepers 19 rejects on the 249. Should have put the 249 on top of the pot while I used the 041.

Also, I didn't have a top punch for the 249, so now they are sporting a small flat point. I don't think it should matter, but they are not even. These will be fired from my Tokarev.

Well, now it's time to get busy making .30-30's. Anything anyone can see to help me make better boolits is appreciated.

[s mac]

Looks like a good start, just need a bigger pile. Yes, don't sweat the flattened nose.

[pworley1]

Cast, load, shoot, repeat.

[Yodogsandman]

Nothing wrong with those, they'll all shoot! Try to cast them well filled out without surface wrinkles, pits from inclusions, cleanly cut bases and you got it! Go shoot them and make some more! Leave the boolit weighing and stuff for later, just see how they do.

Stick with it and your consistency will improve after a pot or two. You're doing great!

In your 30-30 try 8.0gr Unique with the 311041 and 3.5gr Bullseye with that 313249. These are just fun loads to try and not full throttle at all. YMMV, check all loads suggested against multiple trusted sources, even mine...always.

[Cowboy_Dan]

Thanks for the replies everyone. Yodogsandman, I'll definately check those loads out. I am trying to keep pressures low in my made in 1897 rifle, so these 311041's are sitting over a start load of 3031. This was the lowest pressure load in my Lman book using powders I have on hand.

Also, I used 50/50 COWW+2%Sn/BHN ~12 eangs scrap, is this an appropriate alloy for .30 WCF and 7.62x25?

[Yodogsandman]

Your alloy will work fine for both. If you decide to push the 30-30 higher than about 1800-1900 FPS, I'd oven heat treat and quench your boolits for more hardness. With a similar alloy (50/50 COWW+2% Sn/ pure lead), I get about 24 BHN after heating at 465*F for an hour in a convection toaster oven and quenching in ice cold water (with ice) and after aging for 5 days.

It's yard sale season and a great time to find a cheap convection toaster oven.