Expanding WW for 30-30?

[lar45]

Hi all, will air cooled WW expand at around 2000fps from a 30-30? I was thinking about shooting some of the fat 30's in my Martini. I was also thinking about pouring a soft lead nose, then fill the shank with WW, but the only single cavity mold I have with a flat point is the Lee 170. I have the 30 HBC also, but with it's pointy nose?? Will it expand if it has a soft lead nose? Never shot a big critter with a cast boolit from a rifle.

Maybe I could use the Fat30 6 cav mold and just pour one at a time. Pour a lead nose, then fill with WW and go on to the next cavity? Sounds like it probably wouldn't work very well??

[Bass Ackward]

Hi all, will air cooled WW expand at around 2000fps from a 30-30? I was thinking about shooting some of the fat 30's in my Martini. I was also thinking about pouring a soft lead nose, then fill the shank with WW, but the only single cavity mold I have with a flat point is the Lee 170. I have the 30 HBC also, but with it's pointy nose?? Will it expand if it has a soft lead nose? Never shot a big critter with a cast boolit from a rifle.

Maybe I could use the Fat30 6 cav mold and just pour one at a time. Pour a lead nose, then fill with WW and go on to the next cavity? Sounds like it probably wouldn't work very well??


Glen,

With the same size meplat, ACWW will expand better the smaller the bullet diameter. Why? Because the shank is weaker. ACWW will expand to various levels down to about 900 fps in 30 caliber. I can't tell you about the Fat30, but the 311440 has the same size meplat as my 35s. So it does very well. I use 1500 fps strike velocity as my cuttoff based on my testing.

So that establishes my maximum and minimum ranges based on velocity loss. Just use a ballistics program to calculate the velocity drop and you can come close to predicting what these ranges should be. Then test it on milk jugs if you want to confirm. My guess is that minimum should be about 40 yards and maximum around 125.

And if you want a softer nose, use a coffee warmer and turn your bullets upside down on their nose. Stack a few and then turn on the warmer. After it warms up, then cut it off after two minutes for a slow drop in temp. Your bases will stay hard and your nose will soften to as soft as they can bee with that mix. If you mix WW and pure lead 50/50 then heat treat, your bases will be about 16 and the noses around 8 to 10. But this adds to your minimum range limit while only adding about 30 yards to the max end. All depends on your average shots.

[Paul B]

I've shot Lyman's #311291 from my 30-30s at full power from wheel weight metal into wet newspaper as a test. I fired two rounds at 100 yards of the cast bullet and two rounds of federal's 170 gr. jacketed ammo. The mushrooms were, for all practical purposes the same. I did that test many years ago, and still have those bullets in a little bottle. I may have shown them to Jethrow Strait at one time. The point is, I have used those same bullets on deer and they work just fine. I've never recovered one, but the deer all died. BHN level was, IIRC, about 12. I think you could take 10# of WW and add a pound of pure lead and have a fairly decent hunting bullet. Just try and stay away from the larger bones.
Paul B.

[Bret4207]

Althoough a lighter bullet in a smaller round I found ACWW would expand from.314 to over .40 call even in the 32WCF. This was shooting into a cow carcass and I recall being surprised that the little 311316 would expand at the 14-1500 fps I was running it. Maybe some day I'll find my data I lost or find the post on the Shooters CD I made and I can re-post my results. I know the 311316 and Lee Soupcan both offer pretty explosive performance on woodchuck size critters from the 30WCF at 1600-1800fps and the boolits definitly expand. I would imagine any other FN mould design would work about the same.

[DOUBLEJK]

Good timin'...just did some expansion tests on 32-20's...
Saeco 322's n Lyman #3118's cast of 160WW to 1Tin aircooled n fired at 1650-1700fps muzzle....impact was at 70yds....
http://www.geocities.com/doublejk2/3220end3.jpg
Saeco #322's on right n left Lyman #3118 in middle

http://www.geocities.com/doublejk2/boolittest.jpg
The Test medium was 2.5Gal oil jugs lined up 9" thick each full of water...

http://www.geocities.com/doublejk2/range101305.jpg
The Firing Point..Range is 70Yds.

http://www.geocities.com/doublejk2/theguns.jpg
The Guns...

[Bret4207]

Nice pics John. My range, The HF Martin Memorial Ballistics Research Center, strongly resembles your range. Add some beaver dams and a bit more brush and you got it pretty well pictured. I also have to walk around the pond to shoot over 50 yards. God willing and the crick don't rise, (a very REAL possibility), I'll some day get a culvert in the crick and be able to use all 100 yards in that direction I have. I have another angle I can use that gives my closer to 300 yards and a downhill shot at another pond at around 200 yards. Great fun all the way around.

As for the pics of the boolits, they mirror my results with the 311316 in ACWW at around 1500fps out of a Savage 23 bolt gun. I shot into a heifer carcass I had on hand, ( hardware disease, Walmart bags blocking the stomach passages actually), and used a mess of different gun and cartridge combos. Really wish I could find the results on that experiment. Figures the one time I write it down, I loose the book. At any rate I recall being very impressed with the results the 32-20/311316 gave at 50 yards. Recovered boolits showed good mushrooming and I had no qulams about head shooting deer under 50 yards after that should the situation arise. I did find the combo to be a bit, nay , way too much for tree rats as it would nearly cut a good sized grey in half with a heart shot. Decapitation was the prefered method anyway, but it was still overkill.

[DOUBLEJK]

Bret....Dang them plastic bags...have lost 3 cows over the last 4-5 yrs to em.....lotsa my nieghbors er sellin' thier land off in small 5 acre lots....more folk's more dang trash...n thier mostly upwind a my place so I get it bad....:mad:

We're buildin' an new casa on the south place that has that pond range....my son-in-law n I used a 330' tape from harbor freight n measured 1347 yds. from my soon ta be back porch ta that target butt by the pond....gonna be a blast tryin' ta hit a 36" metal swingin' disc we cobbled up...:smile:

[Bret4207]

John- That heifer had us doing everything we could think of before she gave up the ghost. Wasn't till next fall I saw the wad of bags in the rib cavity. They were probably from our burn barrel so my carelessnes cost me a decent animal. Kind of expensive coyote bait.

Your range sounds like the cats. I wish you luck.