ole_270
07-09-2016, 09:15 PM
Digging under the reloading bench last night, trying to re-arrange things a bit, I found a long forgotten box of cast bullets from a Win 94 30-30 project that went down the road about 10 years ago. The box contained about 500 Hornady gas checked 311041 bullets sized .310 that was cast of a fairly strong alloy and water quenched. At that time I used Lee Tumble Lube on them. Used them for a few years on deer and never had a problem with them. The wheels started turning and I was thinking of the only 30 caliber I have at the moment.
I traded into a beat up JC Higgins 51L in 308 a couple years ago(Husky HVA action, barreled and stocked by High Standard for Sears). The stock was in bad shape, the recoil mortise had broken loose and whoever had kept shooting it. The bore might of seen a cleaning rod sometime back in the mid 60s. The action however was real nice and the whole rifle weighed less than 7 1/2 lbs scoped. I was able to pin and epoxy the stock back together, refinish the stock and get most of the crud out of the barrel. It shoots under an inch with several loads and has taken a couple nice bucks for me.
Those big flat pointed bullets just need to be used and the JC Higgins looked like a good candidate. I cleaned the barrel and loaded up a few with 31gr. H4895. Since the lube had 10 years to dry out I wiped some Winds Wonder Lube on them as I loaded the cases. Got to shoot them this afternoon, not good, maybe a 4 inch group. Tried 12 gr. Universal with worse luck. Good thing is, no leading. I'd been leafing through an old NRA Cast Bullet Manual the last few days and remembered a write up about land and groove configurations. This Higgins has a 4 groove barrel, the lands are less than a 1/3 as wide as the grooves. The NRA manual stated that this configuration would need a long groove sized body and listed several molds that should work. Included was the 311291, the 311041 is supposed to be just a flat nosed version of that mold so it should be ok. Finally got around to slugging the bore, yep I kind of get in a hurry and skip steps sometimes. Slugged about 3" on either end of the barrel and got .310 at the muzzle and .3105 at the throat. Guess I'll need a bigger mold or clean the old lube off and powder coat. Not sure that's worth the trouble.
I traded into a beat up JC Higgins 51L in 308 a couple years ago(Husky HVA action, barreled and stocked by High Standard for Sears). The stock was in bad shape, the recoil mortise had broken loose and whoever had kept shooting it. The bore might of seen a cleaning rod sometime back in the mid 60s. The action however was real nice and the whole rifle weighed less than 7 1/2 lbs scoped. I was able to pin and epoxy the stock back together, refinish the stock and get most of the crud out of the barrel. It shoots under an inch with several loads and has taken a couple nice bucks for me.
Those big flat pointed bullets just need to be used and the JC Higgins looked like a good candidate. I cleaned the barrel and loaded up a few with 31gr. H4895. Since the lube had 10 years to dry out I wiped some Winds Wonder Lube on them as I loaded the cases. Got to shoot them this afternoon, not good, maybe a 4 inch group. Tried 12 gr. Universal with worse luck. Good thing is, no leading. I'd been leafing through an old NRA Cast Bullet Manual the last few days and remembered a write up about land and groove configurations. This Higgins has a 4 groove barrel, the lands are less than a 1/3 as wide as the grooves. The NRA manual stated that this configuration would need a long groove sized body and listed several molds that should work. Included was the 311291, the 311041 is supposed to be just a flat nosed version of that mold so it should be ok. Finally got around to slugging the bore, yep I kind of get in a hurry and skip steps sometimes. Slugged about 3" on either end of the barrel and got .310 at the muzzle and .3105 at the throat. Guess I'll need a bigger mold or clean the old lube off and powder coat. Not sure that's worth the trouble.