Fitting the boollits in a lever action ?

[toallmy]

This will be my first attempt to load 'cast boolits' in a lever although I have loaded jacket in my old 30-30 Winchester for 20-30 years . I have been studying on the subject for a while , and came to the conclusion that at 50 years of age I better just get started . I have been casting for a couple years and relies I have a brick for a head , and by choice I generally do everything the hard way and the wrong way over and over , but this seams to help me remember what not to do at least . Throughout my lifetime I have used a magic marker , or a split case to find max OAL , but this doesn't help with fitting the chubby boolits . I am going to use NOE 311-041 gc in a trimmed case expanded to .308 and flared to .312 after full length resized . My brass previously fired is open up to .312 so I tried a few unsized cast boolits in resized brass that were cast at .312 wile I set up my dies to seat the boollit at the deepest I could wile still using the crimp grove and they chamber fine . After I did a few dummy rounds to try chamber fit I pulled the dummy rounds and found the boollits to be squeezed down to .3105-311 so that should be fine . I know I should do a pound cast of the chamber and slug the bore but I just can't bring myself to use a hammer around my guns . If you gentlemen could let me know What have I done wrong so far I will try to correct it wile I wait for some gas checks to come in . Sorry about the writing a book post .

[sghart3578]

If the bullets chamber fine at .312" and crimped at the crimp groove you will be fine.

I load for four Marlin lever actions and that is how I do it. I get excellent accuracy also.

Don't bother with a pound cast on a lever action. The reason most guys do a pound cast is to measure the throat and to see where the rifling engages.

First, you have already determined the diameter that you will use. Second, as far as seating out to the rifling: in a lever action you are limited in OAL by the action itself so seating the bullet out to the rifling may not be an option anyway.

I think you are doing great and you will be fine.


Steve in N CA

PS We are almost all hard heads, welcome to the club.

[toallmy]

I have gotten to the fun part now shooting them . Along the way I'm working my size up from 309 - 311 ' because I have a lee push through sizing die to set the gas checks that started out at 309 ' it will be my starting point . Yesterday I got 50 FC brass sized and trimmed ready To load , and I sorted out all the ugly cast boolits with wrinkles or a bad spot in them to play with at first . I put a check on them , and dip lube in c red sizing them to 309 before I polished out the die to size to 310 just to try them out . I loaded 10 up with 26 gr of IMR 4064 to try out at 50 yards and all went well ' they hit paper without fouling the bore ' so today I will tinker with the charge a bit to see what happens on target . There is a real short coming in load information with cast boolits the loading manuals stop at 170 gr jacket , and I want a load that fills the case up almost to the neck without a filler at 1500-2000 FPS witch is my goal .

[toallmy]

In the future I want to try IMR 4350 , and IMR 4831 as well as The IMR 4064 I am starting with in the 30-30 .

[GhostHawk]

I have 2 favorites for full bore loads. 4895 and 3031. Both have served well.

I know there are other slow powders, but 4895 and I know each other. We have history.

Sounds to me like you are well on the path. Just remember one change at a time, keep good notes.

[toallmy]

I loaded a few rounds up at 26 ,27 ,28 ,29 to try out sized to 309 , and that took care of all the ugly cast boolits I had , I had low expectations because of the quality of the boollits but it wasn't to bad . At a about 80-90 yards I hit the paper most of the time , not ideal conditions just put the side mount scope back on the rifle and shot over the truck bed . I remember now why I took the scope off it just feels wrong ,the curse of top eject .

[sghart3578]

For me you can't beat that bullet, gas checked and sized to .311" and loaded over 25 gr of IMR 3031.

It just works.


Steve in N CA

[Scharfschuetze]

In the future I want to try IMR 4350 , and IMR 4831 as well as The IMR 4064 I am starting with in the 30-30 .

A few months ago I posted a thread on loading the 30/30 with 4831 powder. To make a long story short:

170 grain Lyman 311141 (Linotype, .310," Alox lube and a copper gas check)
Winchester cases with a firm roll crimp.
CCI 200 primer
35 grains of surplus 4831
Average: 1823 fps, Es: 75, Sd: 20 for 20 shots over the chronograph.
Accuracy is 2 MOA through 200 yards for 10 shot groups.

No leading at all, but lots of partially burned kernels in the bore after firing.

In order to improve the burning efficiency of 4831 in the 30/30 case, Larry Gibson and I are conspiring on a duplex loading project for the 30/30. We are enjoying good results at this point and we'll post a thread on the effort after we compile a bit more data.

100 yard group with my Model 54 and a duplex 4831 load right at 2,000 fps.

[toallmy]

I will be watching for the thread Sr . I found a old thread that Larry talked about 4350 in the 223 Remington and after a little testing I found a decent shooting load , but a quiet a bit of left over powder and it seemed to heat up the barrel . So I stopped there for the time being .

[northmn]

The 30-30 is a good rifle to start out with shooting cast. I have not slugged a 30-30 bore nor had any problems. I used bullets sized to 309 or 310 with good results. those with Marlin Microgroove tend to use the 311 and 312 and a little harder alloy. Generally with cast I have had better results with powders on the faster side like Re11. Don't quite know why one would want to mess with slow burning powders as the faster ones work well and are very accurate. I have not worked with Lever with cast but it works well with jacketed.
I sized a Lee 185 grain bullet down to 309 for hunting. It weighed in at 188 grains and I could get 1900-2000 fps with good accuracy with the bullet. It was quite effective on deer. I used a flat nose punch to make the round nose into a flat nose. Water hardened bullets with the nose annealed. I now just load the 170 grain if I want cast.
The 30-30 can be loaded for larger game or smaller game as I have also loaded lighter weight bullets down to plinking levels. As a cast bullet cartridge its about as good as one can get.

DEP

[toallmy]

I have always tried to load the cartridge to the velocity that shoots good , and fills the case up to the neck with clean and complete burn of the powder . I guess this is stuck in my head from loading those jacket bullets .

[OverMax]

Loading G/c cast: It's technique: Nothing to it. The only troubling decisions such a cast reloader might encounter? _Crimping or not in the crimp grove provided.

Although I would suggest when purchasing a NOE mold for lever action hunting purposes. Choose those of Ranch Dog design. After all when hunting Big Game with a 30-30. A big flat Meplat decides if the animal drops on the spot or its hunter is going to need fresh battery's in his flash light and or is wearing a comfortable pair of hiking boots i.e._ a much preferred tracking wear.

When toallmy gets to owning G/c cast loading for his 30-30. Hopefully you'll slip up to another Tread topic and experience learning the art of: Smokeless Paper Patching. "A real brain tease (learning experience) for us older Lo~ng time reloading gents."

[toallmy]

OverMax I was studying paper patching wile thinking of casting for rifles to start with , but thought I should start out at the figure it out stage first .

[edadmartin]

Cant get a definitive answer.
My marlin 30-30 after casting is .3115. Ill be powder coating. Should i start with a mold that drops .309 then powder coat and size at 311 or should i get a mold that drops at 311 powdercoat and size at .312 ???

[Wayne Smith]

I would do the latter if they will chamber.