rcbs 30-180-FN in 30-30, is this normal?

[Bula]

Loaded up some of these into trimmed once fired brass over 28 gr of W748 for use in a 20" Win 94AE , when shooting these i feel a little resistance on the last 1/3 inch of chambering the round. The boolit is hitting the lands. Is this normal? They shot fine.

[FWAddit]

I use the similar RCBS 35-200-FN in a Marlin with Ballard-style rifling and get the same amount of resistance you describe. The lands lightly engrave the ogive just in front of the front driving band. This fit assures that the bullets are centered in the bore and helps maintain accuracy.

[Glen]

That's probably just the forward driving band entering the throat. What are you sizing your bullets? What is your throat diameter?

[Bret4207]

Is your brass trimmed? Is there any sign of a "bump" just south of the crimp?

[catboat]

One thing you can do is to chamber a loaded round, then-without firing, unload it. Then inspect the bullet to see if you see any rifling engraved on the bullet.

You may want to polish the bullet first, with something fine like 0000 steel wool, so you can see the engraved rifling. You're probably not going to see "long lines" of engraved lands on the bullet, but rather just 6 light "dents" or "marks" about 1/64" to 1/32" long (that is if you barrel has 6 lands. What ever the number of lands in the barrel are the number of marks dents you may see.)

The dents are sometimes hard to see, and you don't always see a dent for each land.

If this is the case, (the bullet is just engraving the lands), try seating the bullet a bit deeper in the case. One simple way you can find the bullet seating depth that "just kisses" the rifling is to take a fired case (no powder or primer), and just pinch the neck out of round with your fingers. Load a bullet of your choice in the pinched neck, but don't seat it all the way to "normal"-leave it seated long.

Then chamber the "loaded pinched" round carefully (right into the chamber, not via magazine tube, if doing this with a lever action). Close the bolt/lever. This will drive the bullet into the rifling, but the loose pinched tension (just enought tension to hold the bullet, but loose enough to allow it to slide/push back under pressure from seating against the rifling.).

Extract the cartridge, and measure the over all length (oal) of the round. Inspect the bullet for "rifling marks." You have just determined the maximum overall length of the cartridge to just "kiss the rifling."

With a little tweaking, you then can load the same bullet in a sized case to that overall length you just determined. The newly loaded round, with sized case, will likely still be a little "long.: but try chambering it anyway. Polish the bullet, and chamber. If you see rifling marks upon extraction/inspection, then simply put the cartridge back through the seating die, and seat it a "tad" deeper (ie 1/4 turn of the seating depth stem adjustment). Then, repolish, and rechamber, extract and inspect, and seat a bit deeper (ie another 1/4 turn). Repeat this until you definitely don't have any rifling marks. THEN, take your overall cartridge measurement. This will be your reference point. The OAL length may or may not be the same (depends on how well you did the initial "pinched case" test.

It really doesn't matter. It also doesn't mean that significant. It doesn't mean the loaded round will be more or less accurate. Some rifles are more accurate "just kissing" the rifling. Others are better off "jammed into the rifling" by a few thousands, while others are best suited to be 'backed off the rifling" a certain distance ( ie .002", .004", .006" etc). Experiment to find out.

If you don't like the felt resistance (lever actions don't have a large amount of camming force, like a bolt action rifle), then select a seating depth that is a few thousanths off the rifling.

If you don't like the bullet mould, drop me an email. I'll buy it from you.

[Bula]

I can see that the bullet sides are hitting the lands, there are "skids" about 3/32" to 1/8" along the sides of the rear of the ogive with nothing indicating contact with the front driving band. Brass is trimmed to spec., sized to .311 the bullet is crimped into cannelure (lee collet crimp) brass is not buckled. They shot great, I was just curious if this was normal/Safe. I've read about some rifles having a preferred amount of contact with the lands, but I need to be sure about how this applies to cast bullets.

[castshooter-too]

I use this boolit in my 67' centennial 30-30 and get the same engraving on the nose .The only way I've found to solve the hard chamber is to trim back my cases until they chamber freely. Still maintains accuracy to as far as I wish to shoot. I use either 34gr. H414 or 28gr. IMR 3031.

[Glen]

What is the diameter of the nose of your bullet?

[GabbyM]

As long as it chambers well I'd say you're right where you want to be.
The bullet has a short bore ride section. If you want it samller try casting at a lower temp or using less antimony in your alloy.

For target shooting you'll wnat the bullet held tight and straight. For hunting bears you could always take a peice of fine emery paper and polish off a thousands from bore ride nose section. Before hunting Zombies take the hand full of rounds to be magazine fed and cycle them through to make sure they'll drop right into the chamber in a pucker factor moment.

that's my cheap advise.

[Blammer]

if you want to see the engraving easily, use a black magic marker and mark the bullet black.


I'd say you have a very good fitting boolit.

[Bula]

Looks like I'll be moving forward with this boolit. Thanks everyone.