308 question

[compass will]

I got a Savage 12FP in .308. My first mold I bought for it was a Lee C312-185-1R.

I am finding that If I crimp in the top grove the boolit is just a hair long to fit into my chamber. Some times you have to force the bolt closed. If you remove a unfired case there are major rifling markes on the boolit. If you crimp light, the boolit actualy is forced back into the case as you close the action. I have not been able to get a group worth talking about.

Now when I try to seat it far enough into the case so I am off the rifling, the boolit falls into the case before you get a chance to crimp.

I gave some to my buddy, and they shoot in his 30-06 (with full length stock) better then jacketed! (so we know it's not the boolits.)

Which way to I proceed? It's like the boolit needs a longer taper to fit into the chamber.

[Ben]

A lot of questions for you.................

The throat in your .308 and size of throat may or may not be similar to your friend's 30/06.

You don't mention the powder or charge weight of powder that you are having bad performance with the Lee 185 bullet. What are you using to flare the case mouths with prior to seating your bullets ?

How are you sizing your bullets ? What is the diameter of the bullet that your seating into the .308 cases ?

May take a different bullet style in your .308 to be successful. Some bullet styles with some throats are near incompatible.

Mike the nose of the bullet and tell us if it is miking .301 or more. If the bullet's nose is miking much more than .301, that will explain why you're having problems chambering the loaded rds.

Thanks,

Ben

[Bullshop]

Sometimes sizing only the lead driving band to bore diameter will fix it.
BIC/BS

[compass will]

I was just outside working on the yard and was thinking about this.

I am starting with a .312 mold, then sizing it to .310. the sizing only sizes the driving bands. I bet my problem is I am starting with too big of a boolit. I bet if I was to cast some .309 designed boolits, even though they look the same as my .312, I bet the front 1/2 of the boolet is .003" smaller, then I bet this would work.

Might just buy the lyman 30 Caliber (309 Diameter) 160 Grain Silhouette Flat Nose Gas Check.
Anybody using this in the .308"

I know the 312 lee mold shoots good in my buddies old 30-06 because it's loose. he has the boolet seated as far out as he can get it and it still don't hit the rifling. He loves it, in fact he wants some more.

[beemer]

The Lee C312-185-1R was designed for the 303 Brit. My mould pours a boolit with a .304 nose, it will not come clost to fitting my 308 with a .300 bore.

beemer

[compass will]

The Lee C312-185-1R was designed for the 303 Brit. My mould pours a boolit with a .304 nose, it will not come clost to fitting my 308 with a .300 bore.

beemer

thanks Beemer, that is what I think I discovered in a "round about" way :-D

[compass will]

got 2 new molds from the brown truck today. lee 170 flat nose and 200 round nose.
yes they both measure .300 in the front. Both fit perfect into the gun with slight marks from the rifling. I figured since I needed to make a min purchase, I added the 170FN for use in a 30-30 as well. ran about 100 of each today, I need to lap the molds I think. I Will be shooting some them this weekend. :-D

[oso]

We have a few rifles in 308 Win: my wife's rifle (Rem 600) likes the Lee C309-170-F and the Lee C309-180-R while mine (Rem 788) likes the Lee C312-185-R and the Lee C309-200-R. Each gun seems to prefer those boolits with noses which just begin to engage the rifling and each mold casts unto itself.

[runfiverun]

my 308 likes the rcbs 165 silhouette boolit as does my 7.5x55
the 308 also likes a mold similar to lyman 311284 which pours large but sizes nicely.
you can change your boolit diameters with your alloy content.

[compass will]

Well both Lee 309-170g FN and 200g RN sized to .310" show much more promise then the Lee 312-180g I was using.

I took 50 different loads for each boolit, 10 loads @ 28g, 10 @ 29g, etc.
Best group was 2" for the 200 grainers and 1" for the 170 grainers at 100 yards. This was with H4895. I recorded what works. funny thing is both boolits liked the same load. Before I fine tune this load, I think I want to try the same thing again with H4198. It works great in some of my other guns so why not try it. Then I will fine tune which one seems to work best.