blue dot, 3031

[daveefish]

i have on hand blue dot and 3031. i want to hunt whitetial deer with a 200 gr. 314299 in a .303 enfield. how much of these powders would give me around 1800 fps? use filler? thanks dave

[AlaskaMike]

Well, nobody else has piped up, so I'll throw out what little I can contribute.

I think you'd definitely want to go with your 3031 instead of Blue Dot. You could undoubtedly make a very accurate 50 yard load using Blue Dot, but for hunting it would probably be better to have more velocity than Blue Dot could deliver.

I have no .303 enfield rifles, so I can't give you any load data, but I bet if you start at the low end (or perhaps even a couple grains less) than the min load in a manual for a 200 grain jacketed bullet, you could work up from there and probably do okay.

Mike

[wiljen]

18gr of BlueDot should give about that - I'd be very careful with it and possibly use a magnum primer as bluedot has a reputation for being hard to ignite and that load leaves a lot of empty case space.

for 3031 - try 23-25gr that should put you in the ballpark.

I prefer either the load (13gr of Reddot) or 36gr of 4350 for 303 brit loads if you have either of those as choices.

[bcp477]

I can't speak about the .303 specifically. However, I have used 3031 with cast (paper-patched) bullets in my 8 x 57JS (Yugo M48) extensively, with 170 grain bullets. Approximately 31 grains of 3031 will give between 2000 and 2100 fps, with the 170 grainer. With a 200 grain bullet, to get about 1800 fps, it would probably take around 28 grains or so. So, given the differences and similarities between the 8 x 57 and the .303....I would guess that you could get to 1800 with anywhere between 26 and 30 grains (of 3031), with your 200 grain bullet.

If you get the accuracy you need with such a load, it should make for a dandy whitetail load, out to about 150 yards or so. I use my M48, with the aforementioned 170 grain bullets (paper-patched), with 28 grains of IMR -4064... which gets me just less than 2000 fps (and terrific accuracy).

As for filler, I use about .3 to .4 grains of cotton wool in my loads, which does give me a bit more velocity than without (filler will always up the pressure of a load and thus produce a velocity increase)...and does improve accuracy, in this particular load, in my rifle. I'd recommend that you try filler.....it may help (or, it may not)....but it is worth a try. Cotton or dacron fiber is the safest type of filler to use....I've even tried it with jacketed bullets. If I were you, I'd avoid the "cereal" fillers in any bottle-neck rifle cartridges.

[daveefish]

thanks for the help guys. dave

[Larry Gibson]

Cast your bullets soft; WWs/lead at 50/50. Start with 27 gr of 3031 and work up to 32 gr in 1 gr increments. Use a 3/4 gr Dacron filler. Clean barrel after each 5 shot group. You shouldn't need more than 5 shots for deer hunting anyway. Push the RPM threshold (1900+ fps) until the 5 shot groups from the cold clean barrel give what you think is too poor accuracy for for deer hunting.

Larry Gibson

[daveefish]

thanks larry. how does one have a "cold clean barrel" after the first shot at the range? dave

[shotman]

I wouldnt use BD in that much open case. On feebay there is aguy that sells those load books that are for one cal. they list about anything you could want and for the odd [not saying 303is odd] cals . there are many loads that the reloading manuels dont have . rick

[Larry Gibson]

thanks larry. how does one have a "cold clean barrel" after the first shot at the range? dave

You take a cleanning rod, jag, bore brush, solvent and patches to the range with you and clean the barrel after each five shot group. As I stated in my previous post; you want to clean the barrel between test groups. Same with hunting, clean the barrel before you go. If you shoot five shots and don't have the deer then go home (or back to camp) and clean the barrel. While cleaning the barrel give yourself an honest critique as to why you missed the deer with 5 shots. If you zeroed the rifle then 99% of the time the reason for the misses lies with you not the rifle/cartridge/load BTW. We all initially want to blame something other than ourselves for mistakes but a quick honest annalysis usually brings us back to reality and where the fault really lies.

But we are ahead of ourselves so let's get back to the range and load development; The reason for cleaning after each five shot group is that fouling from the use of the soft alloy and higher velocity will begin to appreciably denegrate accuracy. Your most accurate shots are going to be with your first 5 shots. However, some rifles require a "fouler" or two. This testing will also show if your rifle is one of those. If the first shot or two are remarkably out of the group of the last three shots then you'd want to shoot two foulers prior to hunting or testing each five shot group.

Larry Gibson

[daveefish]

good thinking. thanks dave

[eka]

Another thing I do is make one pass for each round fired with a dry bronze brush between groups just to keep the barrel consistent regarding excess lube, carbon, or unburned powder. That works pretty well for most all of my rifles, but like Larry said you just have to try different things to see what works best for a particular rifle.

Keith