30-06 at 200 yards

[dakota]

I’m looking at getting the most accurate loads in my 30-06 at 200 yards. I have a variety of molds 170 grain plus. Thanks.

[Wolfdog91]

Honestly it's all gonna depend on your gun and how you cast and load. Best thing I have for mine might not be a dog turd in yours. Also if your bullets aren't cast to par just wasting lead. Sorry but what's ok / acceptable for pistol many times won't cut it for rifle.
That being said I haven't gone to 200 but all my work has been with cast rifle in .22 - 30 cal and some stuff I learned.

Start out with Lyman #2 or something hard. Leave the random mixed range lead for the pistol range

Just go ahead and get gas checks. If you can cut all your bases uniform ( which honestly most can't ,no being rude just honest) the gas checks save you a lot of head aches

Custom load you COAL/ CBTO most of the book generic CBTO/COAL is just .....yeah , Never had good results. Find the Jam point , back off a few thousands and start tweaking from there. Very common practice in the jacketed world same process in cast. I have a lot better results right out the gate then most because I do this.

Get after either the NOE neck expander plugs or the Lyman M die. I like normal flare dies it makes sure you seat the bullet nice and even/ straight instead of potentially cockeyed. As soon as I switched over to this my groups got better out the gate and I don't have to crimp because I got the stupid big trumpet out front on the case mouth.

Speaking of crimping, don't crimp. Crimping can cause hell on distorting a cast bullet and hair from my little playing around just makes stuff less accurate. And if you use the right expander plug you'll get good neck tension and not have any movement, at least in my findings.

Also I'd just avoid the pistol powder route for that distance. Look at Mr. Gibsons posts and try some of the slow rifle powders he recommended

Also I'd look at getting the NOE push though sizing kit. Why ? Because I less you have all your incremental lube size dies from . 308-.312 it's a lot cheaper to get that deal and test the different sizing option. Personally noticed in my .308 bore rifles .309 doesn't cut it and I need to bump up to .310-.311

Another thing with powder , you'll get better accurate loads of you can find one that can give you a nice clean burn

Also lube VS PC . Honestly your average lubed bullet will beat its PC counter part usually head to head. You gotta be a little tedious to get a good PC job to complete with lube.but if you do my advice would be to size , gas check , then PC and size again. Found a lot of times if you GC after PC youl get an uneven seating because of an UNeven coating of PC on the base and you'll get flyers. Gas checking before gets rid of a large part of this.

Now with all that being said if you realllllly wanna get he beat cast accuracy..... Paper patching, decent paper patchers get near jacketed results so easy it's not even funny

Sent from my motorola edge 5G UW (2021) using Tapatalk

[Thumbcocker]

I would start with 311299 and 4895. How far down the rabbit hole do you want to go? Orienting boolits, weight sorting boolits and brass, match primers, deburring flash holes, neck turning? There might be national match brass for sale with a little searching.

[dakota]

I’ve been casting off and on since I helped my brother sell cast bullets through shotgun news in the 60’s. I’ve gotten carpal tunnel due to casting as did my brother. I’m not an expert. But I’m not a beginner either.

I weigh my bullets and am quite picky on the bullets I cast. I have found that .311 to .312 is right.

I shoot an 03-A3 with Olympic sights.
I size with a heated Lyman sizer. I’ve settled on a lube that works well.
Thanks for the replies, “what loads work well for you for 200 targets - paper targets.” Thanks

[leadhead]

I shoot all my military rifles 1903 Springfields with any 30 cal bullet of .310-.312
depending on bore size. My main powder is 16-20 grains of 2400.
It can be a deadly load at 200 yards.

[dakota]

Thanks leadhead. I went to a match Saturday, I shot poorly with my 'as military issue' M1 and cast. I did much better with the Model 71 348. In the past, I took my 03-A3 and did much better than with the M1, even though I just had my cataracts removed in the last trip with that. I think I'll stay with the 03-A3, unless I can find some match sights for the M1. There's a big match in Sioux City this next weekend. I'm nowhere competitive with what I've been using, though I'd be closer with the 03-A3. I'm cleaning, annealing, trimming brass today and tomorrow. I'll be at the casting pot the next day. Still using 70-year-old military brass.

[Bigslug]

The 311299 is never a mistake. It's a very popular "accuracy without effort" bullet for many milsurps, once you take into account the .314" and .316" versions that work in various European rounds.

It can be thrown about as fast as you can throw cast out of the .30-06's standard 1-10" twist - - expect the wheels to start coming off north of about 2100 fps. While Larry Gibson's 165 grain .30 XCB is a wonderful projectile, his best results come with near jacketed speeds out of custom slow twist barrels. The 1-10" twist being your limiter to velocity, I'd rather have the extra weight to better retain what velocity you start off with.

I've had VERY good 100 yard accuracy results with a couple other 200-ish grain bullets in front of 36 grains of H414. Since I was primarily looking for a short range, jug-busting practice load for the hunting rifle, I'm OK with the 1900-ish FPS this produces. For 200 yards, you may want to stoke the fire slightly hotter - just be aware that 200-300 additional FPS is all you'll be likely to get.

White Label's 2500+ lube has been the standard for those pushing the .30 XCB to their high speeds out of slow twist tubes, and it's suitable for anything at all less intense than that. I've pretty much settled on that for anything smokeless, and SPG for anything black.

Lyman #2 for alloy and size at .309"-.310"

[charlie b]

I agree with the 311299. The RCBS 165, 180 and 200 SIL bullets are all good.

I am partial to the NOE 310-165 (XCB) and the Accurate 31-210E (I powder coat this one). They both cycle and shoot well out of my Garand and .308 bolt gun. They are both accurate to 500yd if your rifle is.

I'd suggest the best velocity for accuracy in service rifles (1-10 twist) will be around 2000fps.