30 caliber questions

[XWrench3]

2 different sections to this.
1st, 300 win mag, shooting .309" gas checked lee tl boolits, got some leadding, not sure of velocity because the chrono got shot (rod only), and i am waiting for new screen rods. will regular boolit boolit lube help? as opposed to just lla?

2nd section, same boolits, shot from a marlin 30-30 micro-groove, same problem, using the lowest speed data i could find. i am assuming i need a bigger slug, as i have read m.g. barrels run large. the problem is i have not found a .311 diameter ( or there abouts) boolit mold that is in a flat nose configuration. i really do not want to pay lee cubic dollars to custom make me a mold. any suggestions?

[qajaq59]

You could try a different alloy. Or some of the guys do enlarge their molds. I would definitely try a different alloy first though. Do a search in the Leementing sticky and I think you'll find something on how to enlarge it.

[runfiverun]

1 change lube
2 for the marlin try a harder alloy.

[Wayne S]

Wrench;
As to part 1.
A. try water quenching your bullets as you cast, easy & SAFE method is to build a trough from cardboard that runs from your bench to a bucket of cool water.

B. Try shooting your bullets "as cast", you can seat the GC by placeing the GC on the bullets GC shank, placing the bullet on a piece of hard wood or metal and and giving the bullet a "little" whack with a hammer, then TL them/

As to part 2.
check the "group buy" section, there are several GB's going on for bullets that will work, 311041, 311291,311440

[XWrench3]

A friend of my mothers has two preteen boys that he is now taking deer hunting with him. They are all using a 30-06 rifle and no hearing protection. I think that is child abuse, do you? THOSE LOOK LIKE LYMAN MOLD NUMBERS TO ME. I DO NOT HAVE ANY OF THOSE YET. SO IS THE FIRST THREE NUMBERS THE "AS CAST" SIZE OF THE BOOLITS?

A. try water quenching your bullets as you cast
these were water quench 100% wheel weights, dropped directly out of the mold into a 5 gallon bucket filled to the top with COLD water. the only way to get the h2o colder would have been to add ice. and i figured that if a hot boolit hit a peice of ice, it would really screw it up.


2 for the marlin try a harder alloy.
i had thought about trying a soft (100% soft lead) boolit without a gas check to see if it would (obuturate?) swell the base enough to seal to the bore. i guess before i do anything else, i need to smush a peice of lead through that barrel to see where i really am. tomorrow!

[runfiverun]

with the marlins it's geting the boolit to grab and hold the goofy rounded rifling.
usually fairly hard and big are the rules.

[DLCTEX]

I'm trying to figure out where the first quote in post #5 came from? I do not require hearing protection for hunting due to the discomfort and inconvenience, but protection is required for target shooting. I think you can be obsessive and take it too far. A warning to "cover your ears" is sufficient for non shooter when preparing to fire. This assumes no muzzle break, those things can be brutal.

[Ricochet]

2 different sections to this.
1st, 300 win mag, shooting .309" gas checked lee tl boolits, got some leadding, not sure of velocity because the chrono got shot (rod only), and i am waiting for new screen rods. will regular boolit boolit lube help? as opposed to just lla?

2nd section, same boolits, shot from a marlin 30-30 micro-groove, same problem, using the lowest speed data i could find. i am assuming i need a bigger slug, as i have read m.g. barrels run large. the problem is i have not found a .311 diameter ( or there abouts) boolit mold that is in a flat nose configuration. i really do not want to pay lee cubic dollars to custom make me a mold. any suggestions?
I'm guessing you're using the CTL-312-160-2R boolit that Lee advertises as for the 7.62x39mm. I got one of those moulds for my Mosin rifles, and while I haven't really used it enough to say I've worked out what it can do, I haven't achieved as good accuracy with it and have had more leading at 2000+ FPS velocities than with conventionally grooved and lubed boolits. The microbanded design doesn't hold a large volume of lube. I suspect LLA is about as good as it gets for these designs, but others may disagree. Mine cast slightly above .314" in diameter, and that's what I size them to for the Mosins. I've been thinking about trying boolits of that size in my .300 Weatherby despite its .308" groove diameter, because they would fill the long freebore section nicely and they'll just go in snugly in unsized fired case necks. Your .300 Win Mag may like a larger size, too. Plus, sizing reduces the already small grooves of the boolit, reducing the amount of lube it can carry, so you want to minimize it. Those skinny microbands will size down really easily in the throat of the bore. I really think fitting the boolit to the throat is more important than the groove diameter. Look at Ranch Dog's directions for lubing the tumble lube grooves on his boolits by dipping them instead of tumbling them. Pistol boolits are usually best done with a light tumble coat, but I think more lube may be needed with higher velocity loads in these long barrels.

BTW, Chrony screen rods can be replaced by various substitutes. Wooden or plastic rods are less likely to break the housing if accidentally shot.

[XWrench3]

actually, i had to go back to the lee site to see what model i had bought. it is the CTL-309-160-2R mold. i will try dipping the boolits, that sounds like it may make a difference, maybe even twice, so the grooves are completely filled by the lube.

as for the chrony rods, they are an oddball size, not american standard, and not metric standard. i suspect they did that on purpose, so they could sell replacement parts (or they got a heck of a deal on a 2 ton roll of oddball sized steel rod). the day i shot it, i finished out the day using electrical tape and a fresh green twig from a tree that i whittled down. it worked, but it was ugly as sin. i have had to cobble stuff most of my life, due to not enough money. i am certainly not wealthy now, but when i can affrord to, i really prefer to do things right. i can wait another week or so for the rods!

as for ranch dogs directions, i have not been able to find ANYTHING in print about any of ranch dogs products. i would really like to see what he had, if for nothing else than to just satisfy my curiosity. it is really to bad things did not work out for him and his products. from the sounds of it, he had his head screwed on straight, and was headed in the right direction. but sometimes, life throws to many curveballs all at the same time. from what i understand (which isnt much) that is pretty much what happened to him.

[qajaq59]

as for ranch dogs directions, i have not been able to find ANYTHING in print about any of ranch dogs products. XWrench3 if you do a search here in Cast Boolits you "might" find what you are looking for. There are a lot of posts about Ranch Dog. Apparently he made very good molds.

[Newtire]

If the dipping of LLA doesn't work, I would say, try a .310 boolit in the .300 Win mag.

[Leftoverdj]

First thing to try is simply GCing the bullets you have in a .311 sizing die. That should eliminate leading in the .300 Win if you are using a reasonable alloy at a reasonable velocity. They should also work single loaded into your .30-30.

For the .30-30, try the Lee mould for the .303 Brit. It's not a flat point, but that blunt round nose is not going to cause any problems iin a tube magazine. The factories have been loading RN bullets in the .30-30 since day one without problems. If you absolutely insist on a flat point, use the pedestal from a Lee sizing die to run the bullet up into a .38/357 seating die with an SWC nose punch, and bump a flat on the nose.