Anybody ever try the little .309 Lee

[Dave B]

Anybody out there try the 120gr Lee .309 in a 30-30 ? I loaded up a few with 10 gr Unique this afternoon but have'nt tried them in my new Marlin. I tried them a long while back in a Win 94, but they wouldn't feed. They seem to feed in the Marlin, so maybe they will shoot too.

[Rocky Raab]

I have a few hundred 120-gr commercial cast bullets very like the Lee one. I get horrible groups if I push them very hard at all. If I hold them down to about 1200 to 1300 fps, they're fine.

Six grains of about any fast pistol powder will get you there in a 30-30.

[Bret4207]

Is that the RN? Never shot it but the Soup Can (the 100ish gr FN) does great.

[Shootn]

I have shot some 115 grain FP sized .311 in my Winchester with 7 grains of Unique with decent results. I bought some bullets sized .312 for the 32-20 and ran them through a .311 Lee sizer. I then tossed 'em with LLA. No leading and decent accuracy.

[biggome]

I think the 120 Lee is simply the RN version of the 113 grain flat nose job known to many as the "soupcan", I refer to the 85 grain tumble lube .32 WC mold I have as a soupcan because it really looks like one with the height and dia. being in perspective to a ribbed can of some sort.

I have shot quite a few (1000+) of the flat point 113 grainers (they are heavier with a bit of lube and a check with my mix) with impressive results. Using the front sight bead to cover the bull, I used my extreemly well broken in and rather rough bored '57 M94 Winch 30/30 to put 10 rounds of said boolit into a 5" group @ 200 yards fired from a rolled-up jeanjacket ontop of a bench powered by a forgotten amount of an ancient gunshow purchase (cardboard) partial 4-pound can of Herco @ a 1750 pfs Crono reading with ultra close consistancy. Needless to say that load was repeated until all of that powder was gone. Feeding was never a problem as long as the action wasn't worked overly quick, if I went too fast the light boolit would rise too far to feed.

Though it was my all around plinking and "general Jeep load" for a long time I am attempting to replace it with an "as cast, checkless, tumblelubed" 180 grain plainbased boolit from a groupbuy mold to make use of some slower powder stocks I have.

What you have should do fine though I can't tell you that you will have the same results I received from my lightweight Lee.

Paul

[KCSO]

You might want to cut your load as 10.0 behind a 170 gran bullet will go over 1400. I prefer 6.0 with the light slug and then is does real good to 50 yards or so for small game and pests.

[MikeSSS]

I shot ten of the Lee .309 120 R's, lube was Liquid Alox, gas checks were used, charge was 5.5 gr of 231, in a 1967 Winchester 94 26" octogon barrel, a couple days ago. This was just testing for leading and there was very slight or maybe none. I shot offhand at 50 yards and used most of them trying to drift the sights so it was impossible to judge accuracy.

These bullets have to be seated farther than I thought. At first I tried seating them so the case mouth could be crimped into the crimp groove but they were too long, the rifling lands dug into the front driving band and the lever wouldn't close. Now I seat them a bit deeper, just enough to prevent them engraving on the rifling. I lightly crimp them with a Lee Factory Crimp die.

In a couple days I'll shoot some more without gas checks using the same 5.5 gr of 231. The results will be posted in this thread.

Lee's 309 120 R is very similar to the "soup can" 309 113 F, the difference, from Lee's pictures, is the gas check shank is shorter on the soup can and the tip is flattened.

These 309 120 R's shoot great in the .30 carbine using gas checks. I use enough 2400 to cycle the action. It's a light load but it cycles reliably and it's very accurate. The rear sight has to be set a couple clicks high though, but this is like all the cast loads I shoot.

[NickSS]

I have not used that bullet in a 30-30 but have used hundreds in a 30 carbine with outstanding success. My 30-30 light bullet is a Lyman 31108 115 gr flat point. It has shot well in every 30-30 I have tried it in. I have used it for small game hunting loaded to 1200 to 1300 fps with Red Dot powder. Sounds like a 22 long rifle going off but smashes squirrels and rabbits down like they were hit with an ax. Loaded with about 1.5 gr of red dot they hardly make any noise and are great for indoor gallery shooting. A couple inches of news paper will stop them at 40 feet in my basement.