Your results with Lee boolits in the 30-06

[Marlin Junky]

I found a single cavity c309-160-R stashed away in my closest a few weeks back and so far I've managed to shoot a few with very good results using 17 grains of BD and 20 grains of WC-820. I'm thinking about springing for a brand new 2-cavity c309-160-R in hopes that the dimensions will be similar to my 1-cavity version. I don't really care much about the nose diameter on this 'un because of its short length but I'm hoping it'll drop at least .310" on the bands in 50/50 (WW/Pb). I'd also like to buy one other Lee mold but can't decide due to the awe inspiring selection in 309-312. I can eliminate the 309-200 'cause of the long nose and I'd really like something that has the potential for mind boggling speed, although most of my ultra precision shooting (i.e., squirrel hunting) will be done at around 2000 fps.

If you'd like to share your successes with Lee boolits in fussy aught-sixes, I'd love to read about them.

Thanks,
MJ

P.S. Can anyone post the bearing and overall lengths on 309-150 and 309-170?

[txbirdman]

The single most accurate bullet I've fired in my Savage '06 is the Lee 312-185. The nose measures .3015. I size to .311

[Marlin Junky]

The single most accurate bullet I've fired in my Savage '06 is the Lee 312-185. The nose measures .3015. I size to .311

Thanks txbirdman... I was thinking about trying that one but concerned about sizing closer to .310" which seems to be what my '06 prefers. Did you recently purchase your mold and what diameter does it cast in WW metal? I use a Lyman 467 top punch for the c309-160. Which top punch do you use for the 312-185?

MJ

[Shiloh]

The single most accurate bullet I've fired in my Savage '06 is the Lee 312-185. The nose measures .3015. I size to .311

Same here.

A hair longer would be nice, but then it wouldn't be 185 gr would it.

The nose of my boolits MUST be at least .301. Not a lot of .30 cal molds seem to make it.

Shiloh

[Marlin Junky]

I'd like to get some more input so I though I'd post a recently shot target using 20 grains of WC-820 and c309-160-R. The range was 75 yards and the velocity average for five rounds was 1861 fps. The BHN was 16 and the alloy, heat treated 50/50. When I heat treat I include a c430-310-RF with the small bore boolits so I can get a reading off the wide meplat. When I heat treated these things I went for 90 minutes at 490F and it produced a BHN 27 boolit but I was getting some vertical stringing, so I annealed them at 275F for 30 minutes. After which, I opened the oven door to let them cool to room temp. The result was a BHN 16 boolit that seems to like the 20 grains of WC-820 pretty well, even though the last round was too high. 20.75 grains opened the group up big time (eight rounds total into 1.75" C-C).

The donut is 3.75" in diameter with a 23/32" hole.

MJ

[frkelly74]

I have used that bullet in my 30/30 and it is a lot of fun. I was using about 11 gr of Herco . I have used the 312 155 lee bullet in my Garand and had a similar amount of fun with it. I felt that the throat was somewhat worn on the Garand and found no difficulty chambering rounds with bullets sized .311 . So I shot them. I may try some of the 309 160 bullets un sized at some point. Both my molds are single cavity, I would buy a double next time. I want to go with the 312 185 as my next mold for the 30's. I had a lot of vertical stringing with the first bullets from the garand. Bumping the butt on the ground to settle the powder at the back of the case helped a lot and also produced more reliable functioning. I was advised that a poly filler would help and tried it and it worked really well at making things more consistent.

[Marlin Junky]

No more contributions?

What about some results with c309-150-F in the '06?

Please... someone at least post the dimensions of c309-150-F... preferably from a newer 2-C mold. The average weight of c309-150-F in WW metal would also be good.

Thank you

MJ

[frkelly74]

If I were to go lighter I would try the 309 120 simply because I have that mold .

[Moonie]

I have a 309-170-F 2 cavity, it measures .3015 on the nose and .311 on the bands. I haven't done any accuracy testing with it yet however, 2 of my sons have 30-06 rifles, I don't have a 30 cal.

I bought the mold to load for them.

[HangFireW8]

If you'd like to share your successes with Lee boolits in fussy aught-sixes, I'd love to read about them.


I have an oddball FN 30-06 with a .3100 bore and .3000 on the lands.

I bought the C312-185-1R in the hopes that it would be at least .310", it turned out to be .314" with a .300" bore riding nose. I've only just started to try it, loaded 3 loads but only had a chance to try one out, so far my FN loves it.

I know you said you need a .301" nose but others seem to have gotten that in their C312-185-1R. Shown is 12.8grains of Red Dot, seated to just touch the lands/GC barely inside neck, 10 shots into 1.11"@50 yards. Mind, this is the very first group I've shot with this boolit.

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/picture.php?albumid=424&pictureid=2883

-HF

[Tom W.]

The Lee 160 shoots well from both my '06 and my 30/30 with IMR 3031.

[TCLouis]

How Much 3031?

[Greg in Malad]

I have a newer 309-150 mold, it has an overall length of .860 and a bearing length of .470 Never tried it in the '06 but it shoots good in a Marlin 336 30-30

[plateshooter]

I use the Lee 160 .309 bullet w gas check and run it through my Lee .309 sizer. I get great groups at 100 yds with my Mdl 70 Winchester 30-06 using 13 gr of Red Dot. I don't think I can shoot any better than the results I get with this load, so I find no reason to experiment any further for me.

[excess650]

I'm not sure as to why you would eliminate the 200gr as I prefer heavier cast projectiles in my '06s and 7.5x55s. It should be up to reasonable velocities although recoil will be noticeably heavier. The twist rate in the '06, generally 1-10" likely will be the velocity limiting factor.

To be honest, I haven't tried lightweight cast in my '06s or 7.5x55s because I was working for performance way out yonder, like to at least 500m, and the Saeco #301 and Lyman 311644 are getting it done for me. For lighter loads I've been using the tapered Saeco #315.

Before you suggest that I'm an "anything but Lee" snob, I do have most of the Lee 30cal molds, and a group buy 311041 in 6 cavity. I really like the 30-150F, but have used it mostly in my 30-30. Its a single cavity, so makes casting a bit slow.

[sqlbullet]

I have been shooting the 209-200 in my M1 Garands. Favorite load is 32 gr Varget with .75 gr poly-fill. This load reliably cycles the action and gives 1.25" groups at 50 yards if I do my part.

I just started paper patching this bullet this weekend. I have about 50 done that I need to try out. Going to use them in both my Garands and my 300 Win Mag.

If they work well in the Garand, I will probably order a 160 gr lee mold and start upping the velocity to see if I can duplicate the military velocities from the Garand.

[Marlin Junky]

If the nose is long, it needs to be supported by the lands on my M70. That's the reasoning behind the shorter Lee boolits. I've put five rounds of RCBS 30-165-SIL into one tiny round hole about the size of a single 45-70 boolit at 75 yards but the velocity was only in the 1700's. I'd like to flatten out the trajectory a bit more. The nose on my RCBS 30-165-SIL casts about .302". I will try different hardnesses and powders with the RCBS boolit to get a little more steam out of it; however, I'd like to have a different mold for the '06. A longer bearing surface will probably mean more velocity potential. I've just started to work with a new 311041 which has pretty nice cavities but unfortunately those cavities are surrounded by sloppily manufactured mold blocks... I'll soon find out if it's worth the challenge. Too bad 311041 doesn't have a little smaller meplat for longer range work but then again, if that were the case, it probably wouldn't have the reputation as a deer boolit.

In keeping on tract with this thread... I'll probably buy a 2 cavity c309-160-R but I'd like to pick up another Lee mold too. Maybe the c309-150-F.

MJ

[Recluse]

The single most accurate bullet I've fired in my Savage '06 is the Lee 312-185. The nose measures .3015. I size to .311

Ditto. That's my "go-to" boolit for all the .30 calibers. Good design, plenty of boolit bands so you can size down if you want with no detriment to the grooves and a good weight.

:coffee:

[Marlin Junky]

I have a newer 309-150 mold, it has an overall length of .860 and a bearing length of .470 Never tried it in the '06 but it shoots good in a Marlin 336 30-30

Greg,

What diameter does it cast on the bands in WW metal?

Thanks,
MJ

[Marlin Junky]

Ditto. That's my "go-to" boolit for all the .30 calibers. Good design, plenty of boolit bands so you can size down if you want with no detriment to the grooves and a good weight.

:coffee:

Sized down to .310", even?

Is there anyway one of you guys with a c312-185 can post a pic of what this boolit looks like (w/o lube) sized all the way down to .310".

Thanks,
MJ

[Marlin Junky]

I have a 309-170-F 2 cavity, it measures .3015 on the nose and .311 on the bands. I haven't done any accuracy testing with it yet however, 2 of my sons have 30-06 rifles, I don't have a 30 cal.

I bought the mold to load for them.

Moonie,

What are the bearing and overall lengths of c309-170?

Thanks,
MJ

[HangFireW8]

Sized down to .310", even?

Is there anyway one of you guys with a c312-185 can post a pic of what this boolit looks like (w/o lube) sized all the way down to .310".


Sized without lube first (so bands grew in width), but pictured lubed:

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/picture.php?albumid=274&pictureid=2944

[Marlin Junky]

Looks like the bands on that center boolit are closing up. Have you ever weighed one with and w/o lube to determine how much lube the .310" boolits hold?

MJ

[HangFireW8]

Looks like the bands on that center boolit are closing up. Have you ever weighed one with and w/o lube to determine how much lube the .310" boolits hold?

MJ,

You're making me work for this, huh?

I just weighed one at 186.3 lubed, and 185.9 with lube wiped out of grooves.

The lube is a mix of SPG and NRA 50/50, simply because I refilled with 50/50 once I ran out of SPG. Out of a 20" barrel with 12.8 grains of Red Dot, there was zero leading, and the barrel cleaned up easily.

A few boolits with heavy casting seams look like they are closing up just on the seam, but none closed up to touching, and most are not like that at all. The boolit I just weighed, for example, I cannot find any evidence of band size difference near the seam.

I think I have to work a little more on consistent mold close pressure.

-HF

[Recluse]

I size my 185 gr boolits down by step-sizing.

Size it and install the gas check through a .312, then a .311 then down to a .310, then in the lubesizer in a .309 for a lube-only process.

Never had any trouble with the bands closing up or deteriorating.

:coffee:

[Marlin Junky]

The c309-160-R shot pretty crummy today with 25 grains of IMR-4198. Velocity was 1843 fps and I was really surprised the best I could do was a shade under 1.5" at 75 yards for five rounds. Could be it was too cold for my BAC/Soft Blue mixture but that's just a WAG. Boolits were BHN 16, again. 20 grains of WC-820 shot pretty darn good (at 1861 fps) just a few weeks ago, but just a few weeks ago it was a lot warmer.

I think I'm going to try c312-185-R.

MJ

[tactikel]

Your bullet cast from hardball (from rotometals) over 16 gr of 2400 will shoot 0.5" groups at 50 yards from my '03-A3 2 groove. Rx7 25-30 gr is very accurate at 100 yards giving 2.5 MOA (using GI sights).

[Marlin Junky]

Your bullet cast from hardball (from rotometals) over 16 gr of 2400 will shoot 0.5" groups at 50 yards from my '03-A3 2 groove. Rx7 25-30 gr is very accurate at 100 yards giving 2.5 MOA (using GI sights).

Yeah, I figure next week I'd try another grain of my IMR 4198. I checked the BHN of your "Hardball" from Rotometals and it's 16 which is what I'm shooting.

MJ

[Tom W.]

How Much 3031?


42 grains. I was using it to fireform my brass for the A.I. and found out it was very accurate out to 200 yards, which is as long as the rifle range is.

[Marlin Junky]

Another grain of IMR-4198 didn't make much difference, so I'll bump it up to 27 grains on Wednesday which'll exhaust my supply of IMR-4198. This'll push c309-160-R over 2000 fps so it should be interesting to see what happens. Alloy will be 50/50 (WW/Pb) heat treated to BHN 16.

MJ

[NHlever]

I have the Lee C-309-150F and it has shot very well in the 30-30's, 308's, and 30-06's I've tried it in. I haven't had a 30-06 for a while but have shot that boolit in more than one. My loads have generally been on the light side, but I have pushed it a bit with good results.
+- 2000 FPS.

[afrance]

P.S. Can anyone post the bearing and overall lengths on 309-150 and 309-170?

My 309-170 (single cavity) is .980 long with a bearing length of .505 and sized to .310 with Darr lube weighs ~177.5 grains with WW.

On a side note, my 309-200 (double cavity) is 1.135 long with a bearing length of .490 weighing ~203 grains with WW. So far I have only used it with subsonic loads in the 30-06 so I can't report on it at 2000 fps but with the higher BC I would think you could match the 2000 fps trajectory of the 150gr or 160gr somewhere in the 1850 - 1875 fps range.

Alan

[Marlin Junky]

...but with the higher BC I would think you could match the 2000 fps trajectory of the 150gr or 160gr somewhere in the 1850 - 1875 fps range.

Alan

afrance,

It could very well work out that way; however, I'm going to stick with at least 50% bearing surface for now.

Thank you for the spec's on c309-170.

MJ