First outing with commercial cast 308 boolits

[Helka]

So i was out on Friday doing some load development with some Hornady 168 HPBT and was getting some nice 3/4" groups at 100 yards. I then swapped to some commercial cast 30 cal 165gn (lubed no GC) (weighs around 168). I used IMR 3031 started at 18 and up 1gn increments to 22gn.

I wasn't hitting paper. so i went to the 25yrd range and set up a nice big sheet of paper. No word of a lie i was getting 1.5 - 2 foot groupings??? WTH. My guess is these are undersized for my barrel and bounce around?

The reason for purchasing is i don't have a mold yet. Waiting on a group buy which will likely take a year lol.

Should i be upping the powder? or just cut my losses and sell them.

[Thumbcocker]

Small charge of pistol or shotgun powder. It would help if we knew the cartridge.

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[Thumbcocker]

My bad i didn't see the title. Try some bullseye or red dot. Per a good cast boolit manual.

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[toallmy]

Save your primers / or try paper patching……..
Or see if a member would send you some to try.

[Helka]

My bad i didn't see the title. Try some bullseye or red dot. Per a good cast boolit manual.

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I have the Lyman Cast Bullet Manual and was using the load data for the powder i have on hand that's listed. I do have bullseye so i may try that.

As for paper patching I have little to no knowledge on that subject but do enjoy researching so i will!

[sigep1764]

308 sized boolits for 30 cal bores is usually undersized. Try .310 sized boolits, bet you'll like them better

[Thumbcocker]

The suze of the boolit is important. Also if they have the typical hard lube you may get leading. If you have some liquid alix it wouldn't hurt to tumble them in that.

With a plain base boolit stay in the 1200 to 1400 fps range. You can get quite good accuracy with plain base but not velocity.

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[Helka]

These appear to be bevel base no option for bigger size from this supplier, but when i get my proper 30 cal mold it will start at 312 and size down from there

[toallmy]

Mistaken post

[Helka]

Boat tail. I will take a picture later tonight and also the measurement of the diameter. it was only $37 plus tax for 500ct. I think i could sell them for $40 with 15 missing.

[toallmy]

I see your in Canada , how is shipping from the US to Canada ����

[dverna]

The 3rd edition Lyman manual shows a starting load of 28.5 gr of 3031 with a 169 gr GC bullet...so you may have a different book. If you have Red Dot, a load of 10 gr should put you at about 1300 fps and that should be OK for a PB bullet.

I doubt leading was your issue with just a couple of shots but easy enough to check. If the barrel is leaded clean it out and try the RD load. I agree that a larger bullet should work better but even a .308 sized bullet should be doing better than 18-24" at 35 yards.

I feel your pain....I tried a handful of times to get accuracy out of cast .308 but I am not talented enough to get'r done. 2" at 25 yards @ 2000 fps was about it, but I know others get much better results. I never tried lower velocities as I had .38/.357 rifles if wanted bullets at 1300-1500 fps.

Paper patching will get your diameter up but then what? Is it something you want to do for plinking loads? Too much of a hassle for me. I like the suggestion above to reach out to others to try different bullets. You can get them unsized and unlubed so you can play with diameter and lube to see what works before making the investment in a custom mold.

[Helka]

I see your in Canada , how is shipping from the US to Canada ����

PM'd

[Helka]

The 3rd edition Lyman manual shows a starting load of 28.5 gr of 3031 with a 169 gr GC bullet...so you may have a different book. If you have Red Dot, a load of 10 gr should put you at about 1300 fps and that should be OK for a PB bullet.

I doubt leading was your issue with just a couple of shots but easy enough to check. If the barrel is leaded clean it out and try the RD load. I agree that a larger bullet should work better but even a .308 sized bullet should be doing better than 18-24" at 35 yards.

I feel your pain....I tried a handful of times to get accuracy out of cast .308 but I am not talented enough to get'r done. 2" at 25 yards @ 2000 fps was about it, but I know others get much better results. I never tried lower velocities as I had .38/.357 rifles if wanted bullets at 1300-1500 fps.

Paper patching will get your diameter up but then what? Is it something you want to do for plinking loads? Too much of a hassle for me. I like the suggestion above to reach out to others to try different bullets. You can get them unsized and unlubed so you can play with diameter and lube to see what works before making the investment in a custom mold.

Sorry i think i'm mistaken i think i started at 28 and worked up to 32. I will double check when i get home.

[toallmy]

Powder coated could get a little more size for you but even if you cut your groups in half twice you couldn’t keep them on paper at a 100 yards .

[slim1836]

Slug your bore or do a chamber cast, size does matter.

Slim

[Helka]

Slug your bore or do a chamber cast, size does matter.

Slim

I agree i did that for my pistols but decided to blindly try these 30 cal boolits as i don't have a mold yet to cast my own. I think 310-311 would assist is accuracy plus a GC and PC. I really hope some 30 cal molds come up for sale. Looking for the 160 SIL one.

[Daekar]

Sometimes it really is the boolit doesn't agree with the gun. I had bought some 158gr SWC which were sized to 358 which gave me a shotgun pattern at 10 yards in every gun I tried when they were pushed past 1000fps...somewhere there is a thread I made in my frustration. I got a cheap Lee mold of the same weight, PC'd them, and my patterns turned into groups. Maybe the extra. 001" helped too, but the lesson is not to give up!

I melted them down and cast them into the mold that my guns like. Waste not, want not.

[wmitty]

Since you mentioned the powder charges in post # 14, it is apparent that the velocities were way beyond what a plain base design can handle. If you want to continue trying to use this design boolit, you need to drop way back on the powder charge of 3031 or, as others suggest, a faster burning powder at much lower velocities. The boattail design in a cast boolit is still a mystery to me; I haven't tried it. I hope you will try paper patching, as it opens a whole new can of worms .... er, uh, I mean opportunities to the cast shooter. As dverna said, I wouldn't want to PP for plinker loads, but it sure works great for serious shooting you might think can otherwise only be handled by jacketed rounds. Haven't tried the powder coating route either, but it sounds like a way to add several thousandths in diameter if that is what you are needing. A good micrometer and slugging your barrel will tell you if you are under groove diameter with your boolits.

[gwpercle]

A easy tip for getting decent accuracy , besides getting the diameter right ...which is critical ,
get a mould that is cut for a gas check ... and use the gas check to develop your loads .
Later you can play around with 50 yard , low velocity loads without the gas check .
Trust me a Gas Check just makes life so much easier ...
And make sure your boolits aren't too hard ... they have to be the right diameter , can't be too hard and gas check helps when going for accuracy ! And do a ton of testing .
I find a soft lube works better than a hard lube for accuracy .
Gary