30 Super Carry with Hand Loaded Cast Boolits

[shooting on a shoestring]

Soundguy, I size my boolits to 0.316” and cast them from about 96/2/2 Pb/Sn/Sb aged from a week to 6 months. I drive them hard enough to get 0.001” case head expansion. The nose of my Accurate 31-117E is a bore ride with some clearance at 0.300”. The ones I've recovered all show the bore ride portion obturated to fill the grooves. That might be the mechanism that lets me shoot that soft alloy at way over 357 Magnum pressures without stripping the riflings. The whole length of the boolit grabs the rifling. It also seals really well.

If you get the urge to revisit shooting cast, I suggest you try soft boolits with pressure up near 50,000 psi and see if they strip and tumble or obturate and shoot straight and clean. My 2cents.

[Abert Rim]

The EZ mags are a dream to load compared to so many others. Lee dies arrived today, along with the .314 push-through sizer. Not sure when to expect Tom's .31-115H mold. He has been faster than
expected for my last couple of orders.

[Abert Rim]

Finally got the Accurate 31-115H mold, cast some slugs and loaded one just for starters. I think it is a darned handsome boolit.

[35remington]

Looks like one of Veral Smith’s ogival wadcutters.

[shooting on a shoestring]

Oh yeah!
That’s a fine looking boolit.
Put 40,000 to 50,000 psi behind it and I’ll bet you grin!

[pettypace]

Looks like one of Veral Smith’s ogival wadcutters.

Or like Keith's 260 grain .44 Special Belding & Mull bullet. Here's a pic from Sixguns, page 281.

[JohnForrest]

Hey SOS,

I am thinking about getting a two stack to go with my EZ. What's your opinion on the thumb safety?

[shooting on a shoestring]

John Forrest, my opinion is thumb safeties are a personal thing like boxers or briefs.

I don’t want them on my polymer framed guns, but I’m fine with them on my 1903’s, 1911’s and Hi-Powers. That strikes me as odd.

I’ve heard the stories of folks in a fight not being able to disengage a thumb safety or squeeze a grip safety due to struggling over the gun while a thug was trying to wrest it from them.

That’s often countered with stories where the thug got the gun but couldn’t shoot the good guy bc the thug didn’t disengage the thumb safety.

Then there’s stories where someone lets a kid find a gun. The kid points it and pulls the trigger. If the thumb safety is on it doesn’t make the news.

I say pick the one that best suits your needs, beliefs, feelings and be happy!