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Thread: Question on .30-06 and Unique...

  1. #61
    Boolit Buddy
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    Those holes look mighty concentric to me - but I guess just a small amount of yaw would be pretty hard to see on paper.

    It's funny, I just measured some of these boolits that I'd run through a Lyman 45 lubrisizer with a .311 die back in December 1970 - they measure in right at .309". Do you suppose these boolits shrank .002" in 39 years?

    TexRed told me about Wilk gas checks last night in chat. Very interesting! I added a link to an article over in the 311413 thread about that. A fellow by the name of Ed Wilk came up with the idea of punching a hole in the bottom of a GC so that you could add GC's to cast boolits that the mold wasn't designed to incorporate. You just pour alloy right through the hole in the GC.

    But then the idea was taken further; use another holed GC further forward in the boolit mold, say on the 1st drive band. This gives you a pair of brass or copper reinforcing points on the boolit, which helps a great deal to prevent the boolit from getting cocked sideways. In the article, they were using the Wilk GC method for 7mm, and getting very small groups at 2,800 fps! Won't be able to push these boolits that fast, but 2,300-2,400 using slow powders should be quite do-able.

    One thing they don't mention in the article is adhesion of the alloy to the GC's. If you've handled the GC's at all, you'll get finger oils on them, and the alloy won't flow on the GC (think soldering) so it would actually weaken the boolit when used on a drive band. However, I will clean my GC's before hand with isopropyl alcohol, etch them for 30 seconds using a muriatic acid bath (available at pool supply stores; don't breathe this stuff) and tin them using a Sn63/Pb37 solder pot I have. Might be a bit tedious, but it's just a test. If it works really well, I'll figure out a faster process later.

    If I can find my danged boxes of .30 cal GC's I'm going to give it a whirl, and try them in .30-06 with 39-42gr of Varget and 45-48gr IMR 4350, which are the slowest powders I have on hand right now. That should get them going around 2300-2500fps

  2. #62
    Banned 45 2.1's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by SierraWhiskeyMC View Post
    TexRed told me about Wilk gas checks last night in chat. Very interesting! I added a link to an article over in the 311413 thread about that. A fellow by the name of Ed Wilk came up with the idea of punching a hole in the bottom of a GC so that you could add GC's to cast boolits that the mold wasn't designed to incorporate. You just pour alloy right through the hole in the GC.

    But then the idea was taken further; use another holed GC further forward in the boolit mold, say on the 1st drive band. This gives you a pair of brass or copper reinforcing points on the boolit, which helps a great deal to prevent the boolit from getting cocked sideways. In the article, they were using the Wilk GC method for 7mm, and getting very small groups at 2,800 fps! Won't be able to push these boolits that fast, but 2,300-2,400 using slow powders should be quite do-able.
    That article was in one of Wolfe's Cast Bullet Annuals. What it doesn't say is that Barnes produced those little drive bands commercially back in the 50's and they were advertised, so to speak, in the Lyman manual of that era.

  3. #63
    Boolit Grand Master
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    Quote Originally Posted by thx997303 View Post
    Excuse my ignorance, but why a handgun powder in a rifle cartridge?
    thx997303 :

    Hopefully these photos may help answer your question :

    Here are some groups I fired recently with Unique and cast boolits in this Springfield 1903 - A3 , Target rifle :







    Super accurate, minimal recoil, easy on the rifle's barrel , very cost effective $ $ $ with low charge rates of powder in each case.

    Thanks,

    Ben
    Last edited by Ben; 05-13-2010 at 12:12 PM.

  4. #64
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    Hi,
    I have recently started reloading after a 30 year hiatus, and have no manuals (money spent on reloading items). I received 147 gr. steel core jacketed .308 boolits and am currently reloading with 11.2 grains of Unique. I have always used Unique since I started reloading in the 70's, and like it. I have also obtained some 1680 for my 7.62 x 39 mm and could use some loads for that. I hope that one of you kind gentlepeople will provide me with some min/max load info for what I have.
    Thanks,
    OB

    [FONT=times new roman][SIZE=3]Je suis Charlie

    Safeguard our way of life...Defend the Constitution against ALL Enemies, Foreign and Domestic!!!

  5. #65
    stephen perry
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    unique for a 30-06 mid bullet is just fine

    Pistol shooters should never answer rifle posts. Unique is by it's name a special powder capable of good cast loads in rifle, pistol, and shotgun loads, this has been discussed on Cast boolits before. I have loaded Unique in 30-06 Cast for 45 years, bolt guns and semi auto. Use as much Unique as you want. The Lyman 'Handbook of Cast Bullets' lists a Unique load for most if not all it's suggested loads. I use 311466 and 311413 for the mid Cast bullet load in a 30-06. The current Lyman manuals show the same similar using Unique loads for 150-155 grn Cast.

    Experience talks in Cast. Been there done that still do that.

    Stephen Perry
    Angeles BR

  6. #66
    Boolit Buddy excavman's Avatar
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    When I started using cast boolits 40+ years ago I loaded them as you would J-bullets, same powder, same velocity. I found out real quick that does't work. I bought the Lyman manual,#44 I think, and started using Unique and 2400 and light loads. I still use Unique and 2400 in everything from a 218Bee to a 45-70 100K+ rounds and 40 years later, see no reason to change.

    Larry

  7. #67
    Boolit Buddy Single Shot's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by qajaq59 View Post
    What some people should keep in mind is that many of us are 70+ and have arthitis in all the places where we got smashed up doing all the stupid, crazy, macho, manly things as young guys. But hopefully, if you're really lucky, you'll get to our age and end up just like we are. It's easy..... all you have to do is wait!!!
    Have fun, but try not to break too many bones, because they hurt like hell 50 years later. ha ha ha

    And that is why I use Unique in a 30-06. Dumped a motorcycle more than once, back in the day, when learning how to race them.
    WORK TO LIVE, LIVE TO HUNT
    SHOOT ONCE, KILL CLEAN, APOLOGIZE TO NO ONE

  8. #68
    Boolit Master GabbyM's Avatar
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    I have a Lyman #311672. This is a light for 30-06 bullet at 160 grains. Mold had a reputation early on for dropping boolits with underside noses. Mine makes a perfect .310 x .300 inch boolit. Charge right out of the Lyman 3rd. Listed in bold as the accuracy load. 18.0 grains of Unique for published 1852 fps and 34,300 psi. I've shot 28.0 grains of Rx7 under this 160 grain boolit and it's a great load. Unique uses a full ten grains less powder to do the same thing. Plus Unique is much cheaper per pound than Alliant Rx7. Those little 160 grain SP boolits are plenty of lead at 100 yard paper. For my 200 grain and up boolits I'm starting to play with IMR-7828 which is slower than some 20mm cannon powder and takes about a case full. I love my new 30-06. Why did it take me forty years to get one? Well I know why. Because when I was a kid. All the "old men" had them.

    I shoot 243 Win AI and 270 Win. Both over bore rounds. Unique works great in these cavernous cases. Get the pressure up around 32,000 psi plus and it burns clean and has enough pressure for a case seal in the chamber to keep cases clean. In the 270 I like Unique under my 122 grain Loverin. But use fast rifle powder or 5744 under the 150 grain RCBS. That 122 grain discontinued boolit over the Unique is my favorite load in 270 Win. My Unique rifle loads run so clean all I do after shooting is wipe bore down with patch soaked in ATF or Ed's Red. Then swab chamber with same.

  9. #69
    Boolit Master



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    The Lyman Cast Boolit Manual #3 shows for the 151gr cast boolit a starting load of Unique of 12.5grs for 1636fps@25,200CUP and a max load of 17grs for 1941fps@37,300CUP. Seems rather high to me, as well, but Lyman says it is safe. As usual, approach with care.

  10. #70
    Boolit Buddy vrh's Avatar
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    I load 16 grains of Unique powder behind 170 grain Lee cast bullet in my 30-06 rifle. Keeps three shot groups at 1 1/2 inch. Like the low recoil also. POI is approx.: 2 inches below my regular hunting jacket bullet load. Didn't change my scope settings, just held 2 inches high and they dropped right in there at 100 yds.

  11. #71
    Boolit Mold kjohn's Avatar
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    Interesting thread. I have used Unique in several different calibers and rifles, to good effect. I am another one who likes the low recoil, as well as the idea of using 10 or so grains of powder as opposed to 40 or more, just to shoot paper. In the 50 years I have been reloading, I have yet to find the "maximum load" a rifle can hack and not blow primers and stick in chambers. I simply enjoy shooting.

    Recently, I scored a 10 lb keg of Unique for $50, and a 5 lb of 700X, unopened, for $80. That should keep me shooting for an afternoon or two!


    Thanks to all the people who contribute to this and other forums in a reasonable manner.
    I hope there is a gun range in heaven, otherwise I'm going to hell!

  12. #72
    Boolit Master fastdadio's Avatar
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    Bumping up a great old thread. I just read through the whole thing. I have a question, can I substitute BR-5 for Unique in these reduced loads for 30-06 and 30-30?
    I bought 6 lbs of BR-5 from Jeff Bartlett a while back, the instruction sheet says to use Unique data when loading with it. My usual favorites 2400, Tightgroup, and H4895 have been hard to find and my stocks are low for these. So what say the collective, any of you folks tried this stuff for reduced loads?
    Thanks,
    Dave.
    Deplorable infidel

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Abbreviations used in Reloading

BP Bronze Point IMR Improved Military Rifle PTD Pointed
BR Bench Rest M Magnum RN Round Nose
BT Boat Tail PL Power-Lokt SP Soft Point
C Compressed Charge PR Primer SPCL Soft Point "Core-Lokt"
HP Hollow Point PSPCL Pointed Soft Point "Core Lokt" C.O.L. Cartridge Overall Length
PSP Pointed Soft Point Spz Spitzer Point SBT Spitzer Boat Tail
LRN Lead Round Nose LWC Lead Wad Cutter LSWC Lead Semi Wad Cutter
GC Gas Check