It's the economy

[Ruger6ppc]

Friends, casters, countrymen, lend me your ears. Brains and experience anyway
I'm looking for a cartridge/boolit combo that is:

1. Cheap!
2. Accurate!
3. Has a high load density with pistol powders!
4. Fun!
5. caliber from 6.5mm to 35
6. Cheap! (common easy to find brass, molds, dies)
Only want this for target shooting from a rifle, using either a mauser action, winchester long action or on a thompson contender at 100 to 300 yards.

The 30 br is my leading candidate but it isn't cheap in a lot of areas (dies, brass, bbls)
The 300 AA Blackout looks pretty good but I'd need a new .223 action.
The 6.5 TCU for the contender might work but it's a rare one to find.
There is a 30 Herrett for sale near by with dies for a good price.
I'm thinking a pistol cartridge that can take high pressure like the 357 magnum or the 357 sig.
I have large supplies of .223 brass and 9mm brass but anything cheap to buy will do. Bought Unique powder for this project.

I know there are lots of loads that use pistol powders in 308 win. or 8x57 etc. but I have a aversion to small charges in large volume cases. This will be for a cast boolit's only, but if it shoots j-words well I won't complain.

This may well be nearly an impossible wish list. But what will get me as close as possible?

I looked for quite a time for posts that covered this but didn't see it. If it's been covered before, kindly point out where.

My thanks for any info or ideas you care to share!

[aspangler]

Why not load cast in the 223? I do and get very good results in my Weatherby bolt gun.

[Ruger6ppc]

.223 will be fun and cheap. But If I use a pistol powder (unique) the load density will be poor.
the new TCM 22 may be close to what I want.

[felix]

30 Herrett with 14 twist barrel will shoot the 311041 square nose and its round nose buddy 1 inch at a hunnert all day long and is cheap enough for your situation. 44mag capacity and recoil. Will shoot the 130 grainers just fine with normal 44 pistol powders as well. ... felix

[Piedmont]

You keep emphasizing cheap. How cheap? Are you planning on gas checks? The answer to that leads to two different trails.

On the fun part, shooting paper or steel, caliber doesn't matter (presuming you aren't knocking the steel down), but if you are shooting aluminum cans and such the bigger the bullet the more fun, because it will bounce them around better. I often can't tell I hit a can with a .22 because it zips through the thin part with barely a wiggle. Plinking at long ranges you would need to see your bullet impacts, which brings us back to bigger bullets, but if it is all paper targets that doesn't matter.

[Mozz]

6X55 swiss

[Ruger6ppc]

You keep emphasizing cheap. How cheap? Are you planning on gas checks? The answer to that leads to two different trails.

On the fun part, shooting paper or steel, caliber doesn't matter (presuming you aren't knocking the steel down), but if you are shooting aluminum cans and such the bigger the bullet the more fun, because it will bounce them around better. I often can't tell I hit a can with a .22 because it zips through the thin part with barely a wiggle. Plinking at long ranges you would need to see your bullet impacts, which brings us back to bigger bullets, but if it is all paper targets that doesn't matter.

99% of my shooting is a paper targets at 100 to 300 yards.
I'll be using gas checks made from soda cans.
35 grains of powder = .10 per round just for powder
Pistol powder is about 1/3 that per round.

[Adk Mike]

Get a 30-06 ! I shoot one every week. 8 pounds of unique last a long time. I had 800 brass when I bought the first one home. Primers and gas checks that's about it. Molds are everywhere. I think it's the best

[marvelshooter]

Get a 30-06 ! I shoot one every week. 8 pounds of unique last a long time. I had 800 brass when I bought the first one home. Primers and gas checks that's about it. Molds are everywhere. I think it's the best

This. I recently bought an '03A3 and I shoot it for about .10 per shot.

[Piedmont]

99% of my shooting is a paper targets at 100 to 300 yards.
I'll be using gas checks made from soda cans.
35 grains of powder = .10 per round just for powder
Pistol powder is about 1/3 that per round.

Ok. How about this. One of your options is something on a Contender. Don't know if that is a carbine or not but guess it doesn't matter. If you really want it to shoot how about a custom barrel from Bullberry or SSK or someone in .30 Carbine or .32-20 or .30-20. The initial barrel is expensive but you may need that for it to really shoot well. You might need a custom twist too, for .30 caliber rifle bullets. Have some kind of fancy mildot, or multiple line reticle and you can just pick the aiming point for the proper target and go to town.

Small charges of powder, ho-made checks, you got a nice tight chamber with a good throat and the proper twist. Thirty caliber bullet molds out the kazoo. You can hit anything and it is cheap to shoot. This makes more sense to me than something like 9mm or .357 for the longer ranges and paper targets you will do battle with. You should leave those two in the dust once ranges get long.

[btroj]

7 tcu

[felix]

7 tcu would be my choice too if price were not involved. Supersonic perfection for me for the Stoner gun would be a 14 twist 277 or 284 boolit with the 223 case necked to 222 length having the same body form. ... felix

[jmorris]

Only want this for target shooting from a rifle, using either a mauser action, winchester long action or on a thompson contender at 100 to 300 yards.

How much drop at 300 are you willing to live with?

The answer to this may greatlly narrow down your list.

[texassako]

It may just be me, but the calibers you list don't sound that cheap to me. Cheap to me is something common like .223, .308, .30-06, etc. .30 caliber seems to have the best mold availability. You can just use Trailboss to fill the case if you don't like the empty space, or use one of the surplus .50 cal powders. My idea of a cheap paper puncher is a Mosin with a good bore, some reloadable brass, a set of Lee dies, a 180-200gr mold, and a can of Unique or 2400.

[W.R.Buchanan]

+1 on the .30-06. Most common brass with possible exception of .308, which would use the same boolits and powders.

More moulds for .30 cal than all others combined.

Find a Springfield and make it your project gun. For what you describe, any .30-06 rifle (more of them made than all the others combined.) would fill the bill exactly. You could also hunt anything in NA and most things everywhere else with that gun.

Whelan said: "the .30-06 is never a mistake."

Randy

[NHPaul]

If you want to seriously kick up the FUN end of this and still stay cheap and accurate , give the 22 TCM a serious look , Brass can be made out of .223 cases , bullets are cheap both cast and J-word. Big Bang Bright Flash, dead accurate. Good quality hand gun and rifle available from Rock Island for decent price. what more could you ask for?

[sewerman68]

A highpoint carbine in 22 tcm would be SWEET!

[Ruger6ppc]

Thanks to all who have posted. As I thought, lots of good ideas. I have quite a few .308s and a few 30-06's and I started out casting for a target 308 with good results, but I have worried (perhaps wrongly) about accuracy problems with powder position in low load density rounds.

The 7 tcu looks better and better as I look at reloading data, around 19 grains the case is full, velocity is right where the sweet spot should be under 2000 fps, I have lots of brass to make cases for, B.C.'s for a 7mm will be good for longer range.

[Jeff H]

My personal choice on two separate occasions has been a handgun cartridge I've never been terribly excited about - the .357.
In a carbine, it offers a practical amount of power without expanding bullets or gas checks and it can be loaded way, way down when less is needed. I did add a gas check maker to the collection to experiment with though. I won't need much more range than a hundred yards either.

The gun is also one I have never been terribly excited about - a lever. But in evaluating the criteria I set as objectively as possible (difficult to do when guns are concerned), that's the combination that won out. The 30-30 was a very, very close second but the added versatility of using the .357 in handguns tipped the scales. Other cartridges and rifles were more appealing but this is what met most of my requirements. It's a perfect balance of compromises for me. The 30-30 was capable of using more of the few powders I keep on hand as well.

I sought to obtain one of the older slender .357 H&Rs but always just missed the few that became available and some went for money beyond what I have in the lever.

The .223 is still on my list just because I have a short, slender-barreled NEF that shoots cast very well. This is the format in which I wish I had the .357.

I played with the .357 Max for a while and have considered the 7.62x39 or a variant of the 25x39, 6.5x39 or .358x39 as well. Tough choice. There are a lot of valid options and some which would just be very interesting to play with regardless of the criteria.

Brass availability and durability, as well as primer availability play a big part too. Straight-wall .357s hold up well and is more widely available than some others, although less common brass was available longer than the popular cases as the last component crunch geared up. I use exclusively small rifle primers in my .357 because I have to have them for the .223 anyway - and everyone should have a .223. Otherwise, all my primers are large rifle or large pistol.

The .357 may not be my final choice but it's hung on for a while and has been practical on two occasions where I needed to shed less necessary hardware.

[Iowa Fox]

7 tcu

The 7mm TCU is about as cheap as it gets. 5 years ago I was picking up 223 brass at the range with a broom and big dust pan. 8 grs of Unique or 16 of SR4759 do a good job for me, cheap and the most important accurate & fun. The downside is the shorter case neck on the case so it takes just the right cast bullets for good fit.