What hardness should I be using for .300blk subsonic 230gr?

[Pyrex]

Anyone in here cast using the lee 230gr mold? What hardness are you using? I'm coating my bullets with hi-tek, and I'm curious if I'm too soft. Velocity will be 1050-1,100.

[dtknowles]

I don't see how you could be too soft unless you are using absolutely pure lead. I would think 9 BHN would be just right.

Tim

[JSnover]

I'd worry about sizing first. More than one member has shot cast at much higher velocities with no gas checks and no leading. Hardness won't save you if your boolit is undersized.

[Hardcast416taylor]

Straight wheel weights or a 50/50 alloy of Pb/WW is about you`ll need. If you feel you need a harder bullet, water drop them for surface hardening.Robert

[Pyrex]

Straight wheel weights or a 50/50 alloy of Pb/WW is about you`ll need. If you feel you need a harder bullet, water drop them for surface hardening.Robert

Well, I was careless with a few ingots, and I can't recall if they are COWW or SOWW's. I don't have a hardness checker, so i'm somewhere between 6-12. I do water drop all my projectiles, but if it's SOWW, the antimony percentage is so slim, I don't think it's going to do anything.

[cbrick]

The key to your answer lies in the title to this thread . . . "Subsonic".

Cast what you have and try them, odds are good they will be fine.

Rick

[Pyrex]

The key to your answer lies in the title to this thread . . . "Subsonic".

Cast what you have and try them, odds are good they will be fine.

Rick

My concern is I'm firing them out of an m16 on full auto, so the barrel is going to heat up quickly. I'm not sure if hardness plays a role in leading with that.

[geargnasher]

I posted recently in another thread about shooting the NOE 247 subsonic in a .30-30, those bullets come out about 9 bhn and are absolutely fantastic shooters in the quiet velocity range. The only issue I could see is the noses getting dinged badly or peeling shavings off and hanging up when feeding if you have the M4 feed ramps and/or some very sharp edges in the chamber entrance or chamber/throat transition. If you have issues with that, you might consider water-quenching right out of the mould to harden them a bit, but they will likely require a different powder to shoot well than the softer ones will.

Gear

[cbrick]

I have no experience with loading for full auto but as Gear said, if it feeds and chambers well you should be ok. The only other thing that comes to mind at the moment would be lube if the barrel gets really heated.

Where it me I would shoot some to what happens. Report back with your findings, I'm sure there will be others will be interested in the results.

Rick

[dtknowles]

Less tin and antimony means higher melting point so softer could be better.

Tim

[runfiverun]

I'm using the watever's in the pot that makes them 310 on that base band or so and air cooling.
if the bases are well filled out and sharp they shoot a lot better..

my objective is a lot different than yours though, I'm at the slow quiet one at a time end of the spectrum.
I got other molds to work on the 1300+ scale end of things.

[Pyrex]

I'm using the watever's in the pot that makes them 310 on that base band or so and air cooling.
if the bases are well filled out and sharp they shoot a lot better..

my objective is a lot different than yours though, I'm at the slow quiet one at a time end of the spectrum.
I got other molds to work on the 1300+ scale end of things.

I assume you're shooting suppressed. Are you coating as well? Seen any lead buildup in your can?

[runfiverun]

don't have the can yet, so I'm just working on the velocity, accuracy, and quietness of the load to begin with.
I have a bolt gun so I'm not limited with my load selection.
the issue I have right now is that as soon as I get quiet, I also get vertical stringing, so there is a definite line there.
3.5 grs of powder doesn't have enough muzzle pressure to cause any kind of gas cutting in that area, so I doubt any leading in the can could occur there without it being present in the whole barrel.

[geargnasher]

Run, are you shooting the Lee bullet? TnT lube might help if the stringing isn't powder related. My Savage 219s wear 24" barrels, sound like a one-pump Daisy pellet rifle. No can required.

Gear

[Pyrex]

don't have the can yet, so I'm just working on the velocity, accuracy, and quietness of the load to begin with.
I have a bolt gun so I'm not limited with my load selection.
the issue I have right now is that as soon as I get quiet, I also get vertical stringing, so there is a definite line there.
3.5 grs of powder doesn't have enough muzzle pressure to cause any kind of gas cutting in that area, so I doubt any leading in the can could occur there without it being present in the whole barrel.

I run 11.5gr of AA1680 for my subsonic, good case fillout, cycles very well and chronos about 1050. That load isn't going to be good for anything but a really short barrel though. I cut my barrel on a 1:8 twist blank to 6", so it's pretty short.



This is with jacketed, but the same load.


Here's the first cast round I'm going to try.

[Quiettime]

Gear beat me to it. Gotta cast hard enough for the autoloader. I use straight coww and working ok for me if I'm careful with magazine selection.

[Quiettime]

I polished my feedramps a little with a dremel and it helped

[Pyrex]

Gear beat me to it. Gotta cast hard enough for the autoloader. I use straight coww and working ok for me if I'm careful with magazine selection.

What COL are you running? I'm loading them long, the ogive looks quite sudden, but I chambered a few and i got one or two knicks, but none on the bearing surfaces, so I'm hoping it will be okay.

[runfiverun]

yeah the lee t/l boolit, I'm still using up one of the test batches of 45/45/10 lube with wax and extra M/S.
I'm just searching that quiet/slow area for a cheap-o 50 yd shooter round that can be popped off all afternoon [cheaply] for some trigger time for the kids.

the vertical stringing in this case is being caused by the colder pistol primers I tried in this last batch, it doesn't do it with sr primers.
you'd think 3.5 grs of 700-x would be a pretty benign load, but it's just borderline enough to show up any inconsistency's.
I have some sp mag primers i'll give a go here soon, and see what they do.

[Quiettime]

What COL are you running? I'm loading them long, the ogive looks quite sudden, but I chambered a few and i got one or two knicks, but none on the bearing surfaces, so I'm hoping it will be okay.

I'm actually using the NOE 247 and crimping in the groove. Bought a Lee 230 but it looked like **** out of the box and I didn't and I endied up not using it