First up, I'm in the UK so your ammo component supply issues are multiplied several times for us poor sods over here.
I use cast boolits in my 30/30, 308 and 357, used to use them in my 223 but bought a blow out amount of Barnes varmint grenades really cheaply.
I bought some of Sage outdoors alloy plain base 30 cal gas checks and the cbs I used them for were 165 grn FP plain base intended for the 30/30,I just happen to use them in my 308 as well.
I had all sorts of issues with the gcs just falling off and the first solution I used, which was very effective was to crimp a second gc immediately on top of the first, never had another come off, quite expensive in terms of gas checks then I pondered and managed to get the supplier to send me the CBs un lubed. A quick spray with brake cleaner aerosol and then a drop, literally, of medium superglue in the gc cup then push them through my Lee sizer die gc first and she's a good un. I've put nearly 700 of these through either the 30/30 or the 308 and never had a one drop off. After sizing them gc first I turn em round and shove them through pointy end first, this squeezes the gc flat.
I had been loading them in both 30/30 and 308 ahead of either Rx7 or 2400 but ran out of Rx7 and am running low on 2400.
I came into a sizeable amount of CFE 223 and Lever Evolution powder and e-mailed Hodgdon to ask if they would give me an idea of what kind of loads that would get me mvs of 2000 fps with gas checked 170grn boolits.
They responded pdq and said don't try to reduce either load for the 30/30 as both powders MAY be load sensitive, simply take the start at load for the 170 grn sierra FP jacketed and load that behind the cast boolits.The barrel on my gun is 20" and they observed that the load was tested in a 24" barrel to give about 2150 fps, speed loss should be about 25 fps per inch reduction.
Just saying.
Full text of my correspondence with Hodgdons follows
RE: New submission from RDC - GF New Contact Form
Inbox
Help Account <help@hodgdon.com>
29 Apr 2024, 17:30
to me
These are both spherical type powders, they can be sensitive to case fill and are not recommended for downloading. The published start load however would be fine to use , these are from a 24 in barrel. You can expect to loose around 25fps per inch of barrel.
Cartridge:
30-30 Winchester
Load Type:
Rifle
Starting Loads
Maximum Loads
Bullet Weight (Gr.)
Order BW
Powder
Bullet Diam.
C.O.L.
Grs.
Vel. (ft/s)
Pressure
Grs.
Vel. (ft/s)
Pressure
170 GR. SIE FP
170
LVR
.308"
2.550"
33.0
2145
28,900 CUP
36.3C
2332
35,400 CUP
170 GR. SIE FP
170
CFE 223
.308"
2.540"
32.2
2115
30,600 PSI
35.0
2258
36,800 PSI
From: <websitecontact@hodgdonreloading.com>
Sent: Monday, April 29, 2024 7:35 AM
To: Help Account <help@hodgdon.com>
Subject: New submission from RDC - GF New Contact Form
Name
drone
xxxxxxx@gmail.com
Contact Category
Product Question
Subject
Lvrevolution and cfe223 powders in 30/30 with cast bullets.
Message
I have quite a bit of both powders and wanted to know if I can use them with 170 grain gas checked FN cast bullets in my 30/30 winchester 94 of 1958 vintage.
Not looking for ultimate velocities around 2000 fps would be my target.
Is this possible? I know you might recoil in horror but I thought I'd ask anyway.
Many thanks from the UK.
Hope that helps!