LEE TL309-230-5R bullet with Titegroup for subsonic .308

[Worldtrav]

Hey guys, I have some Titegroup powder and wanted to cast my own bullets and use them in a subsonic load. Has anyone tried a load for .308 using a cast LEE TL309-230-5R bullet ? What was your load? I have read somewhere one post where they used 6 grains of Titegroup but wanted to double check and see if anyone has experience with this powder and bullet weight.

Thanks!

[Misery-Whip]

Welcome in! First things first, be super careful with unpublished loads. Especially with fast powders.

Interesting idea. I would start by assembling a dummy round, seating a bullet in a case with no powder or primer, and seeing if this combo will fit into your magazine. If it does see if it will feed thru your action.

If this works out. Hodgdon.com has data for 308 and titegroup, but it only goes up to 220 grains. They are calling out a jacketed sierra match king. No other data I have goes above 180 in 308.

Don't give up yet, if this is the only published data you can find id take your mold to a machinist and have them shave .02 off the blocks to make it a 220 grain mold.

And the speeds you will be running this to keep it subsonic it's going to drop like a stone before it gets to 100 yards.

[SiliconeSword]

This is a good boolit for the 300blk guns I have so I think it'll do nicely if your twist rate is up to it.
Hodgdon has data for subs with titegroup so I'd start at whatever their max is as I'm sure it's very low pressure compared to a normal load. You'll have to probably do a ladder load as comparing a 220gn jacketed boolit to a 230(for me 238) grain cast bullet will have differences as well as Hodgdon does their data with very long barrels, so you may need to up your charge depending on the barrel.
I shoot mine powder coated at 8bhn and they survive a 1:5 twist barrel well enough when sized to .310. I'd size as large as will chamber, which will likely be .310 or .311.
Depending what you want out of this project it may be worthwhile to use some pillow stuffing as a case filler at some point as I've had it help with accuracy on very low case fill loads sometimes.

[dverna]

Go to the Hodgdon site.

They list a 220 gr "Blue SP" (which I believe is a cast bullet) with 7 gr of Titegroup at 1041 FPS with a pressure of 21.8k psi.

This way below maximum pressure so you will be safe using the Lee bullet.

[Worldtrav]

Thank you! yes, I have the Ruger American Gen 2, 10" twist and 22"barrel. That is a good idea shaving off the block to make it lighter. And yes, I weighted some of the boolits now and they are a bit heavier, ~238grain, so shaving off a bit makes sense, good that I have a milling machine so I can do it myself. Regarding the COL, I dont mind feeding the ammo by hand if it ends up being a bit longer, I don't care if it doesn't feed from the magazine. So the danger here is if the pressure goes higher than ~60k psi, this is what we should be careful of, correct?

[SiliconeSword]

I would caution against milling the block unless you run into an actual issue because of the weight/length. I'm not the most familiar with .308 but I bet if you just seated to the crimp groover you'd fit in a mag. The boolits are long but are still meant to be useable in various common .30 guns.
Your 1:10 twist is a bit worrying but the only way to know or not is shoot at 100y on paper and see if you're tumbling or not. I was getting slightly egged holes with a 1:8 barrel albeit a ln 8in one. The same load shot from my friend's 18 or 20 inch that was also 1:8 twist shot way more stable and accurately, so I guess you'll find out.