Tuesday, February 03, 2015

And yet another experiment with .30-30

In this case, the X-Treme 110-grain plated bullet intended for the .30 Carbine, and the Lyman 115-grain cast bullet for the same
The cast bullet over 9.0 of Unique
and the plated bullet over 10.0




The cast bullets had gas checks, could have tried with 10.0 as well.  Though at this range(30 yards) don't see why.  Actually, next time I can cast I'm going to make more of these and try them without gas checks.  There's a wonderful article over at Cast Boolits on the subject that includes this:
The "100 Yard Target and Small Game" Load

I use Mattern's plain-based "100 yard target load" to use up my minor visual defect culls for offhand and rapid-fire 100 yard practice. I substitute my usual gas-checked bullets, but without the gas-check. I started doing this in 1963 with the Lyman #311291. Today I use the Lee .312-155-2R, or the similar tumble-lubed design TL.312-160-2R. Most of my rifle shooting is done with these two basic designs.

Bullets I intend for plain based loads are blunted using a flat-nosed top punch in my lubricator, providing a 1/8" flat which makes them more effective on small game and clearly distinguishes them from my heavier gas-checked loads. This makes more sense to me than casting different bullets.

Bullet preparation is easy. I visually inspect each run of bullets and throw those with gross defects into the scrap box for remelting. Bullets with minor visual defects are tumble-lubed in Lee Liquid Alox without sizing, and are used for plain base plinkers. ...For gas-check bullets loaded without the gas- checks, for cases like the .303 British, 7.62 NATO, 7.62x54R Russian and 30-06, I use 6-7 grains of almost any fast burning powder. These include, but are not limited to Bullseye, WW231, SR-7625, Green Dot, Red Dot or 700-X. I have also had fine results with 8 to 9 grains of medium rate burning pistol or shotgun powders, such as Unique, PB, Herco, or SR-4756 in any case of .303 British or larger.

In the 7.62x39 case, use no more than 4 grains of the fast burning powders mentioned or 5 grains of the shotgun powders. Theses make accurate 50 yard small game loads which let you operate the action manually and save your precious cases. These plinkers are more accurate than you can hold
.

I'd imagine .30-30 would fit in the 7.62x39 size.  That would mean 4 or 5 grains of powder with that 115-grain bullet, or the 100-grain SWC tried earlier.  That requires a try.




4 comments:

Anonymous said...

The one thing I'll never forgive the russians for is making the AK-47 bore 0.311 instead of .308.

Yes you can swage and apply a few other tricks, but it would have been SO much handier if they hadn't made the bore oversize.

B said...

If yer going without gas checks, use a small paper was (bore size+10%...I use heavy paper with a 3/8 punch) to prevent leading.

Works well. and cheap too

Jerry The Geek said...

You'll notice that all Soviet Bloc weapons (and therefore their ammunition) are slightly larger bore than American calibers.

That's so that, if the acquire large ammounts of OUR ammunition, they might be able to use it in their weapons. On the other hand, THEIR ammunition is completely useless in our weapons.

Of course you hate the Russians; they have been one step ahead of us for fifty years!

Firehand said...

B, I'll keep that in mind.