300 BLK Roundball Loads

[Suputin]

Anyone tried running a lead roundball in the 300 BLK?

The idea had occurred to me as I had a Hammond Game Getter in a 7.62x39 rifle a few years back and it worked OK. I ran across a thread at 300 BLK Talk on exactly this subject and a guy actually built some workable loads.

Choice of projectile is a bit open. Any pure lead roundball slightly bigger than .310" ought to work fine. The biggest issue is case prep to get the neck to hold the ball firmly yet allow the ball to be seated without mangling it. A fired but not resized case seems to be the trick but YMMV.

The quote below is from the guy who actually did it. I suspect any small load of fast burning pistol powder would work. I think the idea of lubing the ball is good too although a paper wad behind the bullet to prevent powder sticking to it might be a good idea too.

I run .314" Hornady round balls through a LEE .310" sizer and then "tumble lube" them by squishing them around in a ziplock bag with some Johnson's Paste Wax. Regular alox will work too.

I thumb-seat the ball in an unsized case which has had the mouth flared.

You're totally on your own for your powder and charge weight, but I used 1.2 grains of W231 and my normal Wolfe "Magnum" SRP. That did not come from a published source and is not pressure-tested but the cases were dirty when ejected so it's low. You COULD encounter a stuck ball, but I see down the bore of my rile after every shot (Handi).

Three shots into one hole at ten yards. I have not had a chance to try it at longer ranges.

The 1:7 twist is not a problem if you don't drive them too hard.

I have no idea what the velocity was but it sounded like a fly-swatter hitting the table when touched off.

I have a couple boxes of 0 buck and some Trailboss so I might try this.

 

[Suputin]

Looking back on my old data which was collected using a Hammond Game Getter in 7.62x39, an O-buck lead ball driven at 1150 fps seemed to offer the best compromise of speed and accuracy. At 50 yds it printed a 1.3" group.

A faster load printed tighter groups at shorter range but the groups opened up alarmingly out to 50 yds.

 

[yodave]

I tried some 95 grain 32 acp bullets sized to .309...........I heard them hit out in the distance but couldn't hit the same place twice to form a group........

I got 160 grain cast shooting inch and a quarter at 100 yards last week.......both with H110 and IMR 4198.......

if the neck was longer a double load of round balls could be interesting.......