311-314 plinking bullet

J

Jessegreenwood

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What is a good( cheapish) pistol mold it a suitable caliber for a 303 plinking bullet?
I am thinking 90-120 grain, around 1000 FPS to about trans-sonic. Also thinking powder coating and sizing to 314, so if it is a bit small that would probably be fine.
Any that are good in another 30 cal would be pretty good, anything that has been successful in Russian 30 call would be really good.
Thanks
 
Alternatively Campro makes a jacketed sp in the .311 or .314 range, I forget the exact diameter. Relatively cheap for a bulk jacketed bullet, can’t comment on how they perform but I’d expect they’re just fine for plinking.
 
i had cast a couple of hundred bullets for my 303 and powder coated them. when i fired them in my usually accurate 1950 longbranch, i couldn't hit anything at 100 yards so went off to the 25 yard range to see what was happening. i had a 5 shot group spread out over 15 inches or so with all the projectiles keyholing. my buddy tried the loads in his enfield and got the same results. when i fired the same cast projectiles that were alox lubed instead of being powdercoated, the gun went back to putting 3 shots in a 2 inch group at 50 yards. based on this experience, i wouldn't bother powdercoating as it isn't worth the time, effort, and money. from doing a bit of reading, it seems the powdercoating stopped the projectiles from properly biting in the barrel and shot them out with minimal spin, hence the keyholing.

im using lee 180 grain 311 and they work really well in the enfields i have....when they aren't powdercoated.
 
gregc said:
i had cast a couple of hundred bullets for my 303 and powder coated them. when i fired them in my usually accurate 1950 longbranch, i couldn't hit anything at 100 yards so went off to the 25 yard range to see what was happening. i had a 5 shot group spread out over 15 inches or so with all the projectiles keyholing. my buddy tried the loads in his enfield and got the same results. when i fired the same cast projectiles that were alox lubed instead of being powdercoated, the gun went back to putting 3 shots in a 2 inch group at 50 yards. based on this experience, i wouldn't bother powdercoating as it isn't worth the time, effort, and money. from doing a bit of reading, it seems the powdercoating stopped the projectiles from properly biting in the barrel and shot them out with minimal spin, hence the keyholing.

im using lee 180 grain 311 and they work really well in the enfields i have....when they aren't powdercoated.
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Mmmm.... my experience with PC is the polar opposite of yours. I have been experimenting/testing PC'd slugs against conventionally lubed slugs for 6 or 8 yrs in at least a dozen different rifles, from 130 yr old guns to modern manuf. and, while a smattering of those test produced a saw-off between PC & wax, most have shown a very measurable improvement in accuracy to the PC slugs....never have I had a "worse" test with PC.
 
fingers284 said:
Mmmm.... my experience with PC is the polar opposite of yours. I have been experimenting/testing PC'd slugs against conventionally lubed slugs for 6 or 8 yrs in at least a dozen different rifles, from 130 yr old guns to modern manuf. and, while a smattering of those test produced a saw-off between PC & wax, most have shown a very measurable improvement in accuracy to the PC slugs....never have I had a "worse" test with PC.
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hey, if you are near/around the edmonton area, i like to meet you and trade some of my cast for your powdercoated cast to see if your pc cast make a more accurate group in my enfields. you have pc cast that would fit an enfield?

send me a pm if that works for you. thanks
 
gregc said:
hey, if you are near/around the edmonton area, i like to meet you and trade some of my cast for your powdercoated cast to see if your pc cast make a more accurate group in my enfields. you have pc cast that would fit an enfield?

send me a pm if that works for you. thanks
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I am about 2.5 hrs south of Edmonton. The closest molds i have for .311 are a 120 gr .312 mold for 32-20's so probably too light for what you want and a .309 that throws a 165 gr FP for the wife's 30-30. I bump them up to .311 dia with PC. These are GC shanked slugs but I shoot them naked, her 94 shoots them to 2" .
 
Greg, I'm going to echo Finger's comments.

Sometimes, I get some fouling and I think that I've been trying to get too light a coat of powder, especially if I have a tight throat or gas check shank situation.

Just recently, I had a coloured ring around my bullets at the case neck after seating the bullet in .303B. This is the side of the bullet being scraped off during seating.
I use the NOE neck expander system and used a larger, by .001, neck expander. This resulted in no ring of powder and easier bullet seating, as well as a noticeable improvement on the target.

The bottom line is that powder coating is a quantum leap forward in bullet casting.
It allows greater accuracy at higher velocities that I hadn't considered five years back.
There might be a bump or two along the road, but they are far milder than some of the challenges we had 50 years back.
 
I use the TL314-90SWC in .303’s, .30-30’s, my 9130 and In my Tok. I coat them fat for the .303’s as I load them in 3 different guns, and with that little plug of a bullet if it’s a bit to big it will still chamber. I size them down to .310 for the .30-30. I use them unsized in my 9130. They are very accurate in the rifles, but they are light bullets and suffer at longer ranges. They make top notch varmint loads. Quietish and no recoil so great for kids. Between 3 and 7 grains of a fast pistol powder adjusted for accuracy and availability. I’ve used trailboss with success as well.
 
I have the Lee 90gr .311 mold and it casts .312 air cooled and .314 H20 quenched.I will play with the .303 + 7.62x54R with the .314 size I use the .312 and 3 gr of Bullseye in the CZ 527 7.62x39 for small game like chickens.
 
WhelanLad said:
with the 303 cast loads what powder an what velocity bracket are yu seeing workable hunting/plinking accuracy out of?
thanks
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Velocity in the 1100 to 1400 fps range, using Unique or similar shotgun pistol powders. I found a heavier bullet, 150gr or more shot better in most guns, can stretch it out and more consistent.

Powder coating works great but wont work in all bullet styles and chamber after.
 
I find that red dot is the best for me and you can get lots of shooting from a can of powder. my 303 and mosin use the regular 303 mold, no coating just alox lube and they shoot very good. I found that the savage 303 do not like the lyman 303 mold they keyhole most of the time.
 
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