.32 ACP bullets in .30-06

1899

1899

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I have a couple of inserts for .300 WM and .300 WBY that fire .32 ACP rounds. I used to have them in .308 Win and .30-06 too, but sold them. I was thinking about loading Berry's bullets .32 cal (.312") 83gr Wadcutters in my .30-06 with a mild charge of Red Dot or something similar. Have any of you tried this before? What were the results and/or victories/failures? Any advice?

I guess the other option is to use Speer's 100gr Plinker or bullets designed for the .30 Carbine. Unfortunately they are all round nose, and I was hoping to use a flat point.

Thanks.
 
Why not the Berry's 150gr. FP .30-30 bullets? Behind 13gr. of Red Dot or even Trail Boss, you should have a fairly decent plinking round.

One issue you may have with those wadcutters is feeding from a magazine. I'm assuming you're using a bolt action and not a single shot? If single feeding rounds is ok with you, give the smaller bullets a try. I would load up a dummy round to see if it'll feed or chamber without issues. If your neck thickness is out of spec and causes chambering issues with .312" bullets, consider something in the proper .308" diameter.

Have you ever considered the Hornady 90gr. XTP bullets? I recently bought a bunch of these for plinking loads in a variety of .30 cal. cartridges I load for. I have a subsonic .300 Blackout load with Trail Boss that shoots 5-shot groups at under 1.5 MOA @ 100 yds. It's the first load combination I've tried with this bullet and feel it could be improved by experimenting with choice of primers.
 
I've done this with 303B, 300WM, 308, 7.62x54R, and others and it usually works but can produce some pretty bad groups. The rifling twist just isn't designed for such a light bullet so it doesn't stabilize it well.

My powder of choice is Unique as it seems to work the most reliably in terms of accuracy and consistent velocity but I have had some decent results with RedDot as well. I'd start with 3-5 grains and work up slowly. Also magnum primers produce more consistent ignition.
 
LUTNIT said:
I've done this with 303B, 300WM, 308, 7.62x54R, and others and it usually works but can produce some pretty bad groups. The rifling twist just isn't designed for such a light bullet so it doesn't stabilize it well.

My powder of choice is Unique as it seems to work the most reliably in terms of accuracy and consistent velocity but I have had some decent results with RedDot as well. I'd start with 3-5 grains and work up slowly. Also magnum primers produce more consistent ignition.
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Rate of twist has little or nothing to do with the poor accuracy you've experienced. I doubt you're driving these bullets so fast with pistol powders that the bullets are on the verge of blowing up out of their jackets. There's no way the bullets are under stabilized either.

There's any number of reasons for poor accuracy with these bullets. They could be of poor quality to begin with. The chamber of your rifle cartridges are throated for longer bullets and not shorter ones and there's too much jump to the lands of the rifling. Your load itself may not be suitable and you could be experiencing issues with poor load density or positional sensitivity of the small amount of powder in the large rifle cases.

The possibilities are many.
 
The 83 grain bullets will be good plinkers. They will work fine in your 30-06, they did in mine.
 
2bad4u2 said:
Rate of twist has little or nothing to do with the poor accuracy you've experienced. I doubt you're driving these bullets so fast with pistol powders that the bullets are on the verge of blowing up out of their jackets. There's no way the bullets are under stabilized either.

There's any number of reasons for poor accuracy with these bullets. They could be of poor quality to begin with. The chamber of your rifle cartridges are throated for longer bullets and not shorter ones and there's too much jump to the lands of the rifling. Your load itself may not be suitable and you could be experiencing issues with poor load density or positional sensitivity of the small amount of powder in the large rifle cases.

The possibilities are many.
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If I fire bullets at too low of a velocity they tumble or cause circular groups (encountered this with cast bullets mostly). If I fire really light bullets they don't group well at all. 110gr bullets in my 300WM can't shoot nearly as well as 180+gr bullets with any load. 95gr bullets in my M96 Swede group 4MOA at best but 140gr can shoot 1/2MOA. I've tried the lighter bullets with the same COAL and with published load data and they still don't work. Everywhere I've looked lists certain minimum and maximum bullet weights for optimum accuracy with certain rifling twists for certain cartridges. I'm no benchrest shooter but I do understand they have a lot more experience and understanding of ballistics than I do and all of them I have talked to mention minimum bullet weights for certain twist rates.

I never mentioned high velocity or bullet failure so I'm not sure why you brought that up.
 
I've used bulk 110g projectiles designed for the M1 Carbine in a .308 Win bolt gun. I used a fast rifle powder and drove them at M1 carbine velocities.
There is still the potential for double-charging the case, so you have to be careful. I shot them at a 100 yds, no issues with grouping or stability.
I was using IMR4227 (see Speer #12) and SR4759 powder (Speer #12 100g data reduced) for that application.

The feeding profile is a bit stubby, so they can hang up feeding from the magazine if you aren't careful.

Same concept would be valid in .30-06 too. (also see Speer #12 100 and 110g loading data for .30-06)

I simply picked the slowest load data starting load powder.
 
I had an axillary cartridge that used .32 ACP in my 30-30 ,I used for shooting chickens.Harold
 
LUTNIT said:
If I fire bullets at too low of a velocity they tumble or cause circular groups (encountered this with cast bullets mostly). If I fire really light bullets they don't group well at all. 110gr bullets in my 300WM can't shoot nearly as well as 180+gr bullets with any load. 95gr bullets in my M96 Swede group 4MOA at best but 140gr can shoot 1/2MOA. I've tried the lighter bullets with the same COAL and with published load data and they still don't work. Everywhere I've looked lists certain minimum and maximum bullet weights for optimum accuracy with certain rifling twists for certain cartridges. I'm no benchrest shooter but I do understand they have a lot more experience and understanding of ballistics than I do and all of them I have talked to mention minimum bullet weights for certain twist rates.

I never mentioned high velocity or bullet failure so I'm not sure why you brought that up.
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I spoke of bullet failures as you initially never specifically mentioned if the situation was related to velocities that were too high or too low. Both ends of the velocity range can be affected by bullet twist. If too much RPM was placed on the bullet due to excessive velocities outside the normal operating range that the bullet's jacket was designed for you can have a situation where the core separates from its jacket. A fast twist barrel would impart more spin on a bullet at a given velocity than a slower tiwst barrel.

How slow are the bullets travelling that you're experiencing your accuracy issues? That bullet in .32 S&W routinely operates at velocities between 550fps-750fps with no issues of instability at a twist rate of 1:18.75". The rifle rounds you're shooting from have twist rates that are nearly 2x as quick.

I don't understand how instability could be related to the twist rate of your barrel(s) in this instance. I fail to see where the bullet could be under stabilized.
 
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Thanks for the comments. With respect to double charges, I believe Red Dot is bulky enough to avoid that possibility.

H4831 - what powder did you use with the 83gr bullets?
 
just remember to use poly fill i do this in .303 brit 7.62x54r and 7.62x39 no problem although the last one turns a sks into a straight pull bolt action never used wad cutters but round nose both cast and jacketed and even some xtp's red dot works depending on the cartridge charges need to change also fun with a 9.3x57 and bullets ment for the 9x18 mak
 
1899 said:
antiqueguy - is any fill, given the bulk of Red Dot, neccessary?
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Not necessary. You should read this: h ttp://members.shaw.ca/cronhelm/TheLoad.html

It was written long before the creation of Trail Boss. TB & RD have burn rates that are very close but TB is far more bulky in comparisson.
 
remember the bullet must jump to the rifling, and may be slightly sideways, I would go woith the 150gr and 10 gr trailboss, find out where POI is I had a converter in 308 that would shoot at the duplex line on the scope at 50 yds good for rabbits and grouse.
 
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