Cast bullet reloading Data anyone?

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rdra

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Hi Gang
I have been gathering up items to start casting my own bullets for an old 30-30 (1956 vintage) that I had recently had restored. It had seen much hard days under the seat of the farm truck before I got it and had been in pretty rough shape.
Anyways I had purchased a Lee mold for a 160 Gr round nose bullet but cannot for the life of me find any reloading data for plink'n or any other shooting with that bullet weight for the 30-30 in particular.
Lots of data for a 150 Gr or a 170 Gr but this 160 Gr is elusive.
Any suggestions?
 
Use the mid range loads for either bullet and you will be fine. Work with a Chronograph and find a load that works.

Here are two loads I use and have found useful in an old Win 94 I had and now in my Marlin

25 gr WC735 (A Surplus powder available from Higginsons) under my 170 gr Lyman bullet water quenched from the mold and sized .311
10 gr Unique under my 170 gr Lyman bullet water quenched from the mold and sized .311 Plinking load only in my guns.

The WC735 provided excellent accuracy out to 100 yards.

Check out the Hogdon on line manual for additional ideas.

Take Care

Bob
 
Thanks for the info - I have a chronograph so will make a whack load of variable powder type/weights and see which ones give decent accuracy.
A good excuse to get out there and shoot for a day or two.
 
With wax lubed cast bullets you want to keep your muzzle velocity at around 1500 or less. With care over the alloy you MIGHT be able to sneak up to 1600 without getting any leading of the bore. Using a gas check bullet will let you sneak up on something around 1800.

Or you can delve into the world of cast bullets with paper patching. The paper acts like a jacket and let you zip them sucka's down the bore at jacketed bullet speeds without fear of any leading up.

I'm planning on that but it's down far enough on the list that it may not rise to #1 even by the end of the summer. First I got to finish sanding out the rust pitting and re-blue the parts of the Win 94 that is going to be used to shoot the paper patched bullets. THEN I can look into making the ammo.

Oh WAIT! I just ducked away to check the Hodgdon cowboy action loading data. If you download their entire manual PDF file there's a section on cowboy action loading in it. And they list a 160gn LRN bullet with information on two powders of theirs.

160 GR... H4895.. 17.5 gr... 1351fps... 15,200CUP.... 21.0 gr... 1562fps... 23,100CUP
CAST...... H4198.. 15.0 gr... 1420fps... 15,000CUP.... 17.0 gr... 1616fps... 20,600CUP

Those are pretty darn respectable numbers. And I suspect that the bullet alloy will need to be just right to get away with the upper end 4198 loads.

And 3031 should be another good powder for this so check out their data as well.
 
I don't crony, but I love 30-30 cast shooting and have a variety of loads for a number of casts including that 160gn rn. You can maximize the he'll out of plinking with loads starting in the 8gn range of Unique. You can also invest a fairly minimal amount into powder coating and develop some heavy hitting goodness.

You already received lots of good info to get you started, but feel free to pm me sometime and I'll share load data with you.
 
30-30 is one of those rounds you can use full power loads with cast in. Biggest thing to using cast is " fit is king". Size either to throat or .002" over groove diameter, gas check and let her rip! I shoot 311041 cast from 50-50 wheel weights and pure with gas checks and good lube at over 2200fps in my 30-30 ( as well as many other calibers). Leverevolution works great in the 30-30 with cast as well as jacketed.
 
Seeing as your new to casting and all it's foibles I would suggest giving Powder coating your boolits some serious thought...might as well learn the newest craze with a lot of promising result being reported that will shortcut you away from what can be a frustrating journey down the old style trail.

I have found PCing has lessened a lot of the importance of old cast bullet regimes (casting alloy and speed restraints among others) to be almost a non-issue.

Read everything you can find in the Bullet Making forum here as well as the Alternative coating forum in Cast Boolits, it is a very simple process that success can be had on the very first attempt. I know there are guys in your area that are starting to powder coat and a "reach out" to them on here might join you up with someone with a lot of cast shooting experience that is starting to PC.

Getting back to your original question, I have had very good luck with 30-31 in the wifes 30-30 with bullets from pure WW at 120 to 175 gr and driven around 16-1700 fps (powder coated with no gas checks applied). Groups have been consistently around 1".
 
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