Home Forums Reloading Bullet Casting Some fun with he NOE .310-165, FN ( 30XCB)

Welp found out this place uses the same format as another forum immon so I can just copy and paste all my little posts revolving this mold from there to here hopefully somone might find this stuff useful
Excited for this one eveyone just calls it the the 30XCB because apparently that's the 30-06 cast wildcat deslit was originally made for but apparently this is supposed to be THE mold for accuracy in. "standard" 30cals so I'm pretty excited also got my two Lyman lub sizers broken down and fixed up and some lube on the way. Apparently these can live pretty happy in the 2400fps range if the allow is right so we will see. Probably gonna be just powder coating for a while though since I'm having problems getting the lube sizer dies....mail and money orders are being a pain




Was told that lubed bullets where emore accurate then powder coated ones and wanted to test it. Managed to get my lube sticks in but my lubesizer dies are still in the mail so pan lubing it is. With basically no clue what I was doing I mean I saw a video and read a few articles before but that's about it. But always seem simple enough

Yeah threw three sticks of white label 2500 lube in a lil $10 crock pot I bought let them melt down . Then stood some bullets up in a little candy tin and used a turkey baster to transfer the luber over and fill it up to the top driving bad. Let them cool and I just plucked them out but wiggling then a little. Then just gas checked and sized them like normal. Think I did this semi correctly. It is a little messy but pretty easy imo. Tried using a 357 case as a cutter but that dint work out too well








Now as I was saying earlier I see people always talking about powder coated VS PC constantly but never see any side by side stuff. Well instead of complaining about stuff I like to try and fo what I want to see done soooo.

As y'all know I've gotten ahold of the famous 30XCB mold ( NOE 310-165-FN-H3), it's apparently made so it just works in stuff like .308/30-06 . So figured it was a good candidate for this test .


Bullets where cast out of my usual crappy Clip on wheel weight mix...that a probably should have thrown out a year again but whatever :D, the Pan lubed ones where water dropped from the mold and the PC ones where water dropped out the mold and out the oven. Could possibly be a variable but not super sure till I test both.

Both were gas checked with the same Hornady checks . The PC ones where sizes and checked before coating and sized again after coating the pan lubed ones where checked and sized after pan lubing

Both were gas checked with the same Hornady checks . The PC ones where sizes and checked before coating and sized again after coating the pan lubed ones where checked and sized after pan lubing




Cases are mixed head stamp 30-06 all the normal cases prep stuff necks expand with the NOE .311x.307 expander plug. NO CRIMP so shouldn't be any distortion to the bullet at all.


Now as far as seating depth they need two separate ones I know for a fact the lubed ones where kissing the lands ,you can probably see the mark here , but no problems with bullets being pulled



The powder coated need deeper, ALWAYS CHECK or you'll do this



And our set up, 50yd front rest rear bag my chopped m1917, magneto speed Chrono


And the results! Now I shot the lubed ones on the right first then the PC on the left. I also bore scoped the bore before shooting either then after shooting both and imm be 100% with y'all....I'm not about to coul t that super low one on the PC , sorry thats a flyer


[img]https://trapperman.com/forum/attach..._x_export_2023_12_14_19_05_43.339536.png[/img]

Well instead of sleeping like a sane person the other night after that tesr I had a little idea. Since this mold is supposed to be THE thing first standard 30cal .308 bore and the like...and my bear creek AR has a .308 bore.... Why not ?

The Lyman hand book was kinda a waste of time since it basically says don't waste your time with cast and semi autos, but looking in the Hornady hand book I saw that most of the loads where running. In the same ball park as what this bullet apparently likes for cast velocity soooo,did a little bit of a SWAG and decided 22.5 GR of accurate 2015 should be a good place.


Honestly didn't get super crazy with brass prep like I usually do because one I've only ever fed this thing steel cased and two ....I may have been half asleep at 1 a.m so standard, lube ,size ,trim champer all that goodness then expand with a NOE .311x307 plug. Then I just kinda fiddled around till I found a seating depth that would change the round with me using my thumb to just barely press the bolt carrier home.
Actually a little surprised but these need to be in kinda far



And today's set up. 50 yd( why 50yd ? Because apparently that's what your supposed to test cast at for some reason, it's what all the books do and it's what everyone else lese does , gotta say though seem every time you start doing good at 50yd people say go to 100yd then 200yd or talk about how you would really only need to do it at 50ys so this is a 75yd brush gun anyway so ) feeding from the mag , front rest rear bag 1-4 monstrum LPVO, magneto speed Chrono which I must say, isn't the biggest fan of cast lol, she's a lil picky

Now I gotta say I wasn't expecting much but after the first 6rd of getting on paper I don't have ANY feeding issues, as far as the bolt not catching or picking up, did have to mortar the charging handle though but fixed the seating depth a little to hopefully alleviate that. But guys when I got on target !
First three rounds at 50 after getting some what zeroed, only read two of them right though


And the next charge level up


I'm just ticked pink I've this !

So took a few out to 100yd today just because, and honestly these shot about who I figured as far as group sized goes though I will say tryin to shoot a 3" sticky with a 4x LPVO who's crosshair covers the whole thing is a lil , annoying
Actually it's pretty close to the steel case SP or HP I used for hog hunting Soo

Might try again with a better scope but idk I use this thing like most use a old 30-30
It has been raining a good bit and the nice soft ground let me recover one of the bullets and geeezzz




And this is with a more middle of the road alloy, really curious what the soft baked ones i made up will do

how hard is your coated casts ? I like the expansion. Can you go .311 with the 06 ?

I'm actually not 100% on these. I usually test one from each batch after I bake them but don't with these, should be around 15-18bhn but I might have added some extra soft stuff

And speaking of .311 found out a lot fo people chasing accuracy actually size their .30-06 or .308to .311
ok results so far with some Lyman 311284 in loading my my chopped m1917 30-06. Gotta try and creep up to 1800fps and see what happens

If you're chasing ultimate accuracy determine your barrels inner dimensions - to whit, throat diameter and to a lesser extent bore/groove diameter. Pay more attention to matching those numbers than striving for pretty colors. Ie: .310 throat = .310 or .3095 bullet base diameter, .300 bore diameter = .300 nose diameter. Groove diameter is inconsequential. (That is doubly important when using a bullet like the 311284 with a long bore riding nose.) The shorter bullets shaped much like spitzers tend to slump (go cockeyed) in the rifling if pushed too hard - keep velocity down for best results.

Off to a good start. Now it's time to fine tune things and get 100 and 200 yard accuracy as good or better than the 50 yard stuff. (Provided the gun is up to that kind of accuracy.)

Ixnay on accuracy testing with mixed brass. The devil's in the details and using the same brass is one of them.

That .30 XCB bullet is a good one, but not necessarily the best bullet for your rifle. Try more/different molds too. If that mold was as magical as its designer claims it is every blessed .30 cast shooter would own one.

.310 bullets don't need to be squeezed into a .307 expanded neck. You might not think so but I'll bet you are altering the base diameter of your bullets a teeny bit. Brass is way harder than lead. .001-.002" ID under bullet diameter is plenty small enough to hold a cast bullet.

Thousandths of an inch matter in this game.

Pan lubing is a time honored method. Hint: as soon as the lube has hardened, stick the whole thing in the freezer for a half hour or so. Then pop the whole cake out of the pan and push the bullets through with your thumb. Fit another round of bullets in the empty holes, remelt, repeat.

Strive to make your loaded ammo as concentric as possible. Cast bullets are more finicky about being started straight into the rifling.

Digging spent bullets out of the ground is a poor indicator of how it'll expand in living flesh. Savvy hunters have historically used flat nosed bullets the most, round nose and spitzers the least.

Keep 'em flying. You're on the right track!

Thanks ! As far as my neck sizing I would do a bit less tension but NOE only has so much to work with and honestly I feel anything is better then the lee universal lol.

https://noebulletmolds.com/site/pro...ng/expanders/expander-plug-rifle/page/2/

Now I have slugged my other odd ball stuff like my 7.62x39/54r and 8mm but this his ann old M1917 in 30-06 so I just ran with what the bore should be honestly honestly I should probably do a chamber cast of it just to see.

Now as far as the powder coat I size both before and after powder coating to ensure the shanks stye the same , the noses however, egh still working on that. I've seen some methods that let you OC just the bore riding sections to help with nose fit so I know ant to try some of those. Lube obviously works well and seems to be more accurate but I don't shoot competition or anything ( no where close I can tell) and I really enjoy pretty colors lol got a lot of my female friends wanting to try shooting just because the bullets are pretty

As far as brass, trust me I know about sorting brass but 30-06 has become....a bit of a pain and since I shoot .223 more then anything all my new brass buying goes towards that really. But since I just picked up 1300 of 1x fired 23head stamped LC 5.56 think I'll start stocking up in more stuff.
As far as the lube my lube sizing dies finally arrived today, right after I got back in the boat for my 20day hitch . So yaaaayy lol , gotta wait now.
And there's a few more molds I want one being the NOE 180 HP silhouette also looking at some for paper patched paper patched .
As far as 200yd groups ...I'm not to sure about all that . Honestly I'm just not the best at shooting paper,I love it but anything past 100yd ,well it's complicated lol

No better reason than that!!

A girl I lived with back in the late 80's really got into shooting, and helped out at the loading bench too. One day I came home and she had fired up my lead pot and was gonna surprise me with a pile of cast bullets. Good lord she had little burns up and down her arms, and on her toes (flip flops, of course), and a hunk of her hair was melted. On top of that the bullets she managed to make were, ahem, not very good looking. We shot them that weekend though because I couldn't quite condemn her efforts and darned if they didn't shoot half bad. But strangely enough she left the casting to me from then on.

Like to see the 1917 results!

You left out one of the most important thing the 30xcb was designed around. A 1-14" twist to slow the rotation down. While I do not believe in the so called RPM Threshold LARRY likes to tell everyone about, You just have to use the correct reloading principles and the right alloy and you can blow through the BS rpm thing with ease. I can shoot my 308 with a 10 tw to 2600fps with little work. And not the 30xcb bullet either. It is just easier to use as slow as a twist you can to compensate for the failures doing other things.

133714rpm 1-14
187200rpm 1-10

282857rpm is my 223 load

I shoot the 30 XCB in my Rem. 770 in 30-06 with 22" barrel 1:10 twist, bullet is cast from 50/50 PB/COWW, powder coated and quench right out of the toaster oven. Bullets are size to .309" and checked with 30 cal Gator checks. My favorite load is 35.0 grs. of H-4198 with a COAL of 3.070 in my rifle.

5 shots at 50 yds.




Chrono Data

Low: 2277

High: 2309

Average: 2292

Spread: 31.71

SD: 15.39

Some other bullets and powder combinations I've played with in the 770.