Home Forums Reloading Bullet Casting 150grain 30-30 loads?

I picked up a 150 mold for the 30-30. Does anyone have any hunting loads they'd share?

I loaded some with Re7 and IMR 3031 to give me about 1800 fps mv. Don't know how they would be for hunting 'cause I quit hunting but they shoot well. I know they'd kill a whitetail....you can almost kill the deer down south with a Red Ryder BB gun.

While a 150 grain cast bullet will certainly kill a deer, I personally like a bit more oomph. Something in the 180-190 grain realm. Remember, due to the limits presented by lead alloys that are soft enough to reliably expand but not lead the bore, one gets more impact energy by increasing bullet weight since velocity can't be increased. In other words, it's nigh impossible to achieve factory 150gr. performance with a soft (11-15bhn) 150gr. cast bullet, but one can fairly duplicate factory performance with a soft heavy cast bullet.

That said, if all I had at my disposal was a good flat nosed 150 mold and a can of RL-7, 3031, etc. I wouldn't feel terribly undergunned. Look at the web sites for the different powder manufacturers to get reliable data, cast your bullets relatively soft (11-15bhn, achieved with clip-on wheelweights plus a smidgeon of tin- don't water quench or heat treat them, you want them soft), load it as fast as you can until leading rears its ugly head, back off a bit, and go hunting. Don't worry about extreme accuracy, be more concerned with extreme consistency.

Another approach if all I had was a 150 grain mold would be to hollow point it in order to induce good expansion/performance.

I use straight WW's, air cooled and IMR3031 and it does just dandy. No deer around will hold that projectile at normal speed.

The reason I'm trying out the 150 is I've always used 150 jacketed bullets in the 30-30 and done well. My way at looking at it is, a 170 with w.w will tunnel right on through a deer at a hundred yards. A 150 at the same speed should do about the same and give me better trajectory out to two hundred. I really don't know. Set My green arse straight if I'm on the wrong path if you would.
Thanks, to you boys for all the help getting me up and going. I went full circle with my "your" 170 cast loads on a nice hog last month. It was a good feelin. Thanks again, Jeff

Not knowing just what you mean by "tunneling through" a deer, I'll state that any weight .30 bullet at reasonable velocity will totally penetrate a deer, side to side and no bone interference. I gave up long ago taking raking shots on deer, with cast bullets or otherwise. (Got tired of scooping out handfuls of [bleep] and p!ss from bullets raking through guts.) What said bullet does while passing through is contingent on so many factors (not to mention shot placement) that a book could be written about it.

Bottom line, with cast bullets, the heavier the bullet the better.

Two bullets with the same muzzle velocity- 150 and 190 grains, same shape, same alloy. The 190 will impart more energy transfer to the deer, and trajectory difference over 200 yds. won't be enough so's you would notice when working with open iron sights. (That's a bit farther than I care to shoot at a living thing anyway, with an 1800fps load and iron sights, but to each his own.)

I see your point. I'll roll it around a bit and see what I can come up with. For expansion you mentioned a Hollow pointer.
A friend just told me about one Forester has made for a while. Do you have any experience using one and shooting game?

agree that the heavier the better, but if you have a 150 with a wide flat nose, cast with a 15 lead to 1 tin, with a starting about 28'ish grains of IMR 4895 in the 30-30 you will rock a whitetails world and leave about a 3/4 inch hole on the off side. Heavier bullets can be difficult to get a OAL that does not put the gas check below the case neck and a chance to peel off when firing. Better yet paper patch and go softer. HP'ing a cast bullet does not give the returns in a rifle you want. Russ

Is that 15 pounds ww to 1 pound of tin or pure lead to tin? Wouldn't a hollow point help expansion like it's intended to?

Forster Hollow Pointer:

http://www.forsterproducts.com/store.asp?pid=37492&catid=19938

Lead/ tin not WW. In a 30 cal rifle the nose usually upsets anyway and a HP cavity would be fairly small, but heck try it and see

An alloy mix suitable to the endeavor will not need a HP cavity to do its job.

Bullet fit is more important than alloy hardness. BP cartridge guns ran for a long time with lead/tin alloy as soft as 60:1 and at velocity in the range of 1500 fps +/-. Smokeless propelled bullets achieve the same velocities with slightly harder alloy mix, the difference being bullet dimensions. I shoot a Lyman 311041(GC/~180 grains) with a Savage 24 that is tumble lubed only, at velocity in the realm of 1900 fps before groups open up a wee bit. The alloy for a 20# lot is 8.5# WW, 10.5# lead and 1# tin.

50 yards with a red dot sight, rested. At 1600 fps the groups run about half sized compared to that below.



I would not hesitate to shoot deer or hogs with the load. In fact the gun/load combination is intended for that application in the local swamps.

Same alloy as above for a .25-20 Win., 50 yards, tang sight rested.



Pure lead, paper patched .44 Mag, 300 grains, 1600 fps, dead hog w/about 24" of penetration...no hollow point.

Dan, I have a load that that will shoot one inch all day but after 15 rounds you better clean out the small amount of leading. My alloy is WW with two percent tin. Since it shoots so well, would you change alloy or resize a tad larger. Would it be silly to do both at the same time, I want a softer bullet anyway. Do you get any leading in your rifles? what's acceptable?

Before you go sizing different diameters and hoping you get something that works, you should slug your bore and then you will KNOW what diameter to size at. You may also discover constructions or rough spots too.

Once you have that, then you play with alloys and such. That being said, more than likely you are slightly undersized.

What War Eagle said.

I slug ALL barrels prior to, well, most anything related to casting or paper patch loading. I tend to do chamber casts for target guns as well.

Call me lucky but I've experienced zero leading with the cast bullets I make myself. In times past, some bullets purchased retail, not so lucky.

I slugged the bore and came up with .308 and I've been sizing to .309 because it works so well in the Winchesters. It looks like I'm going to resize to .310 and hit the bench. I'll play with alloy down the road when I get more of the kinks out. The rifle is an old Savage Super Sporter in 30-30. If anyone else shoots one in 30 caliber, please chime in and let me know what you've found. Thanks

This link should answer a lot of your questions regarding hunting with CB:
http://www.lasc.us/Brennan_8-5_Hunting-CB.htm

I found the following from the above link interesting:

7. The ancient "nose divided by a sheet of paper" trick: Just insert a bit of paper between the halves of the mold and close them on it. With proper positioning, the paper will divide the nose of the bullet (and as much of the base as you want) in half. The paper can be shaved off after the bullet is cast, so it doesn't interfere with sizing & loading. Works great, but it's a lot of trouble.

I've also used household aluminum foil with good results. On impact, the nose shears off into two secondary projectiles that go flopping off into the target, while the remaining base - now almost a wadcutter - bores right on through. Also works great, if you can be reasonably consistent with placement of the paper strip. Best part is, this will give reliable 'expansion' of even low velocity pistol bullets if done right.

Just for kicks and to make sure I am not full of crap ( the older I get I have to do a check now and again), when this thread started I went down and cast a handfull of a 150 grain bullets out of an old Lee single cavity mold that throws a flat nose bullet at .311 with an alloy of 15lbs of sheet lead and 1 lb of pewter(tin). Seated annealed Hornady gas checks and sized to .310 with an old Lyman luber with 50/50 alox beeswax. Loaded them over 28ish grains of IMR 4895 in Hornady cases. Coated the bore riding part of the bullet with a dip lube made from Johnsons paste wax , Lee Alox and mineral spirits.
Shot tonight out a stock 35000 range 788 Remington with a .308 bore at 100, largest 5 shot group was 1 1/4. Shot a chunk of utility pole about 8" across and all exited. Went thru 50 rounds and no leading. Take it for what is worth. Russ

I have used a Lyman 311041 gas check mold (173 +/- gr) cast from WW and water quenched using middle of the road loads from the Lyman Loading Manual. These shoot quite well from my Marlin 336.

This site has a bit of everything for a bit of everybody, too.
http://www.reloadammo.com/

Lots of good info at the following sites.

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/forum.php

http://www.castbulletassoc.org/forum/

http://www.castpics.net/default.html

For hunting bullets I like 50% lead 50% wheel weights plus 2% tin.