I have A LOT of these and was wondering if I can SAFELY work up a load to like 1500 fps max for plinking. Like 10 gr of Unique or so?

As is that is I have no sizing dies.

http://www.midwayusa.com/product/94...eter-115-grain-lead-flat-nose-box-of-500

If not what is the tool I need exactly and what size.
Thank you!

1500fps might be pushing it. One way to find out in your particular gun...

Impossible to say if they are optimally sized for your gun without knowing what your throat diameter is. (Groove diameter is nowhere near as important as having the bullets properly fit the throat.)

Were it me, and I didn't know my throat diameter, I would load a few and see what happens. But, I would use 5-6 grains Red Dot, Bullseye, Clays, etc. for barely sonic loads, and get twice the number of shots per pound of powder. The paper targets and tin cans won't know the difference.

How do you plan to get them into your cases without shaving lead? RCBS, Lyman both make dies with which to bell case mouths. In a pinch you can cut a heavy chamfer in the case mouth to help ease the bullets in, but that's a stop gap approach. There are ways to bell the case mouth involving mundane tools. Use your ingenuity. Adjust your seating die to erase the bell (you only need to make it big enough to allow easy seating of the bullet, don't get carried away), or to crimp. Crimping may not be necessary- I would try them without a crimp first and see what happens. People tend to get crimp-happy.

Also, a standard .308 expanding ball is too small for optimal use if these bullets are .309-.311 diameter. Again, try it, but you may want to spring for a proper size expander ball for your die. Stuffing a too big bullet into a case can cause the (lead) bullet to be swaged down slightly in diameter which does no good for accuracy, and can actually induce barrel leading due to now being undersize. Remember, cast bullets need to start out straight and tight into the rifling. Monkeying with them and cutting corners never results in optimal accuracy.

I guess I will size them to .309 inch

I used a very similar bullet out of my .30-30 sized .312, I used Trail Boss for about 1200 fps. Worked OK, lost interest. Same bullet at .310 did not shoot well.

You should use a Lyman "M" die to properly size the neck of your case for this bullet, it also bells the case mouth to prevent shaving lead when loading a bullet of that diameter. I load 10 grains of Unique in my .30-06, you may want to load a little less in the .30-30 at least to start out then increase slowly till you get the velocity and accuracy you're looking for.

I use to use 5grs Unique with the Speer 100gr Plinker. No idea of the velocity but was fun and accurate load in my 30-30. Seat a dummy round and see if it will chamber. Might try seating a bullet in a fired case and see if it will chamber.

Gnoahhh pretty much covered it...couple of additions?

-Lee push thru bullet sizers are cheap and effective.
-Though popular in the court of public opinion, hard cast can be counterproductive.
-1500 fps in a .30-30 with cast is child's play.



Lyman 311041 w/gas check, alloy a bit softer than Lyman #2 or about 11 BHN. 1800 fps over the chrony, zero leading and more than acceptable accuracy. That's what I call 5 in 1.5" at 50 yards anyway, YMMV. If you are inclined you can run without gas checks in the subsonic to 1500 fps range, give'r take. Somewhat harder alloy with GC, properly sized, has made 2300 fps from my Hornet w/o leading and good accuracy.

And yes, they can be shot much slower. Point being the .30-30 digests cast bullets quite well, and if properly sized and constructed for the task at hand they will match jacketed bullets in performance in all but one area, that being cost, where they wins hands down.

Those midway bullets looked like they might be pretty hard with the antimony/tin percentage. It maybe possible, but I would be very cautious.

It may seem counter intuitive, but often a hard cast bullet will lead more readily than a soft one. It's all about fit. I routinely shoot very soft 180 and 190 grain .30's as my hunting loads in .30-30's and .303 Savages, bhn 10-11 (over 28gr. 3031, so they aren't to be sneezed at), with great accuracy and zero leading.

My initial response about pushing these store-bought lead bullets to 1500 fps was based on their being plain based. You get to that point and it starts to not matter if they are hard or soft but rather the fact they don't have a gas check. As ever, there are exceptions but these are are good rules of thumb.

So after I size them properly at what velocity do I NEED a gas check?

1400fps, give or take, depending on your barrel and your powder and how well they're lubed. I've shot PB bullets up to 1800 fps but I felt I was blessed that time. I would start really low and work up until you start to get leading or accuracy falls off. That or start low and simply stay there. These 115gr. PB bullets aren't much good for anything but targets and small game- deer deserve a better bullet than that. (Unless you're like Digital Dan and shoot hogs in the head.)

Can you shoot them anywhere else? It always seems like they are looking at me head on. Mebbe it's my socks?

No hogs here for me to experiment on. If there were though, I'm thinking a 4mm Zimmerstutzen in the eyeball...

(You wear socks?)

It's that smile you've got in your avatar. They can't help but stare.

Yeah, that Zimmer is gonna get bloody one of these days. I keep hearing muffled "please, please, please..." from the locker.

I wear socks in the month of January, sometimes February. Don't knock it....very grown up thing to do on occasion.

Hadn't thought of my magnetic smile, that might be it.

By the by, I was out shootin' yesterday. Hard headed buddy of mine was frustrated by his .44 rifle, tried near every jacketed and commercial hard cast he could find. I made him some bullets and suggested a load.

First three shots.........



Brooks 320 grains of RN at 30:1 and .430". Tumble lubed, 1050 fps over the chrony. His gun had a can, it was fair quiet all things considered.

He said maybe it was a fluke and tried some of his hard cast bullets.



I win, he smiles.

It looks like this: