30-30 (semi) Light Cast Loads

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mr surveyor
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Re: 30-30 (semi) Light Cast Loads

Post by mr surveyor »

My 336 had been sitting in my buddy's shop for a couple of weeks waiting on the "right" firing pin to come in. I don't have the proper tools to detail strip the bolt to change the firing pin myself, so he offered to do the deed. I got it back a couple of days ago and managed to sneak off to the range with the 336 and a couple of cast loads, one lightweight and one heavyweight, yesterday afternoon. Since this thread is more devoted to the lightweights, I'll note the results of the lightweights through the chrony.

With the batch of "locally" cast 142 gr (from 150 gr mold) gas checked RNFP's I have available, it was decided early on to reserve these for pistol powder in the low to mid velocity loads. As a fan of the historical versatility of Unique, I chose it for my "first test" powder. There's no doubt that the massive amount of experienced information available on the internet, magazines, reloading manuals and other publications gave me an idea of a good load starting point to fit my desired velocity, accuracy and "thriftiness" for using this bullet. Oddly enough, I think I got lucky in choosing the 9.0 gr of Unique load to work with. Yesterday's range trip has convinced me to just stick with that load with these bullets until I get the itch to play with another pistol powder.

The shooting results were very predictable, and almost a carbon copy of my previous 4-5 experiences with this load:

Local Cast 142 gr LRNFP GC (LLA/mineral spirits lube only)
Unique 9.0 gr
CCI 200 LRP
Rem brass (2.024"-2.026")
COAL 2.44"

I was trying to get my normal test group of 10 rounds through the chrony but had one chrony error, so ran 11 rounds through on paper. They ran from 1455 fps to 1488 fps, with ave of 1472 fps (energy calc'd at 10 feet was 684 fpe), Since it was a little warmer yesterday than my previous "test days", I didn't expect the average velocity to be exactly the same as in the past but it was pretty well on the mark. My previous velocity averages ran from 1454 fps to 1476 fps with target group accuracies from 0.8" to 1.0" (at 50 yards). Unique, in my limited tests in the 30-30, doesn't seem to be position sensitive (my limited tests of A2400 does show some position sensitivity). I have tried bumping up to 9.3 gr of Unique and noticed a slight decrease in ave velocity although accuracy didn't change.

This will most likely be "the" load for this particular bullet .... unless there's a need to tinker with another pistol powder. The confidence level in loading cast lead for the 30-30 has reached the stage now where returning back to the "heavy weights" isn't so intimidating. :D


jd
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Re: 30-30 (semi) Light Cast Loads

Post by Ohio3Wheels »

My experience with Unique is pretty much the same - little or no position sensitivity and not much problem with temperature except maybe for extremes.

By the looks it seems you have the lighter bullet "dialed" in.

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Re: 30-30 (semi) Light Cast Loads

Post by GasGuzzler »

I have a very small run of test loads with 10gr Unique but my mold drops bullets that weigh 183 when checked and lubed.
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Re: 30-30 (semi) Light Cast Loads

Post by mr surveyor »

Since I only have a limited supply of my "desired profile" 173 and 183 gr bullets on hand, I decided to keep them strictly set aside for working with rifle powder loads. That's not to say I didn't stray momentarily away from my plan and load five already prepped pieces of brass with some 183 gr rnfp's with the same 9.0 gr Unique that I was using with the 142 gr bullets. I put them (the 183's) through the chrony on one of my light bullet test days and was pleasantly surprised. The Ave Vel was 1294, ES 20, and ME 658 fpe. Interestingly enough, the energy from the heavier bullet and lower velocity was pretty near the same energy as the considerably lighter bullet at a somewhat higher velocity .... using the same 9.0 gr Unique in both loads. Yes, it's simple math to derive the energy potential from the known velocity and known bullet weight, but the only contributing factor I can see to make the two different bullets deliver (almost) the same energy is the same weight of the same (Unique) powder. I guess that gets into the actual energy potential from burning a specific weight of a specific powder in a specific "container".

Still learning ...

jd
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