.309" bullets

D

Drm50

New member
I made a stupid mistake. I bought a couple boxes of Hornady 90gr XTPs that were advertised as 30cal. They are I guess but I was not thinking anything but
.308 when 30cal is mentioned. I wanted to try them out in 30/30. Several guys
told me they would be OK to use in .308" guns. That .001 would have no effect
as far as damaging the gun. I'm a little leary of this because I don't have any
beaters to try them in. I get my jollies freaking out the magnum maniacs with
a 16" barrel Marlin 30/30. I hustled them with Speer 130hps and figured I could
really put it on them with a 90grainer if they will shoot accurately. Has anybody
shot 309 dia out of their 308 bore rifles. I'm not sure what cartridge this bullet
was designed for. The 7.62x39mm maybe? They look like pistol bullets.
 
They’re meant for the Tokarev pistol round. It’s a pretty fast small pistol round fired from a bottleneck cartridge with a rim similar to a 9mm
 
I will not tell you that it is safe, or that you should do it.
However, I can tell you quite plainly that I would not be afraid. Standard procedure: Start low and work up.

One of my favorite .30-30 loads uses a .312" 60 gr XTP. :D
They squeeze down to .308" when fired.
 
It's not a problem. If you look at SAAMI specs, .308" bullets are 0.306" to 0.309". Even among match bullets, you see a lot of .3085" diameters to ensure snug entry into throats with a little wear on them. Just as with cast bullets, squeezing a little extra bit of bullet down isn't a serious challenge as compared to a nominal-size bullet. This is because, when you think about it, when you extrude the rifling marks into a bullet, the bullet tries to widen to accommodate the copper displaced by the impression, but the depth of the grooves doesn't allow it, so the bullet is extruded out a little longer than it was going in. The cross-sectional area of a .308" bullet is 0.0745 in², but the SAAMI standard .308 Winchester bore cross-sectional area is 0.0736 in², so the extra 0.012 in² copper has to go somewhere. Indeed, occasionally you hear of someone accidentally firing the next larger caliber bullet in a gun. Needless to say, this creates very high pressure, ruining the case, but if the load wasn't maximum with proper bullets, many guns have survived the event. (Just don't do it on purpose, as even if the gun holds together, severe primer leaking and bolt face gas cutting are a minimum expected damage).

Just work the load up with that bullet, starting with the lowest listed load for it, and you should be fine.
 
XTP bullets are pistol bullets. Using 'em without proper data in a rifle won't be good. Won't be overly unsafe if you can find data though.
"...the lowest listed load for it..." Of which there is none for .30-30. Lowest weight on Hodgdon's site, at least, is a 110. Too much difference to use that data. There is 100 grain data for .30-30 on Alliant's site(and Steve's Reloading page. Still works.) that might do.
The 7.62 x 39mm uses .311" bullets.
 
And then there are members on this forum that have purchased new rifles and discovered they were able to add a little powder with out getting in trouble with high pressure.

A few of them measured the diameter of the bore. they thought the two diameters were .300" and .308". they sent the rifles back when they found the diameter of some new rifles were .3015" and .308".

F. Guffey
 
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The Lapua 170gr D46 bullet is .309", and started winning competitions with .30 caliber rifles in the 1930's. Great bullet, I shoot it in .308 Winchester a lot.

Don

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A don't have a manual newer than 2012. Hornady had/ has a 100gr 1/2 jacket
bullet in .308". I have several boxes and have shot them for years in 30cal rifles.
My purpose for them was fooling around making "squirrel loads" for deer rifles.
Loads were in 1200fps range. To crank up 30/30 in my Marlin I shoot the Speer
110gr Varmiter at 2800fps with good accuracy. My 94 Win won't shot them at
all. My last long range experiment was Speer 130gr HP at 2600fps. This is very
accurate bullet but has to be single loaded in LAs. I didn't try this bullet in Win
94, used 336 and a Savage 219. I was shooting 1" with Marlin & reciver sight
at 60yds. The Sav 219/ 4x scope was doing 11/2" at 100yds. I wish I could
stumble on a 788 Rem in 30/30. That would be the ideal rifle for winding out
the 30/30. I only do this to hack on these guys who bad mouth the 30/30. I
have shot a lot of deer with 30/30 and 150gr bullets. In the line up of most deer
shot by caliber, .35 Rem is first, then 308, 30/06 get honorable mention. The
30/30 comes in 4th. I have shot deer with every thing from 25/20 to 458win
and none have been more deader than those shot with the lowly 30/30.
 
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