Saturday at the pot.....

[Beagle333]

I got a new mold this morning.... a Lyman 311291. And a bag of gas checks. It's time to make somethin' for the Winchester to eat.

I managed to end up with about 250 of these little torpedoes. And it weren't easy either! I'm used to my nice easy .357 boolits and these are a whole different animal. I must have cast and recast about 150 of em before I added some harder alloy and then started making nice looking sharp edges and square gas shanks. My regular alloy just wasn't getting there. But I had a box of 18bhn scrap that I bought off somebody a while back (he sold his culls and sprues) and I put about 3 pounds of that in the pot with 15 of mine, and the boolits started dropping. I was watching my temps closely on these too, and they were cast between 700 and 750 degrees.
They look like lots of fun though! I'm all ready to put checks on em and see how they fly.

 

[Toney]

Shiny! !!

 

[dahermit]

How does the nose fit into the muzzle of your gun? Slip/drop right in, or with some resistance to thumb pressure?

 

[Beagle333]

It won't go even completely past the round nose..... This is my first time with 30-30 bullets. I'm just starting to load for rifles.

Lemme take a pic of it......



Okay.... here is a pic. I had to shove it pretty hard to get it to go this far.

 

[GP100man]

What`s the dia of the nose ?? Maybe crimp over the front band ???

My first thoughts were you were gonna feed a bolt rifle .

Looks as if your 94 has a short freebore & good lands in the bore!



Traditional 30-30 bullets have a tapered oglive vs. a straight oglive.

Here`s the ole 311041 .

 

[Beagle333]

He asked how it fit in the muzzle.... I haven't tried chambering one. I don't have a sizer yet, so I haven't loaded any.





I also got a bunch of these RanchDogs ready to go... but I'm casting today... not loading. (I did not cast these RanchDogs.)

 

[FrankenMauser]

I had a very similar straight-nosed bore rider than dropped too large for the throat. I couldn't chamber the dummy rounds without a hammer.

As a stop-gap measure, while finalizing the dimensions for another mold, I just pushed the nose into a Lee sizer of the appropriate diameter and knocked the bullets back out with a wide brass drift about 0.010" under the diameter of the sizing ring. It didn't size the entire nose, but got enough that I could use the rifle's camming action to chamber the rest of the way by hand (without trouble).

They'd go through the regular die for body sizing and GC seating.

It wasn't an ideal situation, but it let me shoot the bullets.


- Just an FYI incase you find yourself with no other options.

 

[Beagle333]

I shall have to see if they will chamber, as soon as I get my sizer and can load up a couple of dummies. The mic says they are .305 on the nose. I have no idea how much freebore is in this Winchester.

 

[Mike / Tx]

That pic up there reminds me of some of those old war reels where they had all of their artillery shells at the ready. Pretty cool.

I also have that particular mold as well as a couple others, just haven't gotten around to breaking them in just yet. I have a small fortune in those full body GC'ed versions to shoot up first.

 

[Beagle333]

Well, I don't have my sizer, but they mic at .3105 anyway, so I seated a couple of dummies. They were a little tight to seat, not being sized or lubed, so the seater left a nose ring, which I'll work on later..... (I read something about JB weld and customizing a seater?) Anyway, they chamber! There is a very slight resistance, hardly noticeable, and they fit great. They are going to make great bore riders! Apparently the muzzle is tighter than the rifling at the chamber end.

 

[FrankenMauser]

There is a very slight resistance, hardly noticeable, and they fit great. They are going to make great bore riders! Apparently the muzzle is tighter than the rifling at the chamber end.

That's a great combination of variables.
With proper body sizing and some load development, it should be a sweet shooter.