If you stumble across some Hornady .310 or .315" round balls, grab a box. I drip a little Lee liquid alox lube on them in a butter tub, and load 3 grs Unique (Red Dot is probably better), and they make about as much noise as a std vel 22 LR. They slay grouse and bunnies quite well, and I took an impressive bull mouse with one once in the yard as it was raiding my birdseed.
Lol. Funny how the brain works... First time I read it, I SAW “bull moose”. I about choked on my beer.
Thanks for the tip. I try your moose load.
Damn straight! I read your quote and looked upstream to find the reason, and I thought he shot a moose with a round ball and 3 grains of Unique. Doable I suppose...Originally Posted by entropy
Another link you might want to spend hours reading through: http://www.lasc.us/castbulletnotes.htm
Try to use bullets as-cast. Lead has some really strange metallurgy. All metals will spontaneously reorganize their crystals at a temperature which is about half of the melting temperature, expressed on either of the degrees absolute. For Lead, that temperature is about room temperature. The energy which drives this forward is cold work and other distortions in the crystallographic lattice. If you are sizing down a bullet, you are cold working it. If you cold work a Lead bullet, you may end up with a softer, not a harder bullet.
Generally, I want a harder bulllet for a cast Lead bullet. There are several old NRA publications which describe in detail what happens to make a cast bullet shoot badly. The bullet slumping to the side on firing is one, a softer bullet being more likely to do so. As with .22 rimfires, jamming a centerfire cast Lead bullet into the rifling is usually beneficial, probably because the rifling/throat support the bullet.
A bit more research finds short throats are common on many 94’s, especially pre-64’s. They were cut for the classic roundnose profile that has a pretty abrupt ogive. So I guess the question now is whether I want to find a plinking bullet (or perhaps maybe a shorter profile 150gr) that allows loading without jamming the lands...or do I just drop the idea and look for a lighter weight jacketed bullet to use as a plinker. I’m not too keen on mixing cast and jacketed as this is supposedly a recipie for leading.
The things you learn...
Do you know what mold your bullets were cast from?*
Id post the question on the castboolits forum, what commercially available cast bullet is suitable for Winchester 94s in the weight range you want, then try some, or get a mold of that type. Ive not heard of this problem much in 94s, the bullets being pulled after being chambered, I think theres going to be tons of suitable bullets available, so long as you can get the right info on the mold being used, or feed back from people that have used that exact bullet in Winchesters. Its one of those things thats not generic, but requires specific info to get the right answers.
Edit: I re-read your first post, and looked at their site. The Lyman 311041 bullet is a common bullet used for 30-30s, the other just says "custom", which Id suspect being more of an issue than the Lyman, but I dont know if they both gave equal problems. The lead alloy can play a part in the finished diameter of the bullets. The nose of course isnt going to be sized like the driving bands, so its possible the Lyman mold is dropping bullets a bit fat in the nose. Some individual molds also can throw bullets that vary a little.
Last edited by Malamute; 05-06-2018 at 10:08 AM.
Appreciate all the assistance and the offer. I’m a member there too, but to be honest, I dont think I’ve posted there previously. I hate being “that guy” who shows up only to ask for help on his first post.
The one bullet is indeed the Lyman you mentioned, the other is unknown like you also say. I can drop them a line and let them know the issue and see if they have ideas. Also understand certain alloys dropping a bit oversize. The throat IS shallow though. I pulled a factory 170gr PowerPoint and inserted it into an empty case, seated it shallow, and closed the bolt allowing the bullet to find its max COAL. I then pulled and measured both the COAL and CBTO and compared to a loaded factory of the same. It appears that even with the factory loadings, I’m only jumping about .010”. Thats tight.
I also thought of finding some .30 Carbine bullets. Those might work as well. Like you say, there are dozens of moulds out there...need to find the match. The folks at Titan Reloading are great as well. Next time North may require a slight detour to stop in and ask.
Thanks again.
I have shot some lead cast bullets in my 30-30 94 using Unique but don't remember there being an issue.
More recently I have been playing with the plated 150 grain bullet from Xtreme and Red Dot. A friend gave me 5 pounds of Red Dot and I thought this would be a good place to try it
-Seconds Count. Misses Don't-
Update. Emailed Montana Bullet Works. Also ordered up a Lee FCD as well as some Acme 135gr from Titan. The Acme 135s drop into the chamber nicely when crimped at the groove with the FCD. A bit more playing around with the Montana 165gr Custom and the 173gr Lyman (using the FCD) allowed for a bit more COAL without the same chambering and action closing difficulty previously experienced.
I pulled all the previous loads and ran the primed cases back thru the sizing and flaring dies. Plan now is to use Unique once again for reduced charges in the 135s and 165s, and Varget for the gas checked 173gr Lymans. I’ll start the Unique at about 7.0gr, and the Varget at 26.0gr. Looking for sub-1500fps with the Unique, and perhaps 1800 fps +/- with the Varget.
Not quite sure why the FCD made such a difference. Perhaps I was over agressive with the roll crimp. Dunno. I’ve used the FCD before and establshed a crimp that passes the “bench press test” so I doubt I will have issues with setback.
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