poohzilla
Member
Give me a place to stand and a long-enough lever, and I will invariably break the lever.
Posts: 1,050 
Location: New Hamster
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BL-C(2)
Jul 19, 2014 13:34:42 GMT -5
Post by poohzilla on Jul 19, 2014 13:34:42 GMT -5
A month or so back, I picked up a Savage 340 bolt rifle in 30-30. (ok-eccentric, but it was in virutally unfired shape, the price was very few $$, and it looked like, if nothing else, something I could clean up and get my money out of.) After trying it out with factory loads, and some other stuff, I loaded some 311041 cast bullets, sized to .309 behind moderate amounts of BL-C(2). It was a new can that I got at a good price, and I had found and confirmed the data I was using from the Lee manual.
I started at 28 gr., and it shot so-so. I moved up to 29.0 and the accuracy improved, but... extraction became sticky and I got to see a negative image of the bolt face stamped into the base of the case. I will be disassembling the rounds I have loaded with 30.0 grains !
I'd never before used BL-C(2), and it does have a repurtation for being temperature sensitive, but temps were running 72oF and the ammunition was never exposed to sun or other heat sources. I don't see any rookie errors-the bullets were hand-picked, the charges were individually weighed on a Lyman electronic scale-checked before the production run against a balance beam, the lot of primers was one that had given good results in the past, blah, blah, woof, woof. The charge at which I was seeing pressure was something like 4gr. under max.
Any thoughts ? |
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bob
Member
I'm too old to be nice but never too old to learn!
Posts: 1,457
Location: Northern California
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BL-C(2)
Jul 19, 2014 16:44:40 GMT -5
Post by bob on Jul 19, 2014 16:44:40 GMT -5
Pooh: I'm not familiar with cast bullets but according to the Hodgdon site you may be too low on your powder weight, just a thought.
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jbnut
Member
Posts: 169
Location: Warren, Pennsylvania
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BL-C(2)
Jul 19, 2014 21:21:55 GMT -5
Post by jbnut on Jul 19, 2014 21:21:55 GMT -5
Pooh, I have a Savage 340E in .22 Hornet. When I was working up loads for it I found that the bolt would become hard to lift when I was still under max loads for the bullet and powder. It sounds like the model 340 likes mild loads. |
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poohzilla
Member
Give me a place to stand and a long-enough lever, and I will invariably break the lever.
Posts: 1,050
Location: New Hamster
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BL-C(2)
Jul 20, 2014 9:46:15 GMT -5
Post by poohzilla on Jul 20, 2014 9:46:15 GMT -5
Ok, the non-reptilian side of my brain has had a chance to kick in. I made some choices that just didn't add up. Initially, the 311041 is a nominal 173 gr. bullet. By the time you put a gas check on it, it weighs ~180 gr. The Lee data for cast bullets weighing 170gr. ranges from 17.0 gr. to 35.0 gr. It looked like I was well within safe parameters. I don't use my old Hodgdon manual much, so I was perhaps a little sloppy when I failed to note that 28.0gr. was a *maximum* load. Ok, no "perhaps". Also, in this particular rifle, one grain made a big difference. (Damn. It really did shoot better...)
Added to this-the Savage 340 is a neat little rifle, but it is not a Mauser ! It has one lug, which is fine for any reasonable purpose. I think this one may stay with me-there's just something about it !
Han Solo said it best when he admonished an exuberant Luke Skywalker: "Don't get cocky, kid !" I did, and suffered only a little public humiliation. (That, I have found over the years to be a great teacher !)
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BL-C(2)
Jul 20, 2014 13:36:28 GMT -5
Post by ed alger on Jul 20, 2014 13:36:28 GMT -5
I looked around a little and I didn't see BL-C(2) data for a 30-30 173 grain cast bullet in Lee's 2nd edition manual. I have no experience with cast bullets in rifles but I do know that variables like alloy mix, lube and crimp do make a big difference in performance.
For lead cast bullets in pistols, powder loads are usually less than that for jacketed bullets and one has to be cautious in reading the data.
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My daughter came from Missouri, my son and grand son, my wife and I had a nice dinner of grilled "porter house" pork chops, corn on the cobb, my son, G'son and I share 10/5. G'son is 4 minutes early though @ 10/4.
Pooh I hope you find to right house . 
