Your Favorite Cast Loads for the A3?

[Wineman]

There are those who have made reloads with cast bullets that rival jacketed, but not very many. It is somewhat of a Black Art to cast bullets and experience is a big part of having success. The ballistics of a 30-30 are even somewhat high for consistent performance. It is one thing to cast and shoot one or two high powered cast loads, it is another to shoot a 40 round match, maintain accuracy, and keep the barrel from leading. I use one of the Harris loads with Alliant 2400 at ~1,600 fps with a 170 grain, gas checked 0.314" cast bullet. From a new 1944 Remington barrel, it will hold five shots in one inch at 50 yards and two inches at 100 yards from sandbags. At 200 with enough sight elevation it will hold the 10 ring of the SR target. I also had a much faster load and after 10 rounds it was a pattern rather than a group at 200. My take is that casting is a way to save money on powder and projectiles (assume your time is free). They are great loads for plinking, target shooting <200 yards and small game. Have fun but it is going to be a project.

Dave

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[MilSurpFan]

There are those who have made reloads with cast bullets that rival jacketed, but not very many. It is somewhat of a Black Art to cast bullets and experience is a big part of having success. The ballistics of a 30-30 are even somewhat high for consistent performance. It is one thing to cast and shoot one or two high powered cast loads, it is another to shoot a 40 round match, maintain accuracy, and keep the barrel from leading. I use one of the Harris loads with Alliant 2400 at ~1,600 fps with a 170 grain, gas checked 0.314" cast bullet. From a new 1944 Remington barrel, it will hold five shots in one inch at 50 yards and two inches at 100 yards from sandbags. At 200 with enough sight elevation it will hold the 10 ring of the SR target. I also had a much faster load and after 10 rounds it was a pattern rather than a group at 200. My take is that casting is a way to save money on powder and projectiles (assume your time is free). They are great loads for plinking, target shooting <200 yards and small game. Have fun but it is going to be a project.

Dave

See... that's the rub...

Sounds like, in anything below (nominally) 45-70, to get the performance you associate with the caliber... jacketed is neccessary... unless you want a big research project. But that pretty much neccesitates buying rather than fabricating the bullets. (Corbin stuff strikes me as rather extravagent. And I'm not sure what to think about paper patching, exactly.)

I.e. In .30 cal. battle rifles, for the most part this means cast bullets = reduced loads and accepting reduced performance.

Leading me to think, that if I want hunting performance in cast, one has to go with larger calibers than .30.

Though I don't hunt these days. Hunting performance is pretty much my personal benchmark. for better or worse.

So I'm thinking, for me personally, that means arguably 45-70. Which I find disappointing, to say the least.

Given that I don't plan on doing much hunting, I guess the the performance might be a moot point, but I'd like to use the loads I would use if I were to decide or need to. Thing is, I think I checked Nosler Partitions the other day and it worked out to $0.80 a round... and you have to buy them vrs. fabricate.

So I'm wondering if there's some other solution I'm missing?

Bottom line, seems to me, using cast in .30 cal rifles is to essentially reduce the performance to magnum handgun or .30 cal. carbine levels. If you're going to do that, why not just take handgun, right?