Your Favorite Cast Loads for the A3?

[Wineman]

I guess the question is doing vs. being able to. If you want to use the 30 cal with cast lead it sure can be done but what is the intended purpose? If busting dirt clods and empty beer cans with your kids, check. If you want to punch paper under 200 yards accurately, check. If you want to shoot small animals (varmints?), check. If you want to shoot meat for the table either large or small, check. If you want to get into a long range fire fight with a bunch of Zombies well, we might need to talk. 240 grains at 1,300 is less power than 200 grains at 1,600 plus you get a longer sight radius, (scopes the same), less noise, more weight, and a handy club for really nasty game animals. Still it is easier to grab a box of jacketed and load them up, no question.

Dave

[mannparks]

Is that the Lee mold intended for 7.62x39 ? (C312-155-2R)

Do you size those or use them a full 0.004 over .308?

Yes that's a 10-4 on the Lee mold #.
As you know the bullets drop from that mold rather fat for a
308 dia . So depending on which 30 cal.I'll size accordingly .
.310 or. .311.
Its all a trial and error.

Charles

[MilSurpFan]

I guess the question is doing vs. being able to. If you want to use the 30 cal with cast lead it sure can be done but what is the intended purpose? If busting dirt clods and empty beer cans with your kids, check. If you want to punch paper under 200 yards accurately, check. If you want to shoot small animals (varmints?), check. If you want to shoot meat for the table either large or small, check. If you want to get into a long range fire fight with a bunch of Zombies well, we might need to talk. 240 grains at 1,300 is less power than 200 grains at 1,600 plus you get a longer sight radius, (scopes the same), less noise, more weight, and a handy club for really nasty game animals. Still it is easier to grab a box of jacketed and load them up, no question.

Dave

I guess we're on the same page, real '06 performance is an artifact of jacketed bullets. So I guess the choices are buy/make them, or accept the limitations of the caliber with cast (especially plain base), or go for larger diameter.

The exception might be paper patched, but not sure how I feel about that. Haven't been able to identify a suitable paper that I'm sure has no clay, titanium dioxide or other abrasives in it.

---------- Post added at 05:59 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:55 PM ----------

Yes that's a 10-4 on the Lee mold #.
As you know the bullets drop from that mold rather fat for a
308 dia . So depending on which 30 cal.I'll size accordingly .
.310 or. .311.
Its all a trial and error.

Charles

Had been considering that mold for a 91/30. But since I read the effectiveness of lead bullets is largely based on the size of the meplat, well, none of the Lee molds fit that need. This particular mold is essentially a spitzer, and on the light side. I certainly like the way it looks. Spitzers and bottlenecks go together visually for whatever reasons. And I'm sure it feeds more reliably in the SKS and AK rifles it was designed for.

Considering the velocity limitiations of cast I was thinking at least 170-180 gr. for .30 cal. Unfortunately, most of the large meplat molds in those calibers seem to be the much pricer Lymans. And well... I seem to recall Lee makes a statement that thier bullets cast reasonably close to what they list, and that you can generally run them without sizing. But not sure where I picked that thought up at anymore.