Help designing a heavier 30-30 bullet.

[Ian]

Just for clarification, my loads are using 4759,5744,2400 mostly and in the range of 1850 give or take.

There's most of your problem. If you want to maximize your knockdown energy, you must impart that energy to the bullet in the first place. How? Utilize a real rifle powder. 3031, 748, even H335 but no slower. No faster than Reloder 7, that means no 4198 because even the H stuff is faster than RX-7.

Ok, I mis-remembered the bullet number, the one I meant was 31-170F, but it has a .460" nose length and a very broad WFN so it may not feed in your Savage and is a 100-yard hunting bullet even if pushed hard and fast. My advice stands regarding the Lee 155 with the single lube groove and a healthy jacketed-bullet load of WW748.

 

[fiver]

I mostly shoot the rcbs version of the lee 150 in my lever rifles, but it does work just fine in the 340 too.

 

[Glaciers]

Well lot of good opinions here. Obviously your use may and probably does differ from some. Ian has the right of it for optimum bullet weight-performance. But most of you white tail hunters can't see a 100 yards unless your on a power line cut. Most on here seem to be hunting successful well under 100 and closer to 50 yards. I'm not in that country, so take what I say with a grain of powder. I like heavier for caliber bullets. If there chugging along a little slow for the optimum bullet performance, soften it up a bit. I'm looking at close range from the end of my barrel to at most 50 yards. So heavier and just a touch softer, preferably powder coated
But, you might check out 31-171D by Ed Harris, and one I like the looks of is the 31-190S for the 303 Savage. I don't have either one of these yet, but they are on the list.
Like CW I'm waiting on a delivery from Arsenal on a this mold: http://arsenalmolds.com/products?product_id=104. I choose it over the RD design as I thought the nose would work just a bit better. Maybe not. But I will find out.

 

[abj]

MW65- yes I have and like the looks of that design a lot. My problem on RCBS and Lyman alike are they won't throw .311 in my alloy so if I can get Tom to copy a bullet to my specs/alloy so much the better.

Ian-Yes I can see the hunting value in that bullet and agree it may be a little tight to chamber and a LITTLE tight doesn't bother me at all.

John-You are mostly right on yardage. 60/80 yds is 90% of our kills. Food plots run that out to 100 plus. I have used the Lyman 173fn/ with 19.5 of 5744 at 100 even and yes recovered all but the 35/200 seems to be a faster killer at 200 fps slower. My thoughts are to either see if I can get to 175/180 with a larger meplat or just stay with the Lyman and do what Ian suggested and step up to the next level of powders.

The truncated cone noses in handguns has made me a believer in regards to accuracy, but I have not had time to try my NOE 315 clone yet and that is the only TC I have in a rifle bullet. I think I will try it before ordering a new mold, it dresses out at 180 with lube and check. The body portion of the nose is .300 plus. Using the top lube groove as a crimping groove the crimp to nose length is about the same as the 155 and a good bit shorter than the Lyman 173. That puts the about 1/3 of the bottom drive band below the neck. Ian said not to worry about it so hopefully it will do as good as Ben's
315 does for him.

Thank you guys for your input, I will have to refer back to this thread, lots of good first hand knowledge on the whole process.

CW- keep us posted on your 340 testing.

Tony

 

[Bill]

Abj, no, the only number on it is 307 and in the crimp groove it works in my 788, all my lever guns, and single shots, it's a tad skinny on the drive bands at .309, it also shoots good in my 03a3 and m-1917 I like the mold very much and it makes a big pile in a hurry and as a bonus if it's powder coated I shoots good as a plain base at a little more moderate velocity

Bill

 

[CWLONGSHOT]

I was mistaken on the model of my NOE ranch dog mold it is a number 310-178RD