Loading 30-06 with 30 cal round ball

I can hardly wait to see where this goes. Please keep us posted.

I haven't done it with .30-06, but I loaded up rabbit/squirrel loads for .30-30 to carry while deer hunting in a similar manner. I think it was Bullseye and a higher charge than that, but not by much. Shut up up many a chattering red squirrel with them, and nabbed a few rabbits for camp meat.
I used Hornady round balls for .my .31 Baby Dragoon.

This is a well-proven idea that has worked for generations. The only difficulty it presents is some pretty wild velocity SD, since the pinch of pistol powder typically used has a lot of case to rattle around in. George Nonte recommended holding the muzzle high before each shot to position the powder next to the primer for better accuracy.

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Let me suggest something more controversial: consider using a subcaliber chamber adapter instead of a regular 30-06 case:

https://www.gunpartscorp.com/products/197720

I've been experimenting with these things quite a bit lately (.32 H&R in .303 British), since they permit me to shoot a milsurp bolt action at the local indoor pistol range, saving about an hour's drive to the nearest rifle range.



You'll hear a lot of criticism about the uselessness of this device. Most of the YouTube hate I've seen comes from guys who try a couple brands of factory pistol ammo and complain about lousy accuracy. The thing I've learned is to handload either round balls or full wadcutters, which have proven better able to handle the long trip through the adapter to the rifling than bullets with a round nose and less bearing surface. The much smaller pistol case positions the propellent more uniformly, and can be reloaded with round balls using only de/repriming tools.

Round balls may require some experimentaton to get the charge just right, since you need to avoid both blowby and stuck bullets at either extreme. Start low and check between shots for stuck bullets. I've found wadcutters much more forgiving. If you want to give this a try sometime, it's about a $25 gamble in current money.

I have loaded 5grs of Bullseye in a 30-30 case with a #1 Buck .30 caliber ball and its far more powerful than you would think. I should have tried 3-4grs of the same powder. That 5gr load would kill the biggest rabbit or squirrel that ever walked.

You could start there with your 30-06. But next time I try some light small game loads they will be with some of the 32 caliber lead bullets I cast sized to .310 with my Lee sizer. Or maybe even unsized if they will chamber. I think the bullets will give better accuracy over a round ball.

Dave DeLaurant said:

This is a well-proven idea that has worked for generations. The only difficulty it presents is some pretty wild velocity SD, since the pinch of pistol powder typically used has a lot of case to rattle around in. George Nonte recommended holding the muzzle high before each shot to position the powder next to the primer for better accuracy.

Click to expand...

I used pillow polyfill to hold the powder (which was 4 gr., ThomasT's post jogged my memory on that. Thanks!) down by the primer. I packed it loosely down in with a pencil, then seated the ball.

TrailBoss or Red Dot may work well?

Either of them should, but I don't know charge weights for them. I've used Red Dot for reduced Mosin Nagant plinking loads.

30-30, 30-40, 30-06, 7.92 Mauser, 303, 308, 7.62x54R, 7.65x54, 7.5 French and 7.5 Swiss get a 4gr red dot and a .323/.312 lead ball.

Fun cheap (except the primers nowadays) and cheerful.
Keep the cartridges case head down to keep the powder near the primer. Otherwise you get some amazing velocity swings.

I used a .309 round ball, I'd have to look at the powder record, and a puff of Kapok out of an old life preserver. I smeared Lyman Alox lube over the top of the ball which I seated flush with the case mouth. I remember fooling around with powder charges to get somewhere close to regular load poi at 25 yards. I quit using round balls and went to a 115 grain cast bullet and about six or seven grains of Unique, kapok.

I used to use a couple of grains of whatever pistol powder I was using at the moment and Hornady .310 lead balls just tapped snug into the case mouth of a sized case.

The couple of times I checked them over a chrono, they were running right around 650 FPS when shot out of my M1, and would give you fist-sized groups offhand at 25 yards.

Dave DeLaurant said:

Let me suggest something more controversial: consider using a subcaliber chamber adapter instead of a regular 30-06 case:

Click to expand...

I went one step farther, instead of using a subcaliber 30-06 to 32acp, i ran 70 gr plated .312 32acp projectiles through a .308 sizing die, with 10 gr Unique, and the projectile seated in just far enough out, with a heavy enough crimp to reliably feed through a push feed M70.

At 50 yards they were close enough to POA to kill spruce grouse with the rifle sighted in with full house 165 yr.

They actually had the same accuracy (~2.5" @ 50 yards) left .312 or sized .308.

I've used about 3 gn of Red Dot under a .310 round ball in my '06. Sort of fun for camp plinking. Killed a rat at my friend's farmhouse with it. Make sure your chosen charge gets the ball out of the barrel.