30-30 new load

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i went out and shot my first rounds using a new combination.

National bullets. Copperized 30 cal .309 165 grn cast bullet.

Using 8 grns of trail boss (imr powder).

I should have taken pictures. The groupings were all less than 3". Wow i was first shooting 170 grn speer jacketed bullets with 32 grn win 748. Normal hard kick fast high speed rounds. I do not have a chronograph yet so i cant tell you the velocity of the trail boss. However it was a lot less than any 150 or 170 jacketed round. The national bullets worked very very good. With the right powder combination i would highly recomend them. It took me a while to figure out a good load to use with them. The information i gathered was from the IMR handbook. Under their cowboy action loads. Using 150 cast bullet information and then adjusting the load for the specific round i was using. Being a rather new powder i was a little reluctant to use it. However after doing a lot of research i determined it was the right one to use.
Overal case length was at 2.50. using cci 200 primers. Next week im going back out with a box of 50 25 at 8 grains and 25 at 9 grains. I was really happy with the performance of the rounds at 8 grains. i was shooting at 100 yards. Drop at 100 yards is 3" compared to 170 grain speer with 32 grns of win 748.

 

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On another forum i was asked how accurate are my loads. i think this is something we can all ask. Here is what i do to ensure total accuracy in my cast and jacketed loads.


1. case uniformity. Do the same to every case. keep name brand cases grouped together. Weigh the cases then seperate them again by groups.

2. Correct powder measure. make sure your charge loads are correct.

3. Weigh the bullets. seperate by groups then only use the same bullets that weight the same.


In purchasing 500 cast bullets from nationl bullets then knowing a bit about cast bullets i knew that they would not all weigh 165 grns. so i weighed them all. i came up with several groups. of 163, 164, 165, 166, 167. After that i know by the weight of the bullet what to adjust my loads to. SAme time when shooting for accuracy its important to have rounds that are going to be the same in size, height width and weight. Doing this will improve your accuracy, and take the frustration on trying to determine which loads worked and did not.