Range Report .30-30

[ssyoumans]

Carolina cast bullets sells those ranch dogs with a gas check for $12/100, sized .309 or .310. I am thinking about picking up a few hundred of them to try. I would think they offer the versatility of loading from 1100fps plinker - 1900 fps hunter with minimal if any leading across the range. I've read several very favorable posts about them on a few other forums.

http://www.carolinacastbullets.com/Ranch_Dog_Outdoors.html

Jech, Why did you switch over to trying the MBC whitetails? Were you disappointed with the Ranch dogs? Any insight appreciated.

 

[blarby]

Allrighty.

The 20.0, 20.5, and 21.0 gr versions with a 165 gr whitetail on top were a flop for me...

Could get them on paper, but far less accurate than the 7.2grs of unique- although there was almost zero leading. Also, extremely smoky IMHO.

Good thing I only made 50 of each.....Wheres that lyman hammer........?

I will add that they were fairly accurate at 25 and 50 yards if shooting pie plates is what you had in mind....out at the 100 berm they suffered perilously.

Going to try and measure the unique up and down along the 7-8 gr range, and see if I can find what I was looking for.

 

[Jech]

Allrighty.

The 20.0, 20.5, and 21.0 gr versions with a 165 gr whitetail on top were a flop for me...

Could get them on paper, but far less accurate than the 7.2grs of unique- although there was almost zero leading. Also, extremely smoky IMHO.

Good thing I only made 50 of each.....Wheres that lyman hammer........?

I will add that they were fairly accurate at 25 and 50 yards if shooting pie plates is what you had in mind....out at the 100 berm they suffered perilously.

Going to try and measure the unique up and down along the 7-8 gr range, and see if I can find what I was looking for.

Yup, your results mirror my own.

 

[Jech]

Carolina cast bullets sells those ranch dogs with a gas check for $12/100, sized .309 or .310. I am thinking about picking up a few hundred of them to try. I would think they offer the versatility of loading from 1100fps plinker - 1900 fps hunter with minimal if any leading across the range. I've read several very favorable posts about them on a few other forums.

http://www.carolinacastbullets.com/Ranch_Dog_Outdoors.html

Jech, Why did you switch over to trying the MBC whitetails? Were you disappointed with the Ranch dogs? Any insight appreciated.

Actually, I originally bought the MBC Whitetails to try out and goof around with while I waited for my Ranch Dog bullet mould to show up in the mail. My mould is one of his newest offerings having 3 cavities that are gas checked and 3 cavities that are plain (flat) based. I prefer casting my own to buying them commercially. This mould meets my needs for both full power *and* powderpuff loads where the MBC bullets are limited to plinking duty.

At this moment and for the next 4-6 weeks, my rifle is at the gun smith's to have some chamber work done so I have LOTS of time to get a bunch casted up, made 800 last night alone! =D

Note to self: order more gas checks...

 

[popper]

I guess the ranchdog bullets have to be tumble lubed. Do the GC bullets eliminate the leading problems of non-GC? I don't want to get into casting, but don't want to pay ~$30/100 (shipping included) for lead bullets. Also don't want to get 500 and find they don't work well. Please keep us posted on your results. Did the MBC #2 full load have bad accuracy or just a lot of drop?

 

[blarby]

Its accuracy @ 100 yards looked very similar to a galactic spiral.... The hotter loads, that is.

The un-checked rounds when driven to between 1300 and 1400 fps were excitingly accurate. As mentioned which Jech pioneered, and I seconded- 7.2 grs of unique as the champ for that loading.

 

[blarby]

Once jech gets some recipes he likes for the gas checked rounds, I'm sure that I will follow in his footsteps there

However, I'm very seriously considering some swagging equipment..both for personal use and eventually for part-time FFL use to justify its cost.

 

[Jech]

The few full power loads I tried with this bullet using H4895 were so inaccurate that I could not consistently hit a 2' by 2' board at 50 yards. It's just not designed for full power.

For now, using *my unique rifle*, I've been shooting the gas checked Ranch Dog bullets with W748 with magnum primers and getting results as good as they can be with my rifle's lack of a throat. Due to the nature of my problematic throat/leade, I won't post my OAL or charge weight for now.

 

[blarby]

fair enough. As it is between moving and my new project.... looks like the creative juices are going elsewhere !

 

[ssyoumans]

I gave up on pursuit of an accurate .311" MBC whitetail load using Blue Dot. I could not shoot more than 20-30 rounds before accuracy tanked. I'd get 5-6 groups of 4 before the leading would cause the groups to fall apart.

Experimented with 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, & 13 grains of Blue Dot from 1195 - 1589 fps. 10grs seemed pretty promising before it took a nose dive. Just don't think microgrrove and lead goes together, maybe better luck with the gas checked ones.

The Marlin 1894 in 44 mag works great with lead, no microgroove. Fired 60 rounds with no change in accuracy. It was shooting 1 large hole 4 shot groups at 25 yards and under 1.5" at 50 yards with 4x scope.

Easier to reloading the pistol round too! So, back to jacketed for me in the 30-30.

 

[blarby]

So today was my last day at the range here in California.

Wind was steady @ about 20-25 knots s-se, so I figured on the way out there that today was going to be poor at the very best.

When the wife and I arrived at the range, I was baffled....it was EMPTY. Great, no range scavenging today either. Not a single soul on the high-power rifle range.

So we decided to make the best of it, and since it was the last day and we were the only ones out there, we trucked out to the lone 150 yd target hang.


I could not have been more surprised if you had car-jacked me on the way in !

The 150 gr hornady round nose cut that wind like a knife.

Granted, this aint PALMA or anything- but I was amused to say the least.

We ran through about 140 rounds, and then went and rang the 200 yard gong on the rimfire range with my marlin bolt action for about an hour and went to leave.

As we were checking out, the RO busted out a 5 gallon pail of mixed rifle brass, and wished us the best of luck in oregon !

How great is that.