Recently I picked up one of the excellent NOE 247 gr .311 caliber molds to use with a 300 Whisper AR-15.
I cast a bunch up and just for kicks started experimenting with them in a Winchester 94 in 30-30.
These are some nice looking 'Cruise Missile' style boolits (boolit photo courtesy of Swede Nelson I believe).
I cast the boolit up from a medium hardness WW mix, probably about 1:1 WW to Pb. I tumble lubed it twice (unsized) in homemade JPW lube. I seated them to an OAL of about 2.52", so there was a considerable portion of the boolit deep inside the case past the shoulder.
Using Trailboss (my favorite cast boolit powder by far) I worked up loads for 7, 8, 9, and 10 grains with this boolit, and shot them out of a 20" barrel Winchester 1894 30-30, with a 1/12 twist rate. I was initially skeptical that this twist could stabilize such a heavy boolit.
Results below. It was too dark to use my chrony so I don't have any muzzle velocity (MV) figures, hopefully I can update this post with some later.
These groups were all shot with iron sights at 25 yards off sandbags. With a scope I am sure they would be tighter. For reference, these are 6" sandwich plates, with a 1.5" black Shoot-N-C dot stuck on.
The best result was with a load of 9 gr of Trailboss, my first 6 shots went into a single ragged hole the size of a dime, then the next 4 widened it out a little. The other groups have fewer shots as I saved some rounds to test velocity later.
7 grains of Trailboss was insufficient to stabilize the bullet, as it was yawing slightly entering the paper. 8 grains was better, and 9 grains was just right.
With 9 grains, the recoil was light. I am fairly sure that load was just subsonic, as there was no noticable 'crack' sound. The 10 grain load was considerably louder (and a bit less accurate with one keyhole apparently), with a bit more recoil.
Next time, I will dial the sights in for a 9 grain load and get some chrony figures to see what MVs I am getting.
What is interesting with this load is the retained energy as it reaches out. Assuming (without chrony data) a velocity of 1050 fps and BC of 0.5, the energy figures look like:
yds ft-lbs FPS
0 605 1050
50 577 1026
100 552 1004
150 530 983
200 511 965
250 492 947
I am guestimating the BC, so velocity/energy may be off a bit here.
Note, these loads were used in my modern (1970s vintage) rifle without any pressure signs, problems extracting, or other red flags. Recoil was quite mild (far less than factory loads). However, use this data at your own risk.
Anyone else try this boolit in a levergun?