30-40 220 gr lead bullet

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BrentD
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30-40 220 gr lead bullet

Post by BrentD »

This is probably going to seem somewhat crazy to you guys, but I'm interested in shooting silhouette with a .30-40 Krag and a lead bullet. The bullet I have in mind (the mould is at hand) is about 215 or 220 grs cast fo #2 linotype. How fast does it need to go to bring down pesky rams at Raton?

and just maybe, how much faster does it need to be to bring down rams at St. Louis (where they are out there another 35ish meters)?

I'm not interested in copper jacketed bullets or a different caliber, and I would like to avoid loading this any hotter than I have to to get the job done.

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Re: 30-40 220 gr lead bullet

Post by GTS »

Using the 215 grain weight and the formula; (bullet weight/7000)(1/32.2)(velocity at the target), it should be traveling about 1100 fps at the rams.

Just a formula I have seen, your mileage may vary.
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Re: 30-40 220 gr lead bullet

Post by DanDeMan »

Brent,

I just ran some numbers using the Lyman 210 grain bullet; .311" 210 Grn RNGC Lyman 2-Cav. Mould #311284. From experience, a 500-meter momentum of 1.200 ft-s typically gets the job done well. If your bullet has a similar BC, I assumed 0.340 for the Lyman bullet, you're bullet would require a MV of 2,400 fps.

A friend of mine and I shot 32-40's in BPCR silhouette for a number of years. We rarely rang rams, only when a fairly strong wind was holding them up or there was dirt/mud on the bottom of the feet. I launched a 273-gr bullet to about 1,350 fps. The estimated terminal momentum was 1.184 ft-s.
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Re: 30-40 220 gr lead bullet

Post by durant7 »

Ok, so I will ask the stupid question. 2,400 FPS at the muzzle = leaded barrel after 40 shots no? At Ridgway someone told me they shot cast bullets in a 30-06 and got the job done. Not fun to shoot I would imagine....but when I went to watch...almost everyone was 6.5x47, 260 or a few 7-08. And it was SM all the way, no discussion. Shooting a Browning A bolt in 257 Roberts and cast boolits seemed an unwise adventure. Keep us posted Brent!
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BrentD
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Re: 30-40 220 gr lead bullet

Post by BrentD »

durant7 wrote:Ok, so I will ask the stupid question. 2,400 FPS at the muzzle = leaded barrel after 40 shots no? At Ridgway someone told me they shot cast bullets in a 30-06 and got the job done. Not fun to shoot I would imagine....but when I went to watch...almost everyone was 6.5x47, 260 or a few 7-08. And it was SM all the way, no discussion. Shooting a Browning A bolt in 257 Roberts and cast boolits seemed an unwise adventure. Keep us posted Brent!
Well, I imagine I could clean between banks of animals if necessary, so a full 40 shots w/o cleaning would not be necessary.

As for the 2400 fps generating leading with gas-checked bullets, I really don't know. I've shot up to 55 rounds at a time, and fast enough to heat up the barrel pretty good, and I have yet to find even one fleck of lead. But I don't know how fast my bullet is yet as it's been too cold to mess with the chrony. 23 grs of 5744 is the hottest load so far.

But be that as it may, I fully intend to shoot paper patched bullets eventually, and that should end any leading that might occur.

Anyway, ti's just for fun and extra trigger time. I'm not going to be "serious" about this one.
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Re: 30-40 220 gr lead bullet

Post by Another Dang 9 »

Jud if you need bullets I have about 500 rds of .257 nosler partition 115 gr. If your interested.
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Re: 30-40 220 gr lead bullet

Post by Bwake »

It's nice to see that someone else is interested in cast bullets for silhouette. At Ridgway, we've had an annual cast bullet shoot for many years. This year (2015) it will be June 13&14 for anyone who's interested.

210 or 220 grain bullets in .30 cal. are exactly what you want in my opinion. I've been pretty successful using such bullets at 1800 - 1900 fps across the course with accuracy even out at rams. Admittedly, some rams do get rung at this velocity, but it's still fun anyway. Your spotter will enjoy seeing the nice clear spot that cast bullets make on the targets. Reasonably accurate loads are fairly easy to achieve at this velocity and fequent cleaning doesn't seem to be imperative. Recoil is on the mild side to boot.

The main problem with cast bullets is the wind. I shoot mostly HPBTs for silhouette, and in blustery conditions while shooting cast loads it becomes obvious that cast bullets are very outclassed. That's why I think cast bullets are best suited for matches where everyone is using cast also. In calm conditions however, the disparity isn't that bad.

The remarks about cast bullets at higher velocities and paper patching were interesting. My modest attempts at jacking cast bullets up to higher speeds hasn't been that successful so far. I suppose it can be done, but it probably requires extra attention to lead alloy, lube, etc. Likewise paper patching is problematical in my experience. I came close to success once but gave up before I could figure out why I kept getting flyers. Maybe the finicky nature of these things is why the old-time scheutzen people favored the grooved bullet in the end.

Good luck
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Re: 30-40 220 gr lead bullet

Post by durant7 »

Brian, interesting info. What are people shooting on the HP Cast only weekend? My assumption bigger would be better but what do I know. I can't imagine 30-30s or 38-55s are the solution. From my experience 38-55 way out classes a 30-30. Just curious what folks use.
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Re: 30-40 220 gr lead bullet

Post by Bwake »

durant7:
We shoot a wide variety of things; single -shot, lever action, varoius bolt actions etc. Most are in some .30 cal. chambering. It's mostly a fun match not following NRA rules. For the most part, the rifles aren't specialized for this match.
What you said about the .38-55 might be true. It put me in mind of the guy who built a .35 Rem bolt gun and won a bunch of times. He never complained about lost rams. Also the guy who was instrumental in starting silhouette at ridgway was noted for using a .375 H&H for cast bullets.
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