311291 with a .300 weatherby magnum

Dave, thanks for the infos.

Master, I remembered today that Wby rifles have a hell of a freebore, in their own wby calibers... and you might have difficulties seating the bullet close enough from the rifling... at least if you intend to feed them through the mag.

If so, a loverin bullet might come handy, specially if you are looking for top speed; they are almost fully supported by the bore, but might still jump the grooves if coming from too far too fast; I don't know, I've never used them.

Yours is the 311291 if I remember:
http://www.lymanproducts.com/lymanproducts/rbulleta.htm
Lyman's drawings are baaad!

Thanks for all the info here, I am learning new stuff all the time, especially with cast boolits. I guess to say, I am not really concerned if the boolit don't reach a 3,000 FPS range. Just as long as I can shoot the cast out with reasonable accuracy at 100. I got some ideas in mind with some powders mentioned earlier. I just have to load some up now. I'll post results.

Willy, E.H.Harrison (NRA) commisioned Lyman to produce several molds (#s 301618 @ 160gr. & 301620 @ ~196gr.) for paper patching in the .308Win., .30-06, and .300Mag. Oddly enough, the patched bullets (#301618 + 70gr. WW 785) outshot Winchester and Peters factory loads. That's the good news. The bad news is those molds are extremely rare and cast a CB of .301" (to be patched up to .310" - .311"). You can substitute #311467 or even #311299, cast to 16-18 BHN, but you'll need to have a .301"sizing die made to reduce their diameter. (Lee Precision should be able to do this.) Although Harrison's patched CB's came close to 3,000fps, accuracy, though very good, was no better on average than 1.47". If your heart is set on ~3,000fps with CB's, paper patching hard CB's, (very time consuming) is the way to go. On the other hand, if you're not yet ready for that challenge, why not experiment with various reduced loads and #311291 or even #311284? Hope this helps!

Just wondering if you are getting anywhere with this project?

I got four-five shot test rounds loaded and ready for the range. Havent made it up there quite yet though. I am going to try IMR 4831 40gr - 50gr and see how it shoots. I'm figuring around 2,000 FPS. Once I see what this can do, i'm going to start going faster and hopefully see if I can reach the 2,700 FPS point.

I am figuring on this coming friday for some serious testing, hopefully sooner but if not...

I will post my targets and keep everyone updated on how this turns out.

Posted this at CB forum too. Had to post it here too. Thanks for the help, I'm off to a good start :)

What a beautiful day at the range today! About 3 inches of snow and around 30 degrees...... Well.. maybe not the best day to go shoot, but what the heck.

Today was the first day I shot cast from my .300 weatherby. Special thanks to David R. and Kenjuudo for suppling me with boolits to shoot.

Powder of choice was IMR 4831 and I started at 40 grains, and worked up to 50 grains. 4 lots, a 40 grain, 45 grain, 47 grain, and 50 grain. Shooting a boolit around 180 grain (311291).

It's a scoped rifle which is setup for shooting roughly 3,200 FPS and I knew I wouldnt be anywhere near this, so I thought I would fire these off at 50 yards and see where they go. I'll give a conclusion after the pics.
http://gunloads.com/images/personal/40grain.gif
40 grain was somewhat speratic. I only chronyed one that came out at 1,703 FPS.


http://gunloads.com/images/personal/45grain.gif
45 grain I think is where i'm going to work around, split a couple holes there, chronyed two at 1929 FPS and 1844 FPS.


http://gunloads.com/images/personal/47grain.gif
47 grain did alright Chronyed 4 at 2001 FPS, 1909 FPS, 1889 FPS, and 1922 FPS


http://gunloads.com/images/personal/50grain.gif
50 grain.. not too great. Chronyed 5 at 2,096 FPS 2033 FPS 2050 FPS 2100FPS and 2043 FPS.


Overall it shot much better then I expected. I've never shot cast out of a rifle so this was really new to me and it seemed to do really good. I'm going to work around 45 grains and see if I can lower the grouping more.

I'm also going to heat things up a bit with these bad boys. I've heard pushing cast at 2,700 FPS is around max? So I'm going to be loading up some higher grain rounds and see if I can get around that barrier http://www.castboolits.gunloads.com/...on_twisted.gif ...

Enjoy.

50yds is a good range for preliminary testing. You can fine tune your better loads at 100yds later. I'd say you found a workable deer load at 47gr. Did you remember to get ALL of the copper fouling out of the barrel before shooting? I suspect you did from the groups, but figured I'd mention it as doing so can turn a good load into a great one. The ES at 112fps was much higher than I'd like to see though and I am not sure what caused it. That much velocity variation is not conducive to best accuracy, and with the great group you already got, I believe you could cut it's size significantly if you can find out why. It's probably just a little tweak needed here or there. What kind of primers did you use? Did you crimp the boolits? If so, roll, taper, or collet? If not, I would, for more consistant ignition.
It looks like the group is starting to open up at 50gr. If so, you might have already found this powder's sweet spot. Any leading in the barrel? If there isn't, the boolit is strong enough and can go faster, but you might have to use another powder to keep the group size down.

Yea I cleaned my barrel up to be pretty sparkly inside. I used some sweets and hoppes to get er cleaned up.
I was rather surpised to see such variation in the FPS myself from these boolits... I could see a 25-50 FPS varience but some of those were over 100 FPS +-... Is that normal?
As far as primers go, I like to use the Federal matchgrade.. They work out great.
Never crimped the boolits.. Like I say, I am new to cast :)
Fouling is very minut in there, it's not very much at all, luckily. And Kenjuudo said his boolits can take on more aggressive speeds. So I'll certainly test them out.
I'm going to take this gun to NCBS so hopefully I can get some good ideas on how this stuff works :)

No Willy, it's not normal. Even 50fps would be pushing it.
Try a light crimp first. That's the easiest and might solve it right away. Some loads need it in certain rifles, even the larger diameter cast boolits.
Are the Federal match primers magnums? (I prime with Lee tools, so I am limited to CCI & Win - don't know much about others.)
Another thing you should be doing anyway, which I'm not sure if I mentioned, is that after chambering, point the muzzle straight up and slap the action with the flat of your hand to settle the powder charge in the bottom of the case before each shot. This will help insure consistant ignition with small volume charges in a case like yours (the size of an airplane hangar. :-D) This could also explain the high ES and is very simple to test for.
Lack of fouling is a positive sign. The boolit is strong enough to take a higher velocity, but I don't know if the accuracy will degrade with the current powder when you do. Try it and see.

As Verisfier has pointed out a slight crimp will help bring the velocity spread down. I use a Lee factory crimp die to get the job done. This will also bring your group size down.

You might also want to try a faster burning powder. 4831 is a slow burning powder meant for heavy jacketed boolits. My 300 Win Mag likes 21 grains of 4198 w/ a 176 grain GC cast
(311041 Lyman). My 30-30 and a friends 308 likes that boolit also. Have fun and be safe.

Mike S.