I have finally got around to the last round of cast tests in my Swiss K31. Of the four flat nosed .30cal hunting bullet moulds I own, only the Ranch Dogs will feed, and even they have their foibles. Now, it loves all of the RN bullets I have tried in it, and truth to tell I have yet to try ANY bullet in it that it won't shoot well - all of them approach or exceed MOA. RCBS 180gr sil bullets (they call them FN, but they have a tiny meplat) are its favorites so far with IMR4895 the groups well under MOA @100yds with a MV around 1500fps. But I really want a hunting load at least 1700, preferably around 2000 and under 3MOA. Soupcans won't feed, my custom 150FN's won't feed, and my tried and true 311041's won't feed, leaving me with an 8+lb single shot if I wanted to use them. The RD's are a bit rounder in profile, and the dummies made with them will feed, albeit not as easily and smoothly as RN's or spitzers.

So, the day finally arrived to try the RD's with my go-to cast powder 4895. My first four shots went into 1 3/4". The fifth would have also except for the deer fly that took a piece out of the back of my neck as I was squeezing off the shot, so it landed three inches to the right. A second group sans deer fly was right around 2". Not too shabby. I didn't bring the chrono, but based on the charge I estimate the MV at around 1600. The next two increasing increments opened to just under 4" and just under 6". I have two more higher increments loaded but did not have time to shoot them. Logic tells me that they will continue to open up, but there just might be another accuracy node up there so I am going to shoot them to be sure. I bet if I dropped the charge by one or two grains I could get it down to MOA, but I want more energy, not less. I might like to use it on something bigger than a deer one of these days. Accuracy is acceptable with this load. I did seat these a tad bit too long - the rifle really doesn't have a throat, so seating at a depth acceptable for a normal rifle rams the bullet into the beginning of the lands, and while they feed, they might feed more smoothly at a shorter OAL too.

Now, you know I'm going to try several more powders just to see if one of them will give me that level of accuracy at a few hundred fps more velocity, but if not, I at least have an acceptable 150yd cast deer load. First we have to cast up some more RD's and I guess 3031 will be next on the list. The K31 sure likes them a lot better than my 788 in .308 does. What do you think?