311041 Loads

Regular readers know that I like the Lyman 311041 bullet in the .30-30 WCF. I keep a couple of hundred cast and ready to go and when my supply gets low, I cast some more. The 311041 is a bullet that falls from the mold at a nominal 0.311 inch. I lube it with Lee Liquid Alox, add a gas check and size to 0.309, then lube it with Liquid Alox a second time. Ready to load in the case, it weighs 173 grains.

This morning, after I was finished bush-hogging at my Mothers place, I set up a target at an estimated 75 yards. I say estimated, because I know where the 50 yard mark is in that pasture and I walked past it about 25 yards.

I took out the Winchester 94 that lives under the seat of the truck and loaded it with my cast load of a 311041 over a 2.2cc dipper full of surplus 4895 with a CCI primer. This load gives me an average velocity of 1877 fps, with an SD of 22.7. It is an accurate load when I do my part.



That's one four shot and one five shot group with a sight adjustment. The last group is above the target, which is about where I wanted it. My ballistics calculator tells me that this load should be good for deer out to 175 yards, which is a lot farther than I'm willing to shoot at a deer with iron sights.

The next target is the same load, just in a different caliber. It's the same 311041 bullet with the same 2.2cc of surplus 4895 and the same CCI primer. It's loaded in the .30-06 caliber. This load will be shot from the Remington 760 with the red dot sight. It gives me an average 1794 (Sd 33.8) from the 22 inch barrel on that rifle.



I need to move that sight left four clicks, but otherwise, it's ready to go. That load from that rifle should be good out to 125 yards or so. I believe that the red dot sight helped shrink the group size from what it would have been with iron sights. The load lost a little velocity in the transformation from .30-30 to .30-06 but either of them are capable of dropping deer sized game at 100 yards.

For the record, both these targets were fired from a standing supported position, not the bench. I'm through with the bench until the hunting season is over. I'm confident that I have two winners here. Now I only need to do final sighting with the bolt guns and I can quit obsessing over the firearms and loads and start obsessing on getting my hunting area ready for the season.

We've got about 105 days before the start of the deer season.