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I have a ton of .30cal bullets lying around and, as things are, I want to load them for two of my rifles.

a 30-30 and a 7.5mm French ... both use .308 bullets.

The cast bullets I have a supply of are .310 dia, specifically marketed for loading 30-30.

Esp on the MAS Im thinking about slugging the bore... but thats for a later time as I would have to get a mold & sizer for whatever size, and thats hard to come by right now.

So people load these things in their 30-30s I assume, which have 308 bores... I dont see a reason to not go for it. The are Moly-D coated so they arent mean to be sized.


What it comes down to is this, is it a SAFETY issue or an ACCURACY issue?

With my calipers I can barely detect a difference in these bullets and my Nosler jacketed .308 bullets, if at all.

If its an accuracy thing I can just load them up and see how they do... but I dont want to have a bullet stuck and have crap blow back in my face, or worse...


So whats the consensus? Safety or Accuracy
 
The important factor is the size of the throat, rather than the size of the bore. So long as the chamber isn't so tight that the case neck with the oversized bullet jams in the chamber, it should be fine. This is common and accepted practice with cast bullets.

Added: of course, you always want to work up the load with the larger bullets. It goes without saying that you never want to just replace a smaller bullet with a larger one without carefully working the load up again. :)
 
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The important factor is the size of the throat, rather than the size of the bore. So long as the chamber isn't so tight that the case neck with the oversized bullet jams in the chamber, it should be fine. This is common and accepted practice with cast bullets.

Added: of course, you always want to work up the load with the larger bullets. It goes without saying that you never want to just replace a smaller bullet with a larger one without carefully working the load up again. :)

Would a underpowered load be more likely to squib? I'm new to reloading and dumb too so
 
My go to 30 cal bullet when I cast is .311 they shoot very nice groups. To my knowledge .311 is the standard diameter most folks shoot in 30 cal rifles. Having said that slug your bore and measure the slug. Then go from there
 
I have the Lyman Cast Bullet Handbook, but it doesn't have the 7.5 MAS in it. The closest thing I could find was the 7.65 Belgian Mauser, which is a very similar cartridge. You don't want to ever blindly use data for one cartridge to load for another, but it might give you a starting point.

Loading cast bullets in rifles is very different from loading jacketed. Normally you use smaller charges of faster burning powder, and achieve lower velocities. Do your bullets have gas checks on them? If not, definitely stick with lower velocities.

The Lyman book shows mostly slower burning pistol and some rifle powders, but you can also use very light charges of fast pistol powders. I also attached the 30-30 page from an old RCBS cast bullet handbook. 30-30 has quite a bit less case capacity than 7.5 MAS, just a place to start.

Cast bullet rifle rounds usually operate at much lower pressures, but you can still get into trouble if you're not paying close attention. For example, it's easy to accidentally double charge a big rifle case with fast pistol powder, and that will ruin your day.

IMG_0479[1].jpg IMG_0480[1].jpg
 
I've used Bullseye with hardcast 110 gr gas checked boolits. I put in something like 5-10 gr (IIRC) with dacron stuffing on top of the powder to keep the powder in on place. It worked well. I still have some of the loads but I am not sure where I have the piece of paper with the load data on it.

The idea was to have a light load that was around subsonic or thereabouts (I don't remember ever using a chrono for that load) and use them for small game, like a rabbit or something, while hunting deer/elk/etc.
 
Lead can be larger .002-.004" or so than the "bore" and jacketed are .001-.002"

Softer material and they'll squeeze more than a jacketed.

Information above is worth what you paid for it and was found on the internet.
 

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