Lee/Midway .300 AAC 230gr. Mold...

[Just Call Me...G]

Howdy Gents!

SO great to see the forum back up and functional!
I, too, was one of those that would check back on a regular basis...kinda went through some separation anxiety for a bit when the site was down.

I was cruising through Midway's site recently and came upon this beauty:

http://www.midwayusa.com/product/938614/lee-2-cavity-bullet-mold-tl309-230-5r-30-caliber-309-diameter-230-grain-300-aac-blackout-tumble-lube-5-ogive-radius

I wanted to see what the consensus from fellow .300 Whisper brethren was and if anyone has taken the plunge on this.

I would especially like to see a pic of what the 'boolit' looks like and any after-action reports on performance.


Keep The High Ground,


G


ETA: Here is a little more info on this:

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=155363

Apparently no one from this forum has entertained this...43 views, but no one has posted a reply.
I am going to purchase this towards the end of the month just to check it out.
Not planning on running it through my can, but will give me another option for shooting unsuppressed subsonic ammo.

Cheers!


G

[thehouseproduct]

I have the mold. I haven't been able to shoot any yet.

[3006mv]

i replied at this forum: http://www.300blktalk.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=141&t=80073 -3006mv


decided to try the load from the cast forum above, hope the 11.4 AA-1680 works for me as well. Also loaded a few at 11.2 and 10.5grs. I live in S. CA and it has been over 108 F or more lately, so I have no
interest in taking a trip to the local outdoor range I use w/o any shade for miles.

I think my lead shaving issues is thick brass except for once in awhile, after the boolit is seated and even crimped with the Lee FC die I have boolits that I can turn in the neck so therefore loose. My fear is that while loading the alox lube is getting pushed out or the tumble lube grooves are being ruined. I guess I will find out if I get some leading in my bbl; which for obvious reasons I would like to avoid entirely. I was surprised that this was occurring since it is after all a boat tail design.
the other possibility of course is that my lead mix is too soft.

[Hoser]

the other possibility of course is that my lead mix is too soft.

Thats why all of my high pressure/velocity cast bullets get made from Linotype.

[Crawdaddy]

Sounds to me like your Lead shaving issue calls for more flare on the case mouth. Have you tried belling the case like you would a pistol/revolver case? Lee makes a universal die for the purpose.

Also, try using something other than the lee FCD or back off on it a bit. If you're using cases formed from 223 that have not been inside or outside neck turned, the FCD is going to size the bullet in the case. The brass will spring back after this sizing, leaving your bullet to spin in the case.

I'm still playing with mine, but I was able to minimize lead shaving by using a trimmer pilot that also inside turns the necks. I'm seating and crimping with 2 separate dies, if I recall correctly.

Also, imo this isn't really a high velocity/high pressure round if you're loading subsonic. In One of my early tests (posted around here somewhere), I shot a 200gr lee made from clip on wheel weights that was water quenched through 1/2" OSB, 2 gallons of water, and into a couple of 2x6s leaned against the water jug. After exiting the first 2x sideways and embedding itself in the second 2x, it was so hard that it could have been reloaded and shot again.

You should be able to shoot air cooled clip on wheel weights to subsonic speeds fine as long as the bullet fits the bore. The FCD can mess you up here by sizing it down through the case.

I highly recommend spending some time on the castboolits forum to learn more.

[3006mv]

The Lee Factory Crimp die for rifles does not touch the boolit; (it does not have that ring in the bottom like the pistol FCD, I learned from castboolits not to use these w/ my pistol boolit loads, .45, .38, and .44 special). It just crimps the very edge of the case mouth.

A few weeks later, I loaded what I cast previously, they maybe hardened w/ time, getting less shaving.

But got to shoot some different loads, the only ones that cycled was the 11.4 gr AA1680, the 11.2 & 10.5 were all single shot affairs.
But I got some serious leading. Cleaned my bore out, now just have to get out and test the 11.4 gr to see if they end up leading the barrel or not. I hope not.:rolleyes:

[3006mv]

Okay so a slight bell using the Lee Universal Expanding Die cured the lead shaving which is great, thanks for the help, I tried this before but it didn't work out that great. I think now that a few weeks went by the lead hardened that much more or I did not use enough bell at my prior attempt. I also don't have any more boolits that I can twist in the case. I will try some that I have not used the FCD and some that I did and compare. Hope I don't get leading this time; will find out hopefully next weekend if it is not too extremely hot out (no shade at all where I target shoot). I wish that the lube grooves were deeper. I think this would help alleviate leading too if I could get more LLA in there:rolleyes:

[Crawdaddy]

Sounds like you're on the right track! Please keep us posted. I haven't ordered that mold yet but would love to have a tumble lube option for higher volume shooting.

Here's what I loaded over the weekend:
NOE group buy 311247 gc over subsonic loads of AA1680. Going to try to dial in a load for use with my new can. These were gas checked, and I didn't flare the cases before seating - the gas check did it for me with little to no shaving. I'll have to flare the mouths when I try the plain base ones.

1257

[3006mv]

okay, now I am getting somewhere.
11.4 gr AA1680. Flared cases NO FCD used = No leading! Oh am using Rooster Jacket as lube.
didn't get to use a chrony or rest so just shooting off hand (also no shade and 100F) so at 50m I can hit the center of a paper plate out. Had 50 rounds to try. I just molded another 125 today. just need to TL them and prep my cases.
I am glad I have some affordable loads for this M1S basic upper.
heard the ballistic crack when a friend shot it so i think it is going super, but everything functions and the bolt stays back on empty mag.

anyone try 11.3 gr of AA1680 with these?

[Crawdaddy]

Awesome! You're getting there. I'm still working with the 247gr bullets, over similar charges of 1680. How is the powder burning? Hear lots about 1680 being dirty, but I haven't seen anything too bad so far.

[3006mv]

Yeah no issue, i have shot dirtier powders, not seeing any unburned anything, maybe some carbon inside the bbl near the gas block. but most importantly; no leading! yay.

[HUNTER2]

It takes about 30 days for cast to completely harden.

[3006mv]

After loading 500 or so of these alox lubed boolits my Redding seating die got galled up, took a while to clean out before I could load more. I think a Lee seating die is easier to take apart and clean, don't have one for this cal though. I bought the Hornady new dimension dies that are marked for both 300 and 300blk (I think I am just going to call my Whisper 7.62x35 officially just for the heck of it).
anyway if you don't have a two die set for the 7.62x35 if you buy the Hornady set before 12/30/12 you can get in their offer of 100 free bullets so it almost pays for itself ($7 s&h for the bullets though) the Hornady dies cost the same as the Lee.

[3006mv]

So i never did get my free .308 bullets yet from Hornady even though they cashed my check for s&h some poor excuse about they ran out, i mean come on you are a bullet company after all.
so anyway their dies are good. no complaints there. I did also however buy the Lee dies b/c the bullet seating die is like I figured very easy to clean the tumble lube/wax out of. But their boolits are so long I had to cut the seating stem shorter just to get more threads into the seating adjustment, so gtg there. their decapping/expander die leaves a weird wrinkle at the mouth, no biggy though I use their universal mouth case flaring die anyway for the lead boolits then use the bullet seating die with no crimp, I also do not crimp w/ the Lee fcd w/ the lead, but I do use it for jacket bullets. I will probably stick to the Hornady or Redding decapping dies. I read that some people do not use case lube in their lee dies, i tried it and although it is harder to pull the lever it does work, i tried that on the other dies and yeah they got stuck or ruined the rims. i will use the case lube, it is not that much of a hassle for me. so still sticking with the AA1680 11.4 gr load, no reason to try anything else, only okay groups though maybe 2.5-3" at 100m good enough for me for plinking w/ these, i get lead for free so i can't complain.