keyholing cast bullets

[KY Ratshooter]

Winchester 94 in 30-30     1970s era gun.

shooting 175 flat nose plain base, sized to .308

11 grains of Unique

has been a good light load for years.  This weekend I was at the range checking the sights.  4 shots at 50 yards in a two inch cluster, 5th shot was 6" low and right with a perfect keyhole print of bullet passing sideways.

The bore is not leaded.

I switched to factory rounds and the gun shot normally.

?? What's wrong??

[Castaway]

Did you weigh the bullets before you loaded them?  Could be a void in the bullet that caused it to go catywompus.

[dubber123]

Were these weighed powder charges, or dropped?  If they were dropped, maybe your drop messed up and threw a too light charge that left velocity below the speed needed for stability.  Thats a pretty long bullet, and I imagine it needs a certain amount of speed.  My .475 shoots sub 1" groups at 50 yds. with 1350 fps. loads.  I slowed them to about 850 for a "plinker" load.  Shoots about 3 FOOt groups with these.  Apparently too slow for this bullet.

[LET-CA]

My guess is that sized .308 was too small for the rifle.  The guys I've spoken with all size at .310 to .311.  Cast bullets do better when they're a bit oversized for the bore.  Let's them squeeze through and get a good bite on the rifling.

[Lloyd Smale]

ill go with this answer and add to it that you might want to push them a little harder. Could be to slow to stablize that bullet.

My guess is that sized .308 was too small for the rifle.  The guys I've spoken with all size at .310 to .311.  Cast bullets do better when they're a bit oversized for the bore.  Let's them squeeze through and get a good bite on the rifling.

[VTDW]

Hint Hint,

Lloyd got it right!!

Have you slugged your barrel?  Slug your barrel and shoot boolits .002 oversized and thing should work out nicely.  BTB can fix you up with the hardcast lead.

Dave