300 Whisper for cast bullet target shooting???

[joeb33050]

I'm looking for a good 30 caliber contender barrel for target shooting only with cast bullets. After reading this forum for a while, it seems that a JDJ 300 whisper ss barrel might be what I want. Does anyone out there have any actual experience shooting the whisper with cast bullets? Where do you get the dies?
Thanks;
joe b.

[Robert]

The SSK barrel has a faster rate of twist (1 in that lends itself to the bigger bullets, I am not sure if  the Contender barrel (1 in 10 is better or not for lighter bullets. If you are shooting Rams, I would say the SSK.  If you are just punching holes and light hunting, the cheaper Contender barrel would probably work just fine.  My Contender works fine with 200's , I enjoy it more with lighter bullets and faster loads, although that isnt really what it was designed for.

[Graycg]

Greetings from over the horizon to you sir,
   Why not try a properly chambered 30-30?  You can load up or down and get lots of cheap brass and have lots of fun with it.  You've seen my 788 and contender barrels, all I shoot out of them is cast.  
  Hope to get back to trailglades sometime, but this week will decide what us folks in uniform will be doing for a while.

regards from over the horizon,
 Graycg...Gene

[Bug]

For the .30-30. It might be the ideal cast Contender cartridge. You can load cast bullets to do anything that a jacketed bullet will do (from a .30-30), and at the same speeds. It does not have such a large capacity that you need more than 14" of barrel, but works fine with barrels of 20" or more when necessary. It has good sectional density and ballistic coefficient, and the cast bullet weights range from down around 100gr, to over 200gr. Add in the plentiful brass and ease of loading, and it is easy to see why this somewhat obsolete(?) cartridge is still so strong...Bug.

[Robert]

They worked excellent.  Havent gotten my gas-checks yet, I just lubed them real good.  34.0 of IMR 4831, I was impressed with the power they had in my Super 14.  Didnt get any leading with a mix of 50-50 RCBS lube, and bore butter.  Tried a shot at 12 inch thick wet newspaper, didnt find the bullet, went clear through and buried into the log backdrop.

[joeb33050]

The 300 whisper seems efficient, the TC barrels seem to be long-throated-all I've used, the whisper in a tight chamber won't have the blow by that a loose chambered TC barrel will have, I think I need a custom barrel to shoot 30 caliber low velocity cast bullets, why not the 300 whisper, that can be chambered for another 30 caliber if I don't like it. I asked if anyone had any experience with 300 whisper JDJ, cast bullets. No answers yet.
joe b.

[Paul H]

The problem with the fast twist ie 1-8 whisper barrels is that they really stress cast bullets, and drastically limit velocities, ie go much over 1100 fps, and the bullets start getting sheared by the impact of the fast twist barrel.  The 300 whisper is a neat and great round, but isn't cast friendly due to the fast twist.

[joeb33050]

Stressing the cast bullets and later shearing them sounds like theory and complete lack of experience talking. Have you ever seen a 300 whisper barrel? Have you ever shot a cast bullet? Have you ever shot a cast bullet in a 300 Whisper?

[Paul H]

Stressing the cast bullets and later shearing them sounds like theory and complete lack of experience talking. Have you ever seen a 300 whisper barrel? Have you ever shot a cast bullet? Have you ever shot a cast bullet in a 300 Whisper?

Yes, I have not only seen, but shot a 300 whisper.  It was an SSK barrel, first time I'd ever shot a contender.  My shooting buddy has done alot of shooting with a 300 whisper a 338 whisper, and also a 50 American Eagle, a .512" bore on the 50 ae case, and he shot about 1/2 dozen different cast bullets out of it, and accuracy went south when velocties went much over 1000-1100 fps.  All the whispers were SSK barrels and 1-8 twist.

As far as casting, I went through about 500#'s of wheelweights last year, and have 600#'s waiting to be turned into bullets.  I sold or traded a goodly portion of those bullets, but shot 100-200#'s through handguns and rifles myself last year.

The shearing problem is well known with cast bullet shooters using fast twist barrels, and is the reason the mil surp swede mausers have a lower velocity limit then typical rifles 1600-1700 fps.

How about you?

[joeb33050]

I only cast and shot 264# of cast bullets last year.
In accordance with your advice I ordered a 14" new 30/30 barrel from Ed last night. If it doesn't shoot cast bullets, you will each owe me $17.50. You better be right!
All is well at Trail Glades, Gene; hope you are well and safe.
joe b.

[Nobade]

OK, I'll put in my 2 cents here. The comment on the SSK 1:8 twist is right on - you see the same thing with a Swede M96 and its 1:7 twist - they work great with cast as long as you don't push them too fast. The TC Whisper barrel would theoretically be better with cast, assuming they got the chamber in line with the bore and the throat not too big. The 30-30 also would make a dandy cast barrel if it happened to be throated and chambered properly. So far the most accurate and easiest factory TC .30 caliber barrel to make work with cast bullets I have found is the .32 H&R mag. As long as you don't want to go over 210gr. and not looking for top speeds but just accuracy I don't think it can be beat. So far in both pistol length and carbine versions I have been seeing much less than MOA with everything from the Lee C-312-155-2R (sized to .309) up to the RCBS 175 SIL. I can get the Lee up to 1500 fps easy, and the RCBS to 1300 fps - not a barn burner, but oh so accurate and thrifty to shoot. Now if you wanted more speed, I'd say take one of those 32 H&R barrels and PROPERLY chamber it to 30-30 or 30 Herrett and you'd be in business. Unfortunately the SAAMI 30-30 reamer is beyond horrible for cast bullet use, but Clymer will grind you one with the proper length chamber and a real throat and that will get you in business. BTW, with that factory TC 30-30 tube if you don't like it you could re-do it to 30-40 Krag and it'd be fine at cast pressures.