After much reading on this site, I decided that the 30-30 was going to be my first cartridge used for rifle bullet casting and the mold was going to be NOE 311-165. All this reading of previous posts also pointed out that the Winchester rifles 1 in 12 twist lent themselves to higher velocity loads as compared to the Marlins 1 in 10 twist. (Thanks to Mr. Larry Gibson for that information)
I finally got around to using my new NOE 311-165 mold and developed my hunting load for this year's deer season. (This is my first cast rifle experiment but I have been casting for handguns for 40 years or so)
I decided to use my Dad's two Winchester Mod 94's. One he bought the year of my birth in 1957 and the other was a 1980's model. Both in 30-30 Winchester. (He left them to me after his passing in 1999) The newer 94 has Williams FP peep sights. The 1957 94 has a Doug Turnbull Fast Fire Base and a Fast Fire III holo sight with the 3 moa dot. (Put on specifically for this test)
My two alloys to use were Lyman # 2 from Rotometal and some medical isotope transport metal I got from the Vendors section.
# 2 = 90-5-5
Iso = 95-2.5-2.5
NOE 311-165 with Carnuba Red lube, Lyman GC, sized to .311
Federal Cases
Winchester 748 @ 30-32-34 grs
CCI 250 LRM Primers
Velocity with 34 grs = 2150 FPS by Oehler Chrongraph
The casting went great, I washed the mold with steaming hot dish-soap water and an old tooth brush. Then rinsed with steamy hot water and put in 400 degree oven for one hour. I did this three times. On the last oven trip I added veryyyyyy smalllll amounts of the provided lube to the various pins and screws so as to have no problems with the steel to aluminum contact. Also a very thin layer was applied to the sprue plate top and bottom. Was making keeper bullets on 4th mold full.
I started with the # 2alloy and loaded 30-32-34 grs, 10 rounds each. The 30 and 32 gr loads stayed in the 3-4 inch range at 100 yds but had no signs of leading. The 34 gr load had a dramatic decrease in the groups. They shrank to 2.5" at 100 yds. It seemed that the faster I drove the bullet the smaller the groups became. (This was again inline with Mr. Gibson's previous posts about the 1 in 12 twist for .30 caliber rifles.)
The 34 gr load had no pressure signs nor any leading that I could see.
I then switched to the isotope container lead as I think it will be a better hunting alloy. I loaded 10 rounds with the softer alloy. At the range the groups seemed to be smaller than the # 2 alloy but not by much, maybe 2 to 2.5 inches, or I just shot better that day.
I then loaded 40 rounds and broke out my new Oehler Chronograph and proceeded to test this ammo for speed. The 34 gr ammo was hitting 2150 fps (I re-tested a few days later and it was the same)
After about 80 rounds through the rifle the groups went to heck and opened up to 10" or so. I used some Hoppes # 9 and a bore snake to clean the bore and the groups returned to nice 2 to 2.5" size.
Another small change I had to make was in my trim to length. The older Mod 94 was engaging the 311-165 bullet just a tad too much for me. I trimmed the cases to the minimum recommended and seated the bullet deeper to get the case back into the crimp groove. I also used the Lee FCD. With the OAL lessened, the round chambered very easily but the nose was lightly engraved by the lands. The newer Mod. 94 with both OALs never had problems closing but lightly engraves the bullet.
The deer and pigs better not come by me in my thicket stand this year or they will die of lead poisoning!
I had bought 4500 pulled Remington 170 gr RN bullets back in the 19901-92 time frame, with the cast bullet giving me the same performance or better, I can now use these bullets in my M1 Garands which love flat based jacketed bullets.
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At least that's what I thought I saw. 
